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159-781: The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States . Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States , it is in the West Wing of the White House , in Washington, D.C. The oval room has three large South Lawn -facing windows, in front of which the president's desk traditionally stands, and a fireplace at the north end. Two built-in bookcases are recessed in

318-483: A 3,000,000-square-foot (280,000 m ) building in Chicago, at the time the largest building in the world. The time and motion study , pioneered in manufacturing by F. W. Taylor and later applied to the office environment by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth , led to the idea that managers needed to play an active role in directing the work of subordinates to increase the efficiency of the workplace. F.W. Taylor advocated

477-544: A Dream" speech . President Donald Trump hung mostly portraits on the office walls: Rembrandt Peale's George Washington , George H. Story's Abraham Lincoln , Asher B. Durand's Andrew Jackson , George P. A. Healy's Thomas Jefferson , John Trumbull's Alexander Hamilton , Joseph-Siffred Duplessis's Benjamin Franklin . He later substituted in other portraits: Rembrandt Peale's Thomas Jefferson and Ralph E. W. Earl's Andrew Jackson . President Joe Biden's Oval Office features

636-402: A Pompeian-inspired central figure. Empire fabrics are damasks with a blue or brown background, satins with a green, pink or purple background, velvets of the same colors, brooches broached with gold or silver, and cotton fabrics. All of these were used in interiors for curtains, for covering certain furniture, for cushions or upholstery (leather was also used for upholstery). All Empire ornament

795-435: A cluster of five portraits at its north end, with Frank O. Salisbury's Franklin D. Roosevelt given pride of place over the mantel. A tradition evolved in the latter part of the twentieth century of each new administration redecorating the office to the president's liking. A new administration usually selects an oval carpet , new drapery , the paintings on the walls, and some furniture. Most incoming presidents continue using

954-674: A complete refit, repaint, and restock paid for by the United States Government. It was returned to England in 1856 and decommissioned in 1879. The same year the British Admiralty launched a competition to design a piece of furniture made from the timbers of the Resolute which Queen Victoria could gift to the American president. Following a design competition, Queen Victoria ordered that three desks be made from

1113-523: A dangerous territory of the Ottoman Empire , Neoclassicists' appreciation of Greek architecture was predominantly mediated through drawings and engravings which were subtly smoothed and regularized, "corrected" and "restored" monuments of Greece, not always consciously. The Empire style , a second phase of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts , had its cultural centre in Paris in

1272-534: A direct parallel with the Augustan style of landscape design. The links are clearly seen in the work of Alexander Pope . The best surviving examples of Neoclassical English gardens are Chiswick House , Stowe House and Stourhead . In fashion, Neoclassicism influenced the much greater simplicity of women's dresses, and the long-lasting fashion for white, from well before the French Revolution, but it

1431-603: A fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to Neoclassicism, the Greek Revival . At the same time the Empire style was a more grandiose wave of Neoclassicism in architecture and the decorative arts. Mainly based on Imperial Roman styles, it originated in, and took its name from, the rule of Napoleon in the First French Empire, where it

1590-426: A lack of ancient models, Neoclassical sculpture tended to suffer from an excess of them. Although examples of actual Greek sculpture of the " Classical Period " beginning in about 500 BC were then very few; the most highly regarded works were mostly Roman copies. The leading Neoclassical sculptors enjoyed huge reputations in their own day, but are now less regarded, with the exception of Jean-Antoine Houdon , whose work

1749-558: A lightness and grace, where Thorvaldsen is more severe; the difference is exemplified in their respective groups of the Three Graces . All these, and Flaxman, were still active in the 1820s, and Romanticism was slow to impact sculpture, where versions of Neoclassicism remained the dominant style for most of the 19th century. An early Neoclassicist in sculpture was the Swede Johan Tobias Sergel . John Flaxman

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1908-460: A lock plate, etc. Like Louis XIV , Napoleon had a set of emblems unmistakably associated with his rule, most notably the eagle, the bee, stars, and the initials I (for Imperator ) and N (for Napoleon ), which were usually inscribed within an imperial laurel crown. Motifs used include: figures of Victory bearing palm branches, Greek dancers, nude and draped women, figures of antique chariots, winged putti , mascarons of Apollo , Hermes and

