Wallpaper design Wedgwood, c. 1920

This wallpaper design, created by the painter, graphic artist and designer Bertold Löffler (1874–1960), constitutes the first outline of an artistic idea. Using charcoal and blue watercolor, and incorporating the now yellowed white paper, Löffler depicted flower-like funnel structures one inside the other. These “grow rampant” through the three-dimensionally structured space on a blue ground. For the background, the artist chose simplified structures reminiscent of twigs and leaves with isolated small blossoms. Though based on real vegetal forms, the design appears highly stylized and abstracted. Löffler selected the title for his wallpaper by association, as the blue and white colors reminded him of the ceramics produced by the famous English company Wedgwood.

MR, 2021