American Frames

Pictured here is an American frame with a contemporary painting.

American frames are defined by the Louis XVI frame, American Federalist frames were slightly less ornamented and derived their inspiration from Classical antiquity. Sparked most forcibly by the discoveries in Pompeii and Herculaneum, the imitation of classical themes was prevalent during this era. Many wealthy and prominent Americans, having traveled around southern Europe to pursue their studies on the Grand Tour, were inspired not only by Greek and Roman literature, history and philosophy, but by classical architecture as well. Defined by ancient Roman symbols such as laurel and acanthus leaves, pearls and berries.

In this frame, you can see the elements of nature such as leaves in the corner design and adding the tooling in the panel give it some texture and movement. We added a wide cream beveled-in liner to set off the painting.