Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
1
192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
6
I
do
not
purpose,
in
this
book,
to
go
into
the
historic
traditions
of
architecture
and
decoration--there
are
so
many
excellent
books
it
were
absurd
to
review
them--but
I
do
wish
to
trace
briefly
the
development
of
the
modern
house,
the
woman's
house,
to
show
you
that
all
that
is
intimate
and
charming
in
the
home
as
we
know
it
has
come
through
the
unmeasured
influence
of
women.
Man
conceived
the
great
house
with
its
parade
rooms,
its
grands
appartements
but
woman
found
eternal
parade
tiresome,
and
planned
for
herself
little
retreats,
rooms
small
enough
for
comfort
and
intimacy.
In
short,
man
made
the
house:
woman
went
him
one
better
and
made
of
it
a
home.
The
virtues
of
simplicity
and
reticence
in
form
first
came
into
being,
as
nearly
as
we
can
tell,
in
the
Grotta,
the
little
studio-like
apartment
of
Isabella
d'Este,
the
Marchioness
of
Mantua,
away
back
in
1496.
The
Marchioness
made
of
this
little
studio
her
personal
retreat.
Here
she
brought
many
of
the
treasures
of
the
Italian
Renaissance.
Really,
simplicity
and
reticence
were
the
last
things
she
considered,
but
the
point
is
that
they
were
considered
at
all
in
such
a
restless,
passionate
age.
Later,
in
1522,
she
established
the
Paradiso,
a
suite
of
apartments
which
she
occupied
after
her
husband's
death.
So
you
see
the
idea
of
a
woman
planning
her
own
apartment
is
pretty
old,
after
all.
The
next
woman
who
took
a
stand
that
revealed
genuine
social
consciousness
was
that
half-French,
half-Italian
woman,
Catherine
de
Vivonne,
Marquise
de
Rambouillet.
She
seceded
from
court
because
the
court
was
swaggering
and
hurly-burly,
with
florid
Marie-de-Medicis
at
its
head.
And
with
this
recession,
she
began
to
express
in
her
conduct,
her
feeling,
her
conversation,
and,
finally,
in
her
house,
her
awakened
consciousness
of
beauty
and
reserve,
of
simplicity
and
suitability.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
