Hand-painted wallpaper, a Dutch Heritage
The
Dutch Golden Age is famous for its painters like Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rubens.
But little is known about hand-painted wallpapers from that period. Painting
landscapes on paper was a typical Dutch crafts. Between the 17th and
the 18th century hundreds of walls must have been covered with by hand-painted
wallpapers as a sign of luxury and wealth.
In the 17th
century
hand-painted wallpaper was a less costly replacement for Tapestries (or Gobelins).
Another advantage was that clients could order customized wall coverings and
determine size, style and subject of the sceneries.
Mass production
During
the early 18th century hand-painted wallpapers were made accessible
for all. The Dutch had a dozen workplaces and factories producing hand-painted
wallpaper on a massive scale. In the early 19th century the hand-painted
wallpaper became less popular and factories had to close. This was mostly due
to a diminished Dutch economy and the foreign industrial revolution, which
introduced printed wallpaper.
By
the 20th century large town houses and estates where converted into
offices, hospitals or schools. The (detachable) hand-painted wallpapers where considered
impractical and were mostly sold to foreign buyers as works of art. The
consequence is that only a few survived in the Netherlands.
Gardens on Paper
About two hundred years later, wallpaper
artists Marcelo Gimenes and Jaap Snijder from Snijder&CO picked up this forgotten
craft. “After exploring remaining wallpaper samples in museums we decided to work
only with modern materials. We did not want to copy the old samples but build upon
a Dutch tradition of custom designed wallpaper sceneries”. Each design is completely
handmade and is inspired by nature. With endless passion they paint flowers,
plants and birds. Leaf by leaf creating beautiful gardens on paper. 
They do not work with oil paint or
the stencil technique of Chinese wallpaper (Chinoiserie). “We use just ordinary wall paint, this
requires a different way of working but it creates a great atmosphere with its
bright colours and matte appearance”.
By working
together on one design they mix their styles into something new never losing
track of its decorative purpose. The wallpaper should always fit in the room
for which it was intended. So they make, just like the Dutch wallpaper painter
Jurriaan Andriessen (1742-1819), previously detailed sketches and sometimes a scale
model for the customer to provide a good understanding of the product.
Dutchoiserie
“It requires
a lot of dedication to paint
commissioned wallpaper entirely by hand, It is a very labour-intensive
craft”. The hand-painted wallpaper of Snijder&CO is a
contemporary version of the Dutch historical predecessor. “That’s why we call
our style “Dutchoiserie”. 
