Historical information

A wallpaper sample donated to the collection by Frances Alexandra (Frankie) Derham (1894–1987). Derham was an Australian artist and educator. A lecturer in art at the Melbourne Kindergarten Training College (1928-64) , she later taught at the Associated Teacher Training Institution (1949-61). Her commitment to `child art’ developed after 1935 when she accepted an invitation from Margaret Lyttle to teach at Preshil school.

Significance

Frances Derham's collection of nearly ten thousand children’s drawings and paintings was acquired by the Australian National Gallery in 1976. Her interest in art for and by children is reflected in her donation to the Villa Alba Museum of an important and rare collection of early wallpapers designed for children's rooms.

Physical description

Sections of a longer nursery wallpaper roll purchased from a Melbourne retailer in the 1850s. The wallpaper depicts figures in an imaginary rural landscape. The central repeated image in this painterly design is a woman seated on a chair with a child playing at her feet. Farm animals include a white duck, a hen and a rooster. Other elements of the imaginative, playful design include a church, a Greek temple and a cart wheel. The sophisticated printing technique allows for subtle shading of the selected colourway.