Chinoiserie

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Chinoiserie. Style of European architecture and artefacts in the Chinese Taste, intended to evoke China, first appearing in C17, and reaching the heights of delicacy and inventiveness in C18 and early C19, notably in Germany. Garden-buildings in the Chinese style include bridges (often with Chinese fret balustrades), summer- and tea-houses, and pagodas. The most celebrated examples are the Pagoda in Kew Gardens (1763) by Chambers (whose Designs of Chinese Buildings of 1757 was regarded as a source for pictures of Chinese architecture), the Tea House in the grounds of the palaces at Potsdam (1754–7) designed by King Frederick the Great (1740–86) and Büring, and the Chinese House, Drottningholm, Sweden, by Adelcrantz. In the 1750s buildings in the Chinese Taste and the Gothick style were regarded as relaxations from Classicism, and were treated almost as a branch of exotic Rococo. This is made clear in William Halfpenny's Chinese and Gothic Architecture (1752), while William and John Halfpenny's Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste (1752–5) further popularized the style. The interiors of Brighton Pavilion have Chinoiserie elements, including some gaudy decorations by Frederick Crace (1779–1859). The jardin anglo-chinois was an informal, irregularly planned C18 garden, in which Chinoiserie touches could be found. See Sharawadgi.

Bibliography

Conner (1979);
Honour (1961);
Impey (1977);
Jacobson (1993);
O. Sirén (1990);
Vance (1985)

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