2067-399: A long time, until the 20th century, although it coexisted in some short periods with other styles. Foreign architects and engineers were invited here since the first decade of the 19th century. Most of the architects that built during the beginning of the century were foreigners because Romanians did not have yet the instruction needed for designing buildings that were very different compared to

2226-515: A lot of concentration, or include many small meetings. Shared office : a compact, semi-private workspace designed for two or three individuals, facilitating both focused work and small group collaboration. Team room : an enclosed workspace for four to ten people; suitable for teamwork that may be confidential and demands frequent internal communication. Study booth : an enclosed workspace for one person; suitable for short-term activities that demand concentration or confidentiality. Work lounge :

2385-1734: A lounge-like workspace for two to six people; suitable for short-term activities that demand collaboration and/or allow impromptu interaction. Touch down : an open workspace for one person; suitable for short-term activities that require little concentration and low interaction. Meeting spaces in an office typically use interactive processes, be they quick conversations or intensive brainstorming. There are six generic types of meeting spaces, each supporting different activities. Small meeting room : an enclosed meeting space for two to four people; suitable for both formal and informal interaction. Medium meeting room : an enclosed meeting space for four to ten people; suitable for both formal and informal interaction. Large meeting room : an enclosed meeting space for ten or more people; suitable for formal interaction. Small meeting space : an open or semi-open meeting space for two to four persons; suitable for short, informal interaction. Medium meeting space : an open or semi-open meeting space for four to ten persons; suitable for short, informal interaction. Large meeting space : an open or semi-open meeting space for ten or more people people; suitable for short, informal interaction. Brainstorm room : an enclosed meeting space for five to twelve people; suitable for brainstorming sessions and workshops. Meeting point : an open meeting point for two to four people; suitable for ad hoc, informal meetings. Support spaces in an office are typically used for secondary activities such as filing documents or taking breaks. There are twelve generic types of support spaces, each supporting different activities. Filing space : an open or enclosed support space for

2544-592: A mature style that has an equivocal relationship with the main current of Neoclassicism, and many later diversions into Orientalism and the Troubadour style that are hard to distinguish from those of his unabashedly Romantic contemporaries, except by the primacy his works always give to drawing. He exhibited at the Salon for over 60 years, from 1802 into the beginnings of Impressionism , but his style, once formed, changed little. If Neoclassical painting suffered from

2703-573: A new French "national costume" at the request of the government during the height of the Revolutionary enthusiasm for changing everything in 1792, it included fairly tight leggings under a coat that stopped above the knee. A high proportion of well-to-do young men spent much of the key period in military service because of the French Revolutionary Wars , and military uniform, which began to emphasize jackets that were short at

2862-541: A partial basement for staff offices. He restored the Oval Office, upgrading the quality of trim and installing air conditioning. He also replaced the furniture, which had undergone no major changes in twenty years. Dissatisfied with the size and layout of the West Wing, President Franklin D. Roosevelt engaged New York architect Eric Gugler to redesign it in 1933. To create additional staff space without increasing

3021-554: A permanent building, doubling its size by expanding it southward, and building the first Oval Office. Designed by Nathan C. Wyeth and completed in 1909, the office was centered on the building's south facade, much as the oval rooms in the White House are. Taft wanted to be more involved with the day-to-day operation of his presidency, and intended the office to be the hub of his administration. The Taft Oval Office had ample natural light from its three windows and skylight. It featured

3180-400: A result of the country's unique business culture. Japanese offices tend to follow open plan layouts in an 'island-style' arrangement, which promotes teamwork and top-down management. They also use uchi-awase (informal meetings) and ringi-sho (consensus systems) to encourage input on policies from as many groups throughout the office as possible. The main purpose of an office environment

3339-433: A result, more office space was assigned to house their activities. The time-and-motion study , pioneered in manufacturing by F. W. Taylor (1856–1915), led to the "Modern Efficiency Desk" of 1915. Its flat top, with drawers below, was designed to allow managers an easy view of their workers. By the middle of the 20th century, it became apparent that an efficient office required additional control over privacy , and gradually

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3498-618: A semi-enclosed workspace for two to eight people; suitable for teamwork which demands frequent internal communication and a medium level of concentration. Cubicle : a semi-enclosed workspace for one person; suitable for activities that demand medium concentration and medium interaction. Office Pod : ideal for fostering privacy in today's bustling open-plan offices. It provides a cost-effective and efficient way to ensure privacy and continuity during conversations, calls, and video conferences. Private office : an enclosed workspace for one person; suitable for activities that are confidential, demand

3657-625: A semi-open or enclosed support space where employees can take a break from their work. Locker area : an open or semi-open support space where employees can store their personal belongings. Smoking room : an enclosed support space where employees can smoke a cigarette. Library : a semi-open or enclosed support space for reading books, journals and magazines. Games room : an enclosed support space where employees can play games, such as pool or darts. Waiting area : an open or semi-open support space where visitors can be received and wait for their appointment. Circulation space : support space which

3816-458: A series of electrified wall sconces have come and gone. Though some presidents have chosen to do day-to-day work in a smaller study just west of the Oval Office, most use the actual Oval Office for work and meetings. Traffic from the large numbers of staff, visitors, and pets over time takes its toll. There have been four sets of flooring in the Oval Office. The original floor was made of cork installed over softwood; however, President Eisenhower

3975-463: A similar structure to Louis XVI furniture . Besides the Adam style, when it comes to decorative arts, England is also known for the ceramic manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood (1730–1795), who established a pottery called Etruria. Wedgwood ware is made of a material called jasperware , a hard and fine-grained type of stoneware . Wedgwood vases are usually decorated with reliefs in two colours, in most cases

4134-474: A simple solution and provide all of the former types of space. Workspaces in an office are typically used for conventional office activities such as reading, writing, and computer work. There are nine generic types of workspaces, each supporting different activities. Open office : an open workspace for more than ten people; suitable for activities that demand frequent communication or routine activities that need relatively little concentration. Team space :

4293-492: A sort of office, serving as the space where records and laws were stored and copied. With the growth of large, complex organizations in the 18th century, the first purpose-built office spaces were constructed. As the Industrial Revolution intensified in the 18th and 19th centuries, the industries of banking , rail , insurance , retail , petroleum , and telegraphy grew dramatically, requiring many clerks. As

4452-450: A specifically Neoclassical approach, spelt out in his preface to the published score of Alceste (1769), which aimed to reform opera by removing ornamentation , increasing the role of the chorus in line with Greek tragedy , and using simpler unadorned melodic lines. The term "Neoclassical" was not invented until the mid-19th century, and at the time the style was described by such terms as "the true style", "reformed" and "revival"; what

4611-540: A substitute model, as Winckelmann recommended. The work of other artists, who could not easily be described as insipid, combined aspects of Romanticism with a generally Neoclassical style, and form part of the history of both movements. The German-Danish painter Asmus Jacob Carstens finished very few of the large mythological works that he planned, leaving mostly drawings and colour studies which often succeed in approaching Winckelmann's prescription of "noble simplicity and calm grandeur". Unlike Carstens' unrealized schemes,

4770-447: A temporary structure, for use until a permanent building was erected there or elsewhere. Sitting the building west of the White House allowed the removal of a vast, dilapidated set of pre– Civil War greenhouses, which had been erected by President James Buchanan . Roosevelt moved the offices of the executive branch into the newly constructed wing in 1902. His workspace was a two-room suite of Executive Office and Cabinet Room, occupying

4929-467: A trajectory from growth to maturity and then imitation or decadence that continues to have influence to the present day. Winckelmann believed that art should aim at "noble simplicity and calm grandeur", and praised the idealism of Greek art, in which he said we find "not only nature at its most beautiful but also something beyond nature, namely certain ideal forms of its beauty, which, as an ancient interpreter of Plato teaches us, come from images created by

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5088-417: A variety of neo-Renaissance, Palladian and modernized, yet recognizably classical schools. They were led by architects born in the 1870s, who reached creative peak before World War I, like Ivan Fomin , Vladimir Shchuko and Ivan Zholtovsky . When the economy recovered in the 1920s, these architects and their followers continued working in primarily modernist environment; some (Zholtovsky) strictly followed

5247-414: A white background or a coloured one). Motifs were placed geometrically. The walls were covered in stuccos , wallpaper fabrics. Fireplace mantels were made of white marble, having caryatids at their corners, or other elements: obelisks , sphinxes , winged lions, and so on. Bronze objects were placed on their tops, including mantel clocks . The doors consisted of simple rectangular panels, decorated with

5406-424: A white marble mantel, simple Georgian Revival woodwork, and twin glass-doored bookcases. It also was likely the most colorful presidential office in history; its walls were covered with vibrant seagrass green burlap. On December 24, 1929, during the first year of President Herbert Hoover 's administration, a fire severely damaged the West Wing. Hoover used this as an opportunity to create additional space, excavating

5565-467: Is based on the principles of simplicity and symmetry, which were seen as virtues of the arts of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece , and drawn directly from 16th-century Renaissance Classicism . Each "neo"-classicism movement selects some models among the range of possible classics that are available to it, and ignores others. Between 1765 and 1830, Neoclassical proponents—writers, speakers, patrons, collectors, artists and sculptors—paid homage to an idea of

5724-475: Is called Augustan literature . This, which had been dominant for several decades, was beginning to decline by the time Neoclassicism in the visual arts became fashionable. Though terms differ, the situation in French literature was similar. In music, the period saw the rise of classical music , and "Neoclassicism" is used of 20th-century developments . However, the operas of Christoph Willibald Gluck represented

5883-495: Is governed by a rigorous spirit of symmetry reminiscent of the Louis XIV style . Generally, the motifs on a piece's right and left sides correspond to one another in every detail; when they do not, the individual motifs themselves are entirely symmetrical in composition: antique heads with identical tresses falling onto each shoulder, frontal figures of Victory with symmetrically arrayed tunics, identical rosettes or swans flanking

6042-576: Is more classicizing in subject matter than in anything else. A fierce, but often very badly informed, dispute raged for decades over the relative merits of Greek and Roman art, with Winckelmann and his fellow Hellenists generally being on the winning side. It is hard to recapture the radical and exciting nature of early Neoclassical painting for contemporary audiences; it now strikes even those writers favourably inclined to it as "insipid" and "almost entirely uninteresting to us"—some of Kenneth Clark 's comments on Anton Raphael Mengs ' ambitious Parnassus at

6201-476: Is required for circulation on office floors, linking all major functions. Lactation rooms are also support spaces that are legally mandatory for companies in the United States, as of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Neoclassicism Neoclassicism , also spelled Neo-classicism , emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts , literature , theatre , music , and architecture that drew inspiration from

6360-432: Is the Știrbei Palace on Calea Victoriei ( Bucharest ), built around the year 1835, after the plans of French architect Michel Sanjouand . It received a new level in 1882, designed by Austrian architect Joseph Hartmann In 1905–1914 Russian architecture passed through a brief but influential period of Neoclassical revival ; the trend began with recreation of Empire style of Alexandrine period and quickly expanded into

6519-513: Is to support its occupants in performing their jobs—preferably at minimum cost and with maximum satisfaction. Different people performing different tasks will require different office spaces, or spaces that can handle a variety of uses. To aid decision-making in workplace and office design, one can distinguish three different types of office spaces: workspaces, meeting spaces, and support spaces. For new or developing businesses, remote satellite offices and project rooms, or serviced offices , can provide

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6678-732: The Goût grec ("Greek style"), not a court style; when Louis XVI acceded to the throne in 1774, Marie Antoinette , his fashion-loving Queen, brought the Louis XVI style to court. However, there was no real attempt to employ the basic forms of Roman furniture until around the turn of the century, and furniture-makers were more likely to borrow from ancient architecture, just as silversmiths were more likely to take from ancient pottery and stone-carving than metalwork: "Designers and craftsmen ... seem to have taken an almost perverse pleasure in transferring motifs from one medium to another". From about 1800

6837-595: The 1976 Bicentennial . Most of these works remained in place through the administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. President George H. W. Bush hung landscape paintings on the walls, along with three portraits: