unknown - Design for a fireplace - 1760 - T-Shirt

This tee reproduces a mid-eighteenth-century pen, ink and wash elevation of a panelled interior wall, drawn as a single frontal view of a room conceived as one balanced ensemble.

Visual Elements & Composition

The drawing is built on a strict horizontal symmetry. A moulded cornice with carved ornament runs across the top, and two pairs of tall glazed doors, each divided into small rectangular panes, stand at either side with plain panels beneath them. At the centre, a tall rectangular panel sits within a carved frame topped by a scrolled crest. Below it, a console table with curved legs and a richly carved apron anchors the composition. Cream paper dominates, softened by a pale grey wash and sepia linework, with touches of pale yellow in the glazing.

Meaning & Symbolism

The design reflects a period when architecture, woodwork and furniture were planned together as one scheme. The glazed doors open the room to light and to the outside, while the central panel and console give the wall its focal point. The scrolls and asymmetric curves of the console and frames belong to the Rococo idiom, and the regular rhythm of the panelling provides a calm structure for the ornament to play against. The sheet was a presentation elevation, prepared to show patrons and craftsmen the finished effect before the room was built. It is held in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum collection.

Designed to Be Worn Across the Chest

A tee gives this elevation a flat, frontal field, much like the sheet it was drawn on. The central panel and console line up on the vertical axis of the body, so the symmetry reads as you turn or move. The cornice sits across the top of the chest, and the doors frame the sides, so the whole wall is seen at once rather than in fragments. Wear it the way the drawing was meant to be read: straight on.