The cosmopolitan soul of architecture: Interior art decoration in late nineteenth-century Australia, and the legacy of Owen Jones

Abstract

This article asserts the primary role that art decoration played with interior architecture to create imagined connections with the received history of world styles and Australia's position in the modern cosmos. The ideal of cosmopolitanism was vital to Australian metropolitan life and resonated in the art decorations enriching the architectural interiors of private and public buildings throughout the burgeoning capital cities of Australia during the second half of the nineteenth century. The art decorators arriving in Australia from around the world worked with architects and patrons and contributed to the cosmopolitan verve of late nineteenth-century Australia. With the rapid rise in print media, communications, technologies, transport and a growing nexus of economic interests around the globe, the cosmopolitan spirit linked historic and diverse cultural associations to the sphere of global modernity. Further, Owen Jones' widespread influence on architectural art decoration is considered in the context of late nineteenth century cosmopolitanism. More than recover his legacy, this article proposes a new way of seeing the role and work of the art decorator in relation to the architect, and interpreting Jones' influence, particularly through his The Grammar of Ornament (1856) and the historic courts created at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, as ensigns of historic and world interconnectivity in Australia through the architectural arts.