Dorothy Draper
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2014) |
Dorothy Draper | |
---|---|
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. | |
Education | Brearley School |
Spouse |
George Draper
(m. 1912; div. 1930) |
Relatives | Nancy Tuckerman (niece) |
Dorothy Draper (November 22, 1889 – March 11, 1969) was an American
Early life
She was born into the upper-class Tuckerman family in
Her maternal grandparents were John Wendell Minturn (son of Robert Bowne Minturn) and Louisa (née Aspinwall) Minturn (daughter of William Henry Aspinwall). Draper's great-grandfather, Oliver Wolcott, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.[5] Drapers's cousin, Sister Parish, would also become a major interior designer of the 20th century.[2]
Educated primarily at home by a governess and tutors, Draper spent two years at the Brearley School in New York City.[3] The family took yearly trips to Europe,[3] and she was a debutante in 1907.[4]
According to Donald Albrecht, the curator of architecture and design at the Museum of the City of New York, Draper's "background not only provided Draper with a valuable network of clients and an innate sense of entitlement and authority, but also offered her a first-hand acquaintance with the historical styles that she would freely interpret and transform,"[4]
Career
After her 1912 marriage, the Drapers bought and sold houses, and Dorothy developed a reputation as having a flair for decorating.[2] She redecorated her homes in such style that other high society friends began to do the same for their homes. Encouraged by her friends, Draper started Architectural Clearing House in 1925. It was "arguably the first official interior design business."[6] After several successful apartment lobby renovations, Draper changed the firm's name to Dorothy Draper and Company in 1929.[3]
Draper's first big break came in the early 1930s when
Draper did a great deal of hotel design, including the
In 1937, Draper created a top-to-bottom decorative scheme for the exclusive Hampshire House apartment hotel, giving the lobby a bold black and white checkerboard floor, a thick glass Art Deco mantelpiece surround, Victorian-style wing chairs, and neo-Baroque plaster decorations. She found artisans in Brooklyn who could fashion enormous scroll-and-shell bas-reliefs, floral swags and multi-arm chandeliers.[4] Her use of sliding glass doors rather than shower curtains at Hampshire House was considered innovative.[3]
In the early 1950s,[7] Packard hired Draper to harmonize the colors and fabrics of their automobile interiors. Draper's 1954 concept for the cafeteria at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, dubbed the Dorotheum, featured birdcage chandeliers and a skylighted canopy.[8] One of Draper's last projects was the 1957 International Hotel at Idlewild Airport (today John F. Kennedy Airport) in New York.[8]
She retired in 1960, and after her death in 1969, Carlton Varney purchased Draper's company.[9]
Greenbrier Hotel
One of Dorothy Draper's most famous designs was
Style
Draper created a new style known as "Modern Baroque," adding a modern flair to a classical style.[14] She used dramatic interior color schemes, and trademark cabbage-rose chintz. She promoted shiny black ceilings, acid-green woodwork and cherry-red floors, believing that "Lovely, clear colors have a vital effect on our mental happiness."[15] She also chose very dramatic and contrasting color schemes, such as black with white and adding in some bits of color. She combined different colors, fabrics, and patterns together, combining stripes with floral patterns. She often used large, oversized details and numerous mirrors. All of the colors and patterns contributed to her dramatic design now referred to as "the Draper touch."[16] The opposite of minimalism, her designs were incorporated in homes, hotels, restaurants, theaters, and department stores.
By 1937, Draper had become a household name whose aesthetic enthusiasm was adopted by suburban housewives.[15] F. Schumacher sold more than a million yards of her cabbage rose chintz in the 1930s and 1940s.[3] The Draper bedroom scheme of wide pink and white wallpaper, chenille bedspreads, and organdy curtains soon became ubiquitous across the country.[3]
Personal life
In 1912, Draper was married to Dr. George Draper, the personal doctor to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt after he was diagnosed with polio.[6] Eleanor Roosevelt and Dorothy were cousins and good friends growing up, so the relationship between the two families grew. Together, the Drapers had three children, before divorcing in 1930.[3]
Draper suffered from Alzheimer's disease towards the end of her life.
