Rococo design.(Current and coming)(Rococo: The Continuing Curve exhibition)

According to its most narrow definition, rococo is the style of ornament and decoration that emerged in Paris toward the end of the reign of Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715), flowered in France from about 1730 to 1765, during the era of Louis XV (r. 1715-1774) and Madame de Pompadour, and is characterized by asymmetry, flowing lines, and both fanciful and naturalistic motifs. Because of its associations with the ancien regime, the style fell quickly from favor during the Revolution and the reign of Napoleon. It enjoyed its first real revival during the years of the Bourbon Restoration, from 1814 to 1830, when emigres returning to their houses in and around Paris attempted to regain something of their previous status and lifestyles by collecting eighteenth-century objects, and by patronizing new artists and artisans who imitated the style.

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An exhibition opening this month at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City traces the influence of the rococo style as it has been manifested up to the present day, looking at examples in multiple fields including furniture, and other decorative arts, prints, drawings, and textiles. Beginning in France, progressing across Europe then across the Atlantic to the United States, the exhibition explores how the rococo design movement was born, revived, and transformed in different times and places.

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In New York City in the 1840s, for example, Francophilia was all the rage among the upper echelons of society, prompting wealthy residents to furnish their houses in the rococo revival style. One observer at the time noted, "The French language is heard all over a crowded drawing room; and with costume entirely, and furniture mainly French, it is difficult ... not to fancy ones self on the other side of the Atlantic." The exhibition includes the side chair at left, attributed to John Henry Belter, one of a group of German cabinetmakers (which also ...