



From the auctioneer’s description on this lot’s website page:
“Panoramic wallpaper: Already at the end of the 18th century, panoramic wallpaper was ready to replace tapestries and silk panels, which had become too expensive for bourgeois and aristocratic homes. The motifs showing the neoclassical style, which was in vogue at the time, experienced an unprecedented growth and many workshops appeared, both in Paris and in the provinces. Joseph Dufour’s workshop was one of the most famous of them and compete with the other wallpaper companig called Zuber. Joseph Dufour was born in Tramayes (today in Saône-et-Loire) in 1754, he first settled in Macon, where his factory was founded in 1797, before settling in Paris ten years later. The designers Laffitte and Xavier Mader brought their talent to the company and gained traction and popularity in all parts of society. Dufour then began his production of panoramic papers, often depicting colorful classical, oriental or even very exotic landscapes from the shores of the Bosphorus to the islands of the South Sea or as we discover at this sale architectural landscapes with animated mythological scenes, showing young girls in Greco-Roman tunics and uniformed soldiers on horseback, while elsewhere they indulge in the joys of the swing.”