Edward william godwin biography of albert

This sideboard was designed by Edward William Godwin (1833–1886), who was one of the most important exponents of VictorianJaponisme or Anglo-Japanese style, the appropriation of Japanese artistic styles.

Japan began trading with the West in the 1850s, and by the next decade imported Japanese ukiyo-e prints, Japanese ceramics and textiles were very fashionable in Britain. Godwin was influenced by interiors depicted in Japanese prints and by the studies he made of Japanese architecture, but he did not seek to imitate Japanese designs. Instead his Anglo-Japanese furniture aimed to combine the more general principles of simplicity and elegance he admired in the art of Japan with domestic needs of the Victorian home.

The sideboard is stylish and dramatic, but it is also quite appropriate for use in a dining room. It is functional with drawers, adjustable shelves, and a rack fitted to take a large dish between the cupboards. The construction and finish are practical and hygienic, with hard surfaces and simple decoration, and the raised bottom shelf gives access for cleaning the floor.

Godwin designed the first version of this sideboard in eboniseddeal, a cheap wood, in 1867. He subsequently changed to ebonised mahogany, as he found deal to be unstable. At least ten versions of the original were made between 1867 and 1888, with differences in design, in decoration or in the number of legs. There are several surviving examples of this sideboard, made of ebonised deal, mahogany, or oak and pine. The original sideboard was designed by Godwin for the dining room of his London home in 1867.

Ten extant examples of the sideboard are known. As of 2012 seven of these examples are in the permanent collections of the Bristol Museums and Art Gallery, Bristol; Die Neue Sammlung, Staatlisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Munich; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The National Trust, W

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Greeves, T. Affleck. 'London's first Garden Suburb: Bedford Park'. Country Life vol. 142, 7 December 1967 pp. 1524-1529 [First part of a two part article on the involvement by Godwin in the development the Bedford Park estate in the 1870s]

Greeves, T. Affleck. 'London's first Garden Suburb: Bedford Park'. Country Life vol. 142, 14 December 1967 pp. 1600-1602 [Second part of a two part article on the involvement by Godwin in the development the Bedford Park estate in the 1870s]

Harbron, Dudley.  The Conscious Stone: The Life of Edward William Godwin. London: Latimer House Li

In 1877, commercial designer and architect Edward William Godwin collaborated with furniture manufacturer William Watt to produce this trade catalogue held in the Cooper Hewitt Library.

Godwin was considered the most innovative designer of the Aesthetic Movement. A brief but pivotal moment in the history of the decorative arts, Aestheticism strove to bring art into everyday life, and represented a shift away from heavy Victorian ornamentation toward a simpler, more elegant and modern sensibility.

In the spirit of combining the useful and the beautiful, this catalogue not only offers furniture for sale, but is itself an aesthetic object, printed with sepia ink on toned paper, and designed to look like an artist’s sketchbook. Its frontispiece exhibits both Godwin’s passion for Japonisme and his desire to reimagine the English domestic interior.

On the right side of the catalogue’s cover, the self-consciously artistic layout combines a large exotic font with images and repeated ornamental patterns reminiscent of Japanese wood-block prints. Bold patches of flat color, arranged in an asymmetrical composition combine with crisp, linear elements and natural motifs, such as cranes, bamboo, fans and chrysanthemums.

The detailed interior on the left illustrates Godwin’s notion of domestic space as a total work of art. Harmonious and elegant, the room includes numerous functional items, such as built-in shelves and cupboards, moveable furniture and simple decorative touches. The female figure invites the viewer to imagine herself in the role of both decorator and consumer.

Of the hundreds of pieces of art furniture created by Godwin, the sideboard, with its slim lines, absence of turning or carving, and sparse ornamentation is considered his masterpiece.

In the lightness and elegance of his furniture,