Illustration: Harry Napper. Whitwood wallpaper design, 1906.
Harry Napper was a British designer in both the mediums of textile and wallpaper, who was particularly popular at the turn of the twentieth century. His work was much more European influenced than other British designers and he was therefore at the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement.
The wallpaper designs shown here were all featured within The Studio magazine of 1906 and were produced by the wallpaper manufacturer and importer Rottmann & Co. It is interesting to note that Rottmanns were both producers and importers of wallpapers, which goes some ways towards explaining their interest in Napper and his European design style and connection.
Illustration: Harry Napper. St Austell wallpaper design, 1906.
By 1906 Britain had largely succumbed to the all pervasive decorative style of Art Nouveau, even though many of the most popular British designers were still somewhat reticent about introducing more than a hesitant glimpse of this new European movement. The fact that within mainland Europe by the middle of the first decade of the twentieth century the main and original impetus of Art Nouveau had largely run its course seemed largely immaterial to the British public who had only recently begun to accept the changes that had taken place across Europe a decade before.
Illustration: Harry Napper. Churston wallpaper design, 1906.
Although the wallpaper design work produced by Napper during this period was indeed heavily influenced by the pattern work of Europe, it is also very much a tempered, sober and therefore very British affair. Much of the exaggerated and flamboyant gestures of sinuous and intertwined foliage have gone, to be replaced by a much more structured and symmetrically imposed pattern work that seems more reminiscent of the Art Nouveau decorative work of Central Europe than that of France or Belgium. However, these design pieces are a cultural compromise, and so as with many compromises, the initial dynamism and excitement that was such an intrinsic part of both the French/Belgian and Austrian/German Art Nouveau movements, is missing. This inevitably left only the outward appearance of the decorative style, and even that has been contained and shorn of all its original vigour and detail.
Illustration: Harry Napper. Portledge wallpaper design, 1906.
Interestingly, Napper named all of these wallpaper designs after place names in England, most of them situated in the West Country. This was a standard procedure within the Arts & Crafts movement, particularly used by designers such as William Morris who was always keen to anchor much of his design work within the confines of an English cultural heritage. Whether Napper was trying to do the same with Art Nouveau is unknown.
It does seem a little anachronistic to try to attach names of what would have been perceived in Britain as traditional and relatively unchanging towns and villages, to that of a very modern and contemporary decorative style. Inevitably it does not work. There is genuinely too much that appears both mismatched and compromised. However, in effect a large percentage of the history of British culture has been one of tempered and constrained compromise, often to the detriment of that culture.
Illustration: Harry Napper. Yetminster wallpaper design, 1906.
Perhaps it could be seen that this is not so much a failure to transpose a design style across cultures, but of a culture with a fairly rigid and insular template, imposing that template on as many domestic and foreign innovations as possible, with a fair degree of success.
It must be said that Art Nouveau as seen across Europe never really materialised with those same particular formats within the British decorative arts. These Napper wallpaper designs, while at first appearing to be the standard Art Nouveau formats, are heavily censored and should be seen as such.
Further reading links:
Art Nouveau: Utopia: Reconciling the Irreconcilable (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Editions Series)
422 Art Nouveau Designs and Motifs in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau
The Art Nouveau Style Book of Alphonse Mucha
Art Nouveau Floral Patterns and Stencil Designs in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Treasury of Art Nouveau Design & Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau Designs (Design Source Books)
Art Nouveau Tiles + CD Rom
Art Nouveau: An Anthology of Design and Illustration from "The Studio" (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Art Nouveau, 1890-1914
300 Art Nouveau Designs and Motifs in Full Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
