40 
House & Garden 
A French 18 th Century over¬ 
door panel painted in cama- 
ieu, to represent sculpture. 
It is a portrait oj Henri Quatre 
in an oval 
DECORATIONS IN CAMAIEU AND GRISAILLE 
Two Ancient Methods of Wall Enrichment Jl hich Promise 
to Find a Place In The Modern House 
GARDNER TEALL 
T HOSE old monochrome Colonial wall 
papers that we have always felt belonged 
so essentially to the early Colonial days 
are really nothing more or less than an adapta¬ 
tion of the camaieu and grisaille decorations so 
fashionable in France in the showy days of 
Louis XVI. Of course, the original camaieu 
and grisaille were paintings actually done on 
the wall surface; nevertheless, it was through 
this form of wall finish that our gray-tone and 
brown-tone wall papers came into vogue. 
These papers that you see even now on the 
walls of old houses in New England are much 
nearer in form to the decoration known as gri¬ 
saille than to the delicate and more subtle work 
of camaieu; because, although these two me¬ 
diums are very closely identified in most peo¬ 
ple’s minds, there is a little difference in these 
two methods of elaborate wall ornamentation. 
It is interesting to note the impress of the 18th 
Century camaieu and grisaille on not only the 
wall paper but the decorated fabrics. Hang¬ 
ings and coverings with these paintings for 
models were made at the factory of Olrerkampf 
at Jouey, and there was even a hint of what we 
think of the essentially Co¬ 
lonial wall papers made by 
Revillon in the 18th Cen¬ 
tury in France. It is well 
worth knowing that today 
these fascinating papers, in 
landscapes, hunting scenes 
and suggestions of Watteau 
groups, are being interest¬ 
ingly and successfully imi¬ 
tated, so that if you are 
building a modern Colonial 
house you can secure the 
true Colonial wall paper. 
The camaieu form of 
wall painting has very 
much the effect of a large 
cameo, in fact, is the 
French word for cameo, and 
in the old Louis XVI rooms 
had the effect of a huge 
cameo suspended by ribbons 
on a wall elaborately paint¬ 
ed in vines and wreaths 
and flowers. Sometimes an 
over-door panel in a room 
of this period would be an elaborate treatment 
of a gorgeous flower scene and in the center 
painted a little oval of cameo of cherubs. Al¬ 
ways your first impression of camaieu brings 
back the Italian art of cameo carving, and so 
skillfully is the painting done that at a dis¬ 
tance you would think these oval decorations 
were actual great cameos hung in frames on 
“Cupid and the Birds”, a French over-door 
in camaieu. From the second half of the 
18 th Century 
the showy walls and splendidly effective. 
Grisaille is, on the other hand, not so often 
combined with color painting, though you do 
see combinations of grisaille and camaieu. 
Much of it is done in the spirit of the Boucher 
paintings of Louis XVI time. It is always in 
delicate gray tones, with the closest possible re¬ 
semblance to sculpture. Of course, in the elab¬ 
orately decorated rooms at Fontainebleau, as, 
for instance, the music room of Marie An¬ 
toinette, you find combined, and quite har¬ 
moniously adjusted, every variety of wall dec¬ 
oration of that period—carved oak panels 
painted white, elaborate flower decorations in 
color, grisaille over the door-heads, and cam¬ 
aieu combined with the brilliant painting. 
Where this form of decoration has been imi¬ 
tated in beautiful rooms in America, grisaille 
almost wholly has been used as the model and 
seldom combined with any other form of orna¬ 
ment. We simply use interesting designs in 
gray tones, either purely landscape or archi¬ 
tectural, or suggesting sculpture. As a rule 
these decorations are painted on a prepared 
surface, either in separated panels or covering 
the entire wall. The result 
is immensely effective and 
elegant. But it has this 
disadvantage from the 
American point of view, it 
does away entirely with the 
possibility of using any 
kind of picture on a wall. 
It is impossible to imagine 
an etching or a water color 
or a family portrait resting 
effectively on a surface 
painted en grisaille. 
In some of the finest ex¬ 
amples of the old camaieu 
decoration, the little figures 
are painted against a single 
delicate toned background, 
blue, green or rose. The 
effect is delightful, especial¬ 
ly where these notes of color 
are brought out again in the 
ornamental painting of the 
wall. There is no doubt 
that these curiously elegant 
and delicate forms of wall 
A camaieu was so called because it represented the carving of a cameo. It was often 
cameo in shape—round or oval, and was set in an ornate form surrounded by decora¬ 
tive painting. This French l&th Century example shows the circular camaieu. It is an 
over-door for a music room 