Legacy
In 2004, her 1941 book Entertaining is Fun! How to Be a Popular Hostess, was reissued, which had a hot pink, polka-dotted cover and was a best seller. (
In May 2006, the Museum of the City of New York held an exhibition of Draper's work, curated by Donald Albrecht and designed by the Manhattan studio Pure+Applied, called "The High Style of Dorothy Draper." He has said, "Taking an eighteenth-century chair normally done in wood and making it in clear plastic is a Dorothy Draper kind of thing. And she is a fascinating person. All of her tips must have been really great for housewives in the fifties. To have this woman telling them, 'Don’t be afraid! Paint the door green!'" Draper-designed furniture was lent by The Greenbrier Hotel and The Arrowhead Springs resort—two of her best-known projects. A 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) white "bird-cage" chandelier that Draper designed for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Dorotheum cafe was also on display.[18]
From December 2006 through July 2007, the Women's Museum in Dallas, Texas hosted "In the Pink: The Legendary Life of Dorothy Draper." It featured archival photographs of Draper's work from The Stoneleigh Hotel and the St. Anthony. The exhibition was designed by Pure+Applied of New York.[18] The exhibition then moved to the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale from February through June 2008.
In 2006, Dorothy Draper was featured in an exhibition done in her memory in the Museum of New York City. The exhibition moved from NYC to Texas, and then to Florida.[14]
Draper is considered a major influence on several modern designers, including Kelly Wearstler and Jonathan Adler.[15]
Published works
- Dorothy Draper, ed. (2004) [1941]. Entertaining is Fun! How to Be a Popular Hostess. Rizzoli. ISBN 0-8478-2619-8. (Reprint)
- Dorothy Draper, Decorating is Fun!: How to Be Your Own Decorator. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1939.
- Dorothy Draper, 365 Shortcuts to Home Decorating. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1965.
References
- ISBN 978-1-58980-774-7.
- ^ ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ ISBN 9780195168839.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Depression Class". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c d e Group, Nancy Collins, The Archives of Dorothy Draper Company, Inc., The Carleton Varney Design. "Design Legends: Dorothy Draper | Architectural Digest". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "USING MURALS IN LOBBY; Dorothy Draper Decorating New East Side House" (PDF). The New York Times. 13 October 1951. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ^ a b Group, Nancy Collins, The Archives of Dorothy Draper Company, Inc., The Carleton Varney Design. "Design Legends: Dorothy Draper | Architectural Digest". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Owens, Mitchell (12 August 2001). "STYLE; Going for Baroque". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ^ "The Greenbrier - Interior Design at The Greenbrier". www.greenbrier.com. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ a b c "Dorothy Draper's Design Legacy". Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ "History - Dorothy Draper & Company". Dorothy Draper & Company. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ Beall, Susan Sheehan, Gordon. "The Greenbrier | Architectural Digest". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b "Dorothy Draper & Co. - History". Dorothydraper.com. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
- ^ "Dorothy Draper". Hampshire House. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
- ^ a b "Dorothy Draper, 79, Designer And Interior Decorator, Dies; Author and Columnist Known for Commercial Work Pioneer in Use of Colors" (PDF). The New York Times. 12 March 1969. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ^ a b "Dorothy Draper Museum of the City of New York". Pure+Applied. 11 May 2013. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
Further reading
- Blossom, N. and Turpin, J. (2008). Risk as a window to agency: A case study of three decorators. Journal of Interior Design 34(1), 1–13.Lewis, Adam. (2010). The Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design, 1870-1955. Rizzoli, New York. ISBN 978-0-8478-3336-8
- Owens, Mitchell, (2005). Living large: The brash, bodacious hotels of Dorothy Draper" in The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Issue 25. Published by the Wolfsonian - Florida International University.
- Varney, Carleton. (1988). The Draper Touch The High Life & High Style of Dorothy Draper, New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc.. (ISBN 0-13-219080-X)
- Varney, Carleton. (2006). In The Pink: Dorothy Draper, America's Most Fabulous Decorator. Pointed Leaf Pres, New York.
- Turpin, John. (2015). Dorothy Draper and the American housewife: A study of class values and success. In N. Blossom and J. Thompson (Eds.) The Handbook of Interior Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 29–45.
- Turpin, John. (2000). The doors of Dorothy Draper: Vestiges of Victorian manners with a middle-class sensibility. In.Form:The Journal of Architecture, Design & Material Culture 1, pp. 8–15.