ABSTRACT
The poet and art critic Cosmo Monkhouse pointed out in a review for The Academy that day recognized that ‘the decorative art of the present day can be neither the spontaneous and thoughtless art of the savage nor the expression of medieval faith’. Monkhouse quotes a passage from the book which was revealing: that the quality of taste, as revealed in the art of the past, maybe the outcome either of simplicity, of submission, or of culture. Interior decoration is properly but a recontinuation of the scheme of the architect, and even if the architect had no scheme, it would be the business of the decorator to find one that was not out of keeping with architectural dignity. It is always and everywhere the expedient of the inexpert and the ignorant to trust to something that will hide shortcomings and faults.
