December, 19 2 2 
47 
THE PAINTED HALLWAY 
Murals In The Ijth Century Italian Style 
Have Been Used In This Remodeled New York Home 
CAROLINE DUER 
D ecoration of the 
entrance hall seems 
to be taking more pro¬ 
nounced turn of late, 
and recalls in some in¬ 
stances the picturesque 
quaintness of the Italian 
outside-inside walls. A wel¬ 
coming atmosphere it 
creates, and a widening ef¬ 
fect in narrow places. 
Now that many people 
are altering “high stooped” 
houses into those which are 
entered from the street 
level or even popped into 
down a few steps, as a rab¬ 
bit pops into his burrow, 
the hall once intended for 
servants and tradespeople, 
(painted more for cleanli¬ 
ness than charm), has sud¬ 
denly become an important 
feature of the house. It is, 
from its situation, generally 
darker than the hall of a 
story higher, and its em¬ 
bellishment is a problem 
with which each house¬ 
holder has to cope as seems 
best to him, or rather her, 
for the woman rather than 
the man decides such ques¬ 
tions. 
Some women trust to 
mirrors, with convenient 
consoles below, for bright¬ 
ening and lightening the 
hall; some to scenic wall 
papers; some to the French 
effect of panels, which may 
be made by mouldings of 
wood or architectural pa¬ 
per. In the hall of our il¬ 
lustration Mrs. Charles L. 
Tiffany has chosen panelled 
landscapes to beautify her 
walls. 
This short passage, lead¬ 
ing from the front door to 
the living quarters, imitates 
a sort of loggia, or gallery 
open on both sides. Through 
the arches one gets views 
of distinct landscape treat¬ 
ed in the classic Italian 
manner. On the left is the 
Roman Campagna, with 
ruins in the foreground, and 
the Tiber winding away 
through the hills. On the 
right is the mountainous 
part of the Province of 
The entrance hall in the New York home of Mrs. Charles Tiffany was 
originally a dark service entrance. In remodeling the house this was made 
the main passage on the ground floor. The walls were painted in tempera, 
in the Italian baroque style. The paintings are by All-yn Cox. Delano & 
Aldrich, architects 
mm • ^3 
fil : 
The background of the walls is yellow with ornamental balustrades and 
fountain painted in grisaille. The landscape of the Roman Campagna 
and the mountains of the Province of Venice are in greenish gray, brown 
and blue. The passage leading to the service door arid the niche behind the 
fountain are in red 
Venice with the Alps in 
the distance. These were 
done for her by Mr. Allyn 
Cox, in tempera, Italian 
baroque in style. The col¬ 
ors are soft greenish gray, 
brown, and delicious blue, 
—at least these predom¬ 
inate. The surrounding col¬ 
or is yellow, and all the 
ornamental forms are in 
grisaille. The niche, and 
passage-way leading to the 
service door-hall, are red. 
It is difficult to believe that 
the fountain and the shields 
between the two back arch¬ 
es, and over the middle 
side ones, are painted and 
not in relief as they appear. 
Many such painted in¬ 
teriors were done in Italy in 
the 17th and 18th Cen¬ 
turies, often much more 
elaborate in style than 
could be adapted for our 
houses. But there is one 
characteristic that might 
be valuable in this country; 
the ease with which, in 
painting, the character of a 
room may be changed, and 
one may be reminded of 
distant, pleasant things. 
The motto of the period 
seems to have been “Do it 
with paint.” As in this 
case a small dark entrance 
to a town house has out-of- 
doors brought into it. A 
room not sufficiently formal 
will be decorated with cost¬ 
ly marbles—at the cost of 
painting them. The prince¬ 
ly palaces of Genoa are 
decorated with pastoral 
scenes, and a modest coun¬ 
try house with Greek gods 
and goddesses. 
The effect of architec¬ 
tural unity, however, is 
always preserved. Land¬ 
scapes are represented as 
seen through the openings 
of an ornamental frame¬ 
work, so that the real fea¬ 
tures of the room, doors, 
windows, cornice—if there 
are any—take their places 
naturally as part of a defin¬ 
ite architectural scheme, 
rather than as incongruous 
elements in a picture. 
