1670s–1900s · France, Britain, Germany, United States
Chinoiserie
Also known as Chinese taste, Anglo-Chinese style, Chinese-style decoration
The European fantasy of the East — lacquered panels, hand-painted pagoda-and-bird wallpapers, blue-and-white porcelain and fretwork, an imagined China for the salon.
Richard Mortel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nymphenburg_The_Chinese_Cabinet.jpg
Across disciplines
- Architecture: Traditional Japanese Architecture
About the style
Chinoiserie is the European decorative interpretation of Chinese and broader East Asian art, born of the China trade and reaching peaks in the Rococo eighteenth century and again in the nineteenth. Rather than authentic reproduction, it was a romantic fantasy of an exotic East, blending real imports — porcelain, lacquer, silk — with fanciful Western invention. Interiors in the Chinese taste featured hand-painted papers and silk panels of pagodas, blossoming trees, exotic birds, figures and bridges; black, red or 'japanned' lacquer cabinets imitating Asian work; latticework and fretwork in furniture and overdoors; and the massed display of blue-and-white and famille-rose porcelain on brackets and chimneypieces. Bamboo (real and faux), fretted Chinese Chippendale chairs, lacquered screens and pagoda canopies completed the look. Often a single 'Chinese room' provided exotic counterpoint within an otherwise European house. The effect is playful, luxurious, escapist and richly patterned.
Notable examples
- ▸Chinese Bedroom and Yellow Drawing Room, Royal Pavilion, Brighton (1815–1823)
- ▸The Chinese House (Chinesisches Haus), Sanssouci, Potsdam (Johann Gottfried Büring, 1755–1764)
- ▸Badminton Bed, japanned chinoiserie bed by William and John Linnell (c. 1754)
Anatomy of Chinoiserie
The numbered markers call out the design elements that define this style. Hover or tap a marker to see its breakdown.
Richard Mortel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nymphenburg_The_Chinese_Cabinet.jpg
Walls are hung with hand-painted Chinese paper of flowering trees, exotic birds and figures, each panel a continuous garden scene.
A black or red japanned cabinet, gilt with pagodas and figures, imitates imported Asian lacquer-work as a focal display piece.
Blue-and-white and famille-rose jars are massed on carved brackets and the chimneypiece, the room's exotic treasure-collection.
A Chinese Chippendale chair with a pierced lattice back and faux-bamboo turning brings the fretted 'Chinese taste' into the furniture.
How Chinoiserie connects
Styles form a network, not a tree. Explore the direct neighbours below — click any to travel the map one hop at a time.
- Influenced by
- Parallel / cross-current
Influenced by Rococo Interior — chinoiserie flowered as a Rococo decorating fashion
Parallel / cross-current Traditional Japanese Architecture — blended Chinese and broader East Asian sources
Influenced by Regency Interior — supplied the exotic taste seen at the Brighton Pavilion
Regency Interior influenced by Chinoiserie — drew heavily on the Chinese taste, as at Brighton
Hollywood Regency influenced by Chinoiserie — borrows faux-bamboo and chinoiserie accents for wit
Eclectic Interior parallel / cross-current Chinoiserie — layers in Orientalist and global decorative objects
Grandmillennial influenced by Chinoiserie — reuses ginger jars, toile, and chinoiserie motifs
Moroccan Interior parallel / cross-current Chinoiserie — a parallel richly-ornamented exotic-revival decorating idiom
Palm Beach Tropical influenced by Chinoiserie — borrows faux-bamboo, fretwork, and botanical motifs
Describe it like this
Prompt-ready vocabulary for describing or re-creating the Chinoiserie look.