Defossé & Karth
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Wallpaper manufacturing |
| Founded | 1851 |
| Headquarters | Paris , France |
| Products | Wallpapers |
Defossé & Karth was a wallpaper manufacturer based in Paris, operating prior to the French Revolution. Over an extended period, the company created a wide array of patterns and distributed their wallpapers across Europe and the United States, with particular prominence in New England and the Southern regions.
History
Established in 1851, Defossé & Karth drew artistic inspiration for their decorative motifs from the Barbizon school, especially from artists like Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Jean-François Millet.
Design work
Their most celebrated collection, Cupid and Psyche, was commissioned by Napoleon I and took cues from the style of French artist Jacques-Louis David. In 1928, Art Digest commended this series for its "delicate soft grey tones," highlighting its harmony with popular French interior styles of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Additional distinguished designs included Old Paris, Gardens of Versailles, and Scenes on the Seine. The L'Eden pattern was showcased in London in 1862, where it was acclaimed as a "technical accomplishment."
Awards
At the 1867 exhibition, Defossé & Karth received a gold medal for a large-scale landscape wallpaper created in partnership with the Berlin-based German company Rommel.
Collections
Examples of their wallpapers are preserved in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum within the Smithsonian Institution.