Articles |
Designer as Critic
E. W. Godwin and the Aesthetic Home
E. W. Godwin (1833–86) is now widely acknowledged for his radicalized domesticity and as a leading designer of ‘Artistic’ interiors and furnishings, but to his contemporaries he was equally well known as a prolific, frequently controversial, critic and magazine editor. This article examines the interface between these two mutually supportive facets of his professional career from the late 1870s to his death in 1886, demonstrating how his critical reputation was bound up with his manipulation of the press, and with an increasing tendency to focus on ‘personalities’. In a witty and authoritative style Godwin addressed the growing demand for entertainment and instruction on matters of household taste, while also defending his authorship of designs, and attempting to control the terms in which his work was illustrated or discussed by an increasingly international audience. In doing so he effectively repositioned the ‘artist-architect’ in relation to the numerous trades, professions and agencies jostling for control over the domestic environment.
Key Words: design criticism—domestic space—Godwin, E. W.—graphic design—interior decoration—interior design