Harmony in the Home: Fashioning the “Model” Artistic Home or Aesthetic House Beautiful through Color and Form

Abstract

By the 1880s those proffering guidance on domestic decor were in agreement on one point: interiors had to be “harmonious.” This meant understanding the importance of color, form, and texture in fashioning the “model” interior popularly known as a House Beautiful; like a work of art, interiors were now compositions that required careful orchestration. Domestic advice pundits constantly drew analogies with both painting and music. Writers as diverse as “armchair evolutionist” Grant Allen, architect Owen W. Davis, designer and theorist Dr Christopher Dresser, and domestic experts Mrs Lucy Orrinsmith and Mrs H.R. Haweis all extolled the virtues of creating a “harmonious” ensemble. For the Aesthete “harmony” was a means of forging a distinct ensemble, one that expressed individual taste. A preference for secondary and tertiary colors exemplified superior cognition, as the common herd was apparently unable to appreciate subtle shades or tones. Journalist and art critic Harry Quilter condemned this obsession with “harmony” for instituting a dogma that was transforming art into a mystical cult. The quest for “harmony” was used to both define and castigate the aesthetic mission; due to their coloristic preferences they were judged to be “snobs.” The insistence on harmony would eventually result in the gesamtkunstwerk, the interior conceived as a “total work of art.” Although such unity of design would be hard to sustain, contemporary paint manufacturers still offer neutral or low tones with artful names, while “high-end” magazines feature model interiors devoid of humans least they rupture the harmony. Judging by current marketing strategies, a preference for subtle tones is still perceived as a mark of social distinction.

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