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tion and the loss of humanity, and Clarence
Cook’s (1828–1900) The House Beautiful (1878)
served as a decorating bible. Middle- and
upper-class Americans created societies and
clubs dedicated to all or one of the decora-
tive arts, and they established magazines
such as The Art Amateur: Devoted to the Cul-
tivation of Art in the Household (1879–1903) to
promote their ideas.
The Aesthetic Movement fostered collec-
tive endeavors. Associated Artists, for exam-
ple, was a decorative firm cofounded in 1879
by textile artist Candace Wheeler (1827–
1923) and artist-designer Louis Comfort
Tiffany (1848–1943). George Ward Nichols’
wife, Maria Longworth Nichols Storer (1849–
1932) founded Rookwood Pottery in 1880
after her experience in an amateur art pot-
tery club in Cincinnati, Ohio, a center of arts
activity in the era.
The domestic interior was the focus of the
Aesthetic Movement. Interiors were harmo-
nious in color and tone (browns, greens, and
grays were popular), but elaborate and often
geometric “surface ornaments” in contrast-
ing vibrant colors covered walls, furniture,
screens, window and door textiles, and other
surfaces. Rejecting the dependency on his-
torical style such as the then-popular Renais-
sance Revival, Aesthetic designers borrowed
freely from the past as well as from distant
cultures such as Japan, India, and Persia.
Nature provided popular textile and silver-
ware motifs such as lilies, sunflowers, pea-
cocks, butterflies, and dragonflies. The
emphasis on authenticity and faithful repro-
6
M AT E R I A L C U LT U R E I N A M E R I C A
Aesthetic Movement
Art pottery was but one product of the Aesthetic Movement. These examples from Maria Longworth Nichols
Storer’s Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, Ohio, were displayed at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. (Library of
Congress)
