Chinoiserie Style

You may have noticed our use of beautiful Chinoiserie pieces in the back room at Greystone. Pieces like this are the perfect ‘jump off point’ for designing a room. We pulled colours from the Double-Handled Vase on the top left as our inspiration: warm coral, vivid teals, soft greens, and lustrous gold.

Chinoiserie is "A style in art reflecting Chinese influence through use of elaborate decoration and intricate patterns." Chinoiserie entered European art and decoration in the mid-to-late 17th century, and peaked around the middle of the 18th century. Around this time, it was highly associated with the Rococo style, and with works by François Boucher, Thomas Chippendale, and Jean-Baptist Pillement. One of the reasons Chinoiserie gained such popularity among Europeans in the 18th century was the fascination with the exotic East. This fascination was due to their increased, but still restricted, access to new cultures through expanded trade with East Asia - especially China. While the Neoclassical style gained popularity around the 1760s, Chinoiserie never fully went out of fashion. There was a revival of enthusiasm for Chinoiserie in Europe and the United States from mid-19th Century through the 1920s, and today in elite interior design and fashion.