Eastlake & neo-Grec: a miscommunication (part 5)
Many guides to identifying the neo-Grec style that are available online discuss the presence of stylized incised line work as the influence of the British architect, Charles Locke Eastlake. Yet, based on the available documentation, this appears to be a false assumption.
Charles Locke Eastlake wrote the very popular book Hints on Household Taste, which was first published in England in 1868, and then in the United States in 1872. While he was a British architect, he did not practice architecture, and his work focused primarily on furniture design. Eastlake implored his readers to return to a standard of sincerity, integrity, and craftsmanship; expressing ideas very similar to the imminent Arts and Crafts movement (c. 1880–1920).
The illustrations published in Hints on Household Taste included both contemporary and “Ancient” furniture designs that displayed the intention and craftsmanship that Eastlake sought to revive. Many of these designs featured incised line work and avoided the three-dimensional carving of Rococo Revival furniture that was popular in the early years of the Victorian era. Yet despite this incised line work, Eastlake’s illustrations retain much of the heaviness of Gothic design and do not approach the delicate nature of the popular interpretations of his ideas. Today, Eastlake furniture is largely defined by the use of incised line work (hold off on that “aha!” moment, please), and by its relative simplicity, which only looks simple when compared with earlier Victorian furniture styles.
Hints on Household Taste remains a bit of a mystery in regards to architecture. Of the book’s many illustrations, only one depicts a streetscape or addresses architecture. This image, which shows a medieval street in Nuremberg, is included by Eastlake to illustrate the permanence achieved by structures with architectural “sincerity” and craftsmanship that for him equates to taste. Here is where he leaves the exterior of the home and dives into discussions of interior decoration and furniture design. How Eastlake became associated with an American architectural style is the great unanswered question, and the answer cannot be found in Hints.
Charles Eastlake himself swore that he saw nothing in the American architectural style called “Eastlake” that he could recognize as sympathetic to his goals or ideals. He found American architecture to have completely missed the mark of good taste. In a 1882 response to an inquiry by the California Architect and Building News, Charles Eastlake responded to questions about the so-called “Eastlake style” in both furniture and architecture and found that it “represented a taste very far removed from and often directly opposed to the principles of art and workmanship I have endeavored to advocate.” Overall, he found the taste that these designs presented to be “extravagant and bizarre.”
Despite his own refutation of the name of the “Eastlake style” of architecture, the connection has persisted to varying degrees. In areas of the East Coast, guides to the neo-Grec credit the style’s origins with Eastlake’s incised line work, while on the West Coast, the “Stick/Eastlake” architectural style has entered the regional vernacular as a contemporary of the Italianate and Queen Anne styles. The great tension of linking the Eastlake name to these styles is that while Charles Eastlake looked to the past for a revival of the honesty of handmade craftsmanship, these styles were entirely focused on looking forward and expressing the modernity of an increasingly mechanized society. The popularity of incised decoration and design that was “honest” and modern was the result of developments in industrial technology, not an expression of the heritage of craft. This tension makes the case for returning to an understanding of how French architectural design was translated onto the American architectural scene.
But, the style has been named, the terms have been applied over the last century, and while I doubt a renaissance of the use of “neo-Grec” will prevail over “Eastlake” in its myriad uses, the ability to properly place the trend of incised decoration and a thoughtful decorative architectural design scheme in its historic context can only help us to understand the evolution of architectural styles in the United States. As architectural historians, preservationists, and armchair architecture buffs, the context provides important clarity that is essential for understanding the professionalization of architecture in America and the eclecticism that defined the late 19th century. I won’t insist that you call it all neo-Grec, but you should know why it isn’t truly “Eastlake.”
For the other parts of this series see, parts : parts one, two, three, and four. For more images of the neo-Grec in the wild of our urban environment see my Instagram (@knowing_neogrec). If you would like to connect professionally, please visit Reiter Preservation Consulting.
