- Don Aimer

Captain James Cook's (1728 – 1779) three expeditions to the South Pacific captured the imagination of many Western Europeans at a time when there was considerable interest in the primitive and exotic. His discoveries lent support to the prevailing notion of the inherent moral superiority of “the noble savage,” an idea expressed in the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).

Inspiration for French designer Jean Gabriel Charvet’s papiers panoramiques, that adorned drawing and dining room walls, came from these exciting new discoveries in the Pacific, and Charvet takes us on a voyage of discovery of his own, showing the inhabitants of various places visited by Cook and fellow travellers.

The theatricality of the designs displays exotic lands where the ‘savages’ wear Roman costumes and the flora and fauna are detailed. When the wallpaper was first published it came with the booklet that explained the ‘lessons of history and geography.’

Scenic wallpapers were deliberately designed to look like hand-painted murals rather than conventional wallpaper with repeated patterns. Dufour created his wallpaper by woodblock printing, stencilling and hand brushing, techniques common to both the textile and wallpaper trades. This version was hand-painted by de Gournay, England in 2006.