Westwood on the Wallace: ‘A Jewel Box for Jewels’
Hearing British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood side with “culture” over “consumerism” and observe that the central figure in Fragonard’s The Swing is “not wearing any knickers” may not offer the most insightful glimpses into the eighteenth-century, but this YouTube clip perhaps still provides an interesting example of the connections between contemporary fashion and the French Rococo. That it appears on the Wallace’s own website also speaks to the museum’s marketing strategies (for all of the similarities between the Wallace and the Frick, it’s more difficult to imagine the venerable New York institution adopting such an approach). Depending upon your state of mind, the video can be just wonderfully entertaining.
Furniture at the Wallace
The Wallace Collection highlights the cabinet-maker, Johann Gottlob Fiedler with a small exhibition and study day. From the museum’s website:
Study Day: Johann Gottlob Fiedler, Eighteenth-Century German Cabinet Maker
Wallace Collection, London, Thursday 15 October 2009 (£7)
Johan Gottlob Fiedler, Commode, ca. 1786 (Wallace Collection)
Achim Stiegel, Curator of Furniture at the Kunstgewerbe Museum Berlin, will present latest research on the cabinet making of Johann Gottlob Fiedler and the small group of cabinets made for patrons such as Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, later King Friedrich Wilhelm II. Jürgen Huber, Senior Furniture Conservator, Wallace Collection, will discuss the recent conservation of the Collection’s superb Fiedler commode from c.1786 and the innovative features in its construction. See the commode in a special exhibition in the Conservation Gallery,
Vorsprung durch Technik: The Innovative Work of the Cabinet-maker Johann Gottlob Fiedler (6 June – 29 November 2009).
Enfilade 
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