Wallpaper

DEFINITION

Paper often colored and printed with design and adhered to a wall as a decorative covering. The Chinese were making it by 1300, but in the West, wallpapers were probably first produced in the fifteenth century. The earliest ones, in England, Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland, were made up of small sheets, applied one by one to walls or ceilings, and imitated wood grain, woodcarving or intarsia. Others, like flock paper, were substitutes for textiles. Later, and today, most wallpapers are produced in long rolls. The French contributed most to the development of wallpaper, the rising bourgeoisie of the eighteenth century preferring it to textiles. Artists who have produced wallpaper designs include Albrecht D?rer (German, 1471-1528, see Northern Renaissance art), William Morris (English, 1834-1896, see Arts and Crafts Movement), and Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953, see Fauvism). The term may also be used as a verb ? to cover with or as if with wallpaper.