Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-10
OSCAR wILDz,s LAST LECTURE.
Row We Should Adorn Our Homes
Furniture and Dress.


Saturday afternoon, to an audience about hail
as large as that which greeted him on the &C.
casion of his first appearance here. The audi
tors, with very few exceptions, were laoies,
His subject was: 1.-The House Beautiful.
He believed in encouraging the growing TASTE
for house decoration, not only because OF Its
own sake, but because it ID educating the
handicraftsnen to higher views OF their fela'
ton to art, and revealing to them the posi-
bilities of their calliags. In lecturlng on
house decoration, he addressed not the MILL
| ionaire. but the men and women of moderate
means. and the poor. Nor would it be in
| sisted by the teachers of the new school that
any fixed rules should be f9llowed. but That
certain principles should be kept In mInd-in
fact, il is desirable that in art there should De
more of individuality. His idea Is to throw
out the mere upholsterer and substitute the
art that does rot rule by rule. we want
nothing in the house that was not pleasure
| TO the maker and is not pleasure To the
user. There should be no machine, made
ornaments. He would have in :" the mouse
beautiful no paper to represent marble, no
wood painted to resemble stone. All marble
work should be carved or inlsid. We cannot
as yet begin to build in marble as we should,
for We have not bandicraftsmen OF that
nobility that is needed. In England they
build of red brick, and that admits OF terra.
Gotta work, which is ia itself delightful
art The hall should never be papered, but
put in in distemper, or bs wainscoted. 1t
will admit of fine work in panel painting,
which is a style of decoration most desira-
| BILE, and one that is growing greatly In favor.
The modern hat-rack he despised, preferring
the light japanese rack to any other design
| for the hall. Put no pictures in the hall, for
it is no place far good picture, and poor
| one should be put nowhere. There should
be no such abominatioRs as stuffed birds I'M
der glass cases in all the house, nor marble
slabs with their chilling effects. If one has
a marble mantle he should cover it with
wood, and that with cloth, and build the
structure to the ceiling for the reception CT
such tasteful ornaments as are permissible.
The chief fault with houses in America is the
want of o scheme of color. Color ia room
should be the keynote of all else in it. But
our rooms should not be museums of colors.
Start with low tone as the keynote, for
on such brighter ornaments will stand out in
true relief, and beautiful embroidery and art
work will shine as jewels in their proper set.
ting. But if the walls are in bright colors
the capabilities of the room are exhausted for
all other color effects. All depends upon the
gradatious of color; look at the rose and see
how all its beauty depends upon its exquisite
gradstions of color, one answering to the other
He described at length two beautiful rooms
decorated by artists in England, one at great
cost and enc at small cost. This latter was
bIeakfast-room, with tints of blue and yellow;
the walls blue. the ceiling light and warra
yellow; the floor laid with richly:tinted
mating in liz hit yellow, with light line or
leaf here and there of blue. The wood work
was all cane,yellow. with all the wall inches
tinted a light yellow. The curtains were old
English and hung in careless but graceful
folds. When the breakfast table was laid in
this apartment. with its bright cloth and its
blue and white china. it was a charming
room, catching all the warm light and taking
on of all surrounding beauty, and giving to
the guest sense of joyousness, comfort and
rest. To illustrate what he meant by the
gradations of color, he described charming
picture by Whistler. where all the effects
were secured by the various shades of white,
nothing else of color being used. A picture
ia primarily fat surface colored to produce
delightful effect upon the beholder, and if
it fails of that, it is surely a bad picture.
The aim of all art is to make life more
Joyous. Ali walls of the house should
be broken up into two parts !;
but if one is to have the dadc, let
it not be of paper. We will want joyous
paper on the wall, full of flowers ard pleasing
designs, but the dado should not be of paper,
however beautiful. Let it be panel werk, in
wood, if possible, Or light trellis, or a trail
ing vine. Do not put paper on the ceiling.
It eives wrong idea of the character of the
structure. If one builds, he should contract
with the builder to leave the m ain rafters Ct
the ceiling exposed in outline. This conveys
the sense of s)lidity; and there may be
worked out the most delightful effects in in-
ishing up between the rafters, as is done in
panel work. For ceiling decoration old style
Of plaster may be used, but not the modern
plaster that dries almost Immediately, and
is glazing glossy white. If the old plaster
for ornamentation cannot be had, batter dis
temper the ceiling, but do not 10 any event
paper If. On papered ceilings the light fails
dull and lifeless, and sodden. If your house
has chandelier in the middle of the room,
it does not make much difference how you
adorn and beautify the room, or whether it is
done at all or moi, for in six months time the
gas will discolor and ruin all you do. Ii you
| must have gas use side lights, and use with
them soft shaded globes. He discussed the
| furniture question at length, and while ap-
proving of the Eastake in most things, he
gave Ms verdict strongly in favor Of the
| Queen Anne style; for while the Eastlake is
anu 6SOnOiniCsNl, aLd sdOotdubAey 6IO
enduring, and carries out Mr.. Eastlake's idea
of showing the work of the craftsman, it is q
little bare and cold, and has no delicate lines
but the other is grace without the sense of
cost, gives the idea that it is made by refined
people for refined people, and best accords
with our tastes. It lasts the longest, is
adapted to our styles of crockery, and to our
| light decorations and our system of orna-
| mentstion is the most comfortable OF furni-
ture, and the apparently stiff and straight
| lines are in fact marvelously beautiful
curves-sxquisite in their symmetry. 1t
catches all the warm lights, and is the most
| cheerful of all designs. Modern furniture
should be better than the old, with all our
| improved machinery and our great variety Of
woods to choose-but it is not. He con-
| demRe1 cast iron CRATES, and would subssi-
| tute tiles instead, set into OF on red brick.
| As to pictures, he inyeighed bitterly against
| the running of so many fine pictures in the
| framing, by reason Of the frame being out of
all keeping with the picture. He would use
| gold frames only where the picture would
| have the frame tinted to correspond TO the
tone of the picture, and as VI ornaments in
! such CASES he preferred painted designs. He
gave his reasons for this at much length. Pr
amos he would decorate with inlaying, or with
the brush. A bare polished piano was
| his adherence. AS to table ware, he was
o opposed to the use of plain white china as teo
| cold, and gave his preference to blue china,
aud for silverware until our artisans learn to
make it. Decorated china is in good taste,
but the wall is no place for plate. and fine
old ware should not be put on the shelf to
look at-uss it if you have it. If you cannot
use it without breaking it you do not deserve
to own it, Whatever you have that is beau
| tiful is for use, and you should use it or part
with it to some one VINO will. Put no photo.
graphs on the walls. There is no way to get
a worse idea of painter than by photo.
graph of his work. As painting should be
an exquisite arrangement of colors, so an en-
craving should be an exquisite arrangement
of black and white, which the photograph
never ia. Every house should have some good
casts of old Greek work, If possible. There
c IN be no nobler influence in room than ,
marble Venus of Milo-no one would dare t.
talk scandal in her presence. He condemned
the gaudy and colored style of binding books
and advised tina. we cdrtain our Ii
| brAries until a more tasteful style than the
modern one of bindisg prevails. Coming tc
the question of dress, he found nothing what
ever to approve in the fashions of the day
/ TIE women are the slaves of the dressmakers
who pile on all sorts of useless and cucumber
ing knots and bows, and fanciful and mean
ingless and ungraceful things, that are only
equaled for ugliness by the artificial flowers