Wallpaper Sample
1958 (designed (pattern))
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This design for wall-covering by Czech-born Jacqueline Groag (1903-1985) was commissioned by the British Overseas Airways Corporation in about 1958 with a view to furnishing the insides of Boeing 707 fleet. Groag's design has a strong, child-like quality and is reminiscent of her 'Kiddies Town' wallpaper design produced some years earlier for John Line & Sons Ltd. in 1951.(Museum number E.881-1978). The natural motifs in the pattern would have contrasted with the industrial surroundings of an aeroplane.
Some years earlier in Vienna, Groag had studied under and was highly influenced by Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), an Austrian architect and designer. He was a founder of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists who rejected the academic art establishment in Austria in 1897. This is a famous example of a European phenomenon of the late 19th and early 20th century, when progressive artists decided to 'secede' or withdraw from the status quo and form their own artistic movements. Groag's grounding in Secessionist style would have led her to experiment with this design's spatial representation and abstract qualities.
After a successful career on the European mainland, the designer and her architect/designer husband, Jacques Groag (1892-1962), moved to London in 1939 where they settled. In the post-war period, Jacqueline produced a prolific body of work to which this design belongs. Her impact on 20th century British design was honoured when she became a Fellow of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry in 1964.
Some years earlier in Vienna, Groag had studied under and was highly influenced by Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), an Austrian architect and designer. He was a founder of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists who rejected the academic art establishment in Austria in 1897. This is a famous example of a European phenomenon of the late 19th and early 20th century, when progressive artists decided to 'secede' or withdraw from the status quo and form their own artistic movements. Groag's grounding in Secessionist style would have led her to experiment with this design's spatial representation and abstract qualities.
After a successful career on the European mainland, the designer and her architect/designer husband, Jacques Groag (1892-1962), moved to London in 1939 where they settled. In the post-war period, Jacqueline produced a prolific body of work to which this design belongs. Her impact on 20th century British design was honoured when she became a Fellow of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry in 1964.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Ink and paper |
| Brief description | Sample wallpaper with stylised flowers, leaves and twigs, by Jacqueline Groag, London, 1958 |
| Physical description | Rectangular piece of printed paper with stylised motifs of flowers, leaves and twigs. Each separate motif is spatially independent and seems to float on its plain background. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Credit line | Given by the artist |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This design for wall-covering by Czech-born Jacqueline Groag (1903-1985) was commissioned by the British Overseas Airways Corporation in about 1958 with a view to furnishing the insides of Boeing 707 fleet. Groag's design has a strong, child-like quality and is reminiscent of her 'Kiddies Town' wallpaper design produced some years earlier for John Line & Sons Ltd. in 1951.(Museum number E.881-1978). The natural motifs in the pattern would have contrasted with the industrial surroundings of an aeroplane. Some years earlier in Vienna, Groag had studied under and was highly influenced by Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), an Austrian architect and designer. He was a founder of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists who rejected the academic art establishment in Austria in 1897. This is a famous example of a European phenomenon of the late 19th and early 20th century, when progressive artists decided to 'secede' or withdraw from the status quo and form their own artistic movements. Groag's grounding in Secessionist style would have led her to experiment with this design's spatial representation and abstract qualities. After a successful career on the European mainland, the designer and her architect/designer husband, Jacques Groag (1892-1962), moved to London in 1939 where they settled. In the post-war period, Jacqueline produced a prolific body of work to which this design belongs. Her impact on 20th century British design was honoured when she became a Fellow of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry in 1964. |
| Bibliographic reference | The following excerpt is taken from Galloway, Francesca, 'Post-War British Textiles'. Robert Marcuson Publishing, London, 2002:
"Jacqueline Groag, a Czech by birth, was a talented textile designer, as well-known and as influential as [Lucienne] Day in the 1950s; she continued designing textiles until the 1980s. Groag was a student of Josef Hoffmann and Franz Cizek in Vienna and designed for the Wiener Werkstätte before moving to Paris in 1929. There she designed dress fabrics for Chanel, Schiaparelli and Lanvin. She married the architect and follower of Adolf Loos, Jacques Groag, whose preference for severe functionalism in architecture had some influence on her style. They moved to London in 1939 where her success must have been immediate given the number of textiles she designed for the 'Britain Can Make It' exhibition at the V&A in 1946. The columnar design, launched by David Whitehead for the Festival of Britain in 1951, was adapted from an earlier design commissioned from Groag by the Rayon Design Centre in 1948." |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.644A-1984 |
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| Record created | April 6, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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