The age of comfort : when Paris discovered casual--and the modern home began / Joan DeJean.

Main entry:

DeJean, Joan E.

Title & Author:

The age of comfort : when Paris discovered casual--and the modern home began / Joan DeJean.

Edition:

First U.S. edition.

Publication:

New York ; Berlin ; London : Bloomsbury, 2009.

Description:

295 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
A short history of modern comfort -- An architecture of comfort -- The bathroom -- The flush toilet -- Heating -- Easy seats -- Convenience furniture -- 1735 : architect-designed seating begins -- The original interior decorators and the comfortable room -- The bedroom -- The boudoir -- Dressing for comfort -- The fabric of their lives -- The comfortable body -- Coda : l'art de vivre.

Summary:

A critically acclaimed historian of France and French culture identifies the moment in modern history when informality and comfort first became priorities, causing a sudden transformation in the worlds of architecture and interior decoration that would last for centuries. Today it is difficult to imagine a living room without a sofa. When the first sofas on record were delivered in seventeenth-century France, the result was a radical reinvention of interior space. Symptomatic of a new age of casualness and comfort, the sofa ushered in an era known as the golden age of conversation; as the first piece of furniture designed for two, it was also considered an invitation to seduction. At the same moment came many other changes in interior space we now take for granted: private bedrooms, bathrooms, and the original living rooms. None of this could have happened without a colorful cast of visionaries--legendary architects, the first interior designers, and the women who shaped the tastes of two successive kings of France: Louis XIV's mistress the Marquise de Maintenon and Louis XV's mistress the Marquise de Pompadour. Their revolutionary ideas would have a direct influence on realms outside the home, from clothing to literature and gender relations, changing the way people lived and related to one another for the foreseeable future.

Resources:
Table of contents

ISBN:

9781596914056 (hardcover)
159691405X (hardcover)
160819230X (pbk.)
9781608192304 (pbk.)

Subject:

Design France Paris History 17th century.
Design France Paris History 18th century.
Design Human factors France Paris.
Interior architecture France Paris History 17th century.
Interior architecture France Paris History 18th century.
Human comfort France Paris.
Design France Paris Histoire 17e siècle.
Design France Paris Histoire 18e siècle.
Design Facteurs humains France Paris.
Architecture intérieure France Paris Histoire 17e siècle.
Architecture intérieure France Paris Histoire 18e siècle.
Bien-être France Paris.
Design.
Design Human factors.
Human comfort.
Interior architecture.
Innenarchitektur
Wohnkultur
France Paris.
Frankreich

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 264098
Call No.: BIB 195419
Status: Available

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