Designer Rug Blog-Interior Design Inspiration

Blue and Green Rug Decorating Tips: Colors from Degas and Whistler

 Email Article  

Tweet  

  

Vicente Wolfe once told me that he derived inspiration for interiors from the pastels and oil paintings of Edward Degas. Asmara artist Elizabeth Moisan recalled a sea scape of James Abbott McNeill Whistler when she painted Asmara's blue rugs and green rugs.

Today we will look at both Degas and Whistler paintings and rooms by Vicente Wolf, Steven Gambrel and Tobi Fairley to illustrate how Degas and Whistler's tonal colors can help you create beautiful, modern interiors. Get  a cup of tea, settle in your favorite chair and enjoy the viewing experience.

Whistler, Harmony in Blue and Silver: Trouville, 1865, Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, Boston. I saw this painting yesterday as the new Gardner Museum opened it's modern Renzo Piano wing. Whistler was so attached to this painting that once after selling it, he took it back. The story of how Mrs. Gardner succeeded in purchasing it from Whistler is interesting.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) said that art should be about the arrangement of colors in harmony and not with the literal portrayal of the world. They are evocative in the same way as a song in a foreign language evokes emotions even thought we do not understand the words. Whistler said "As music is the poetry of sound, so is painting the poetry of sight, and the subject-matter has nothing to do with harmony of sound or of color."

Whistler, Sea and Rain, 1865.

Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Silver - Cremorne Lights, 1872

Whistler, Symphony in Grey and Green: The Ocean, 1866.

Edgar Degas, Two Dancers Resting, Pastel.

Edgar Degas, Dancers Pink and Green, 1890Edgar Degas, Seated Dancer, c 1881-3.

Vicente Wolfe. Image courtesy asisblog.

Tobi Fairley. Image courtesy Tobi Fairley.

Steven Gambrel. Image courtesy 1st dibbs.

Steven Gambrel. Image courtesy Steven Gambrel.

Unknown Designer. Image courtesy conspicuousstyle.com

Lycia Oushak Rug. At first glance this looks like a blue rug, but a closer examination reveals shades of green in tonal harmony with sea blue, just as in a Whistler painting.

Adelphi Rug. Is this a blue rug or a green rug? It has tonal shades of both blue and green as in a Whistler painting.

Blue Summer Rug. Whistlers tonal colors as applied to a tree pattern rug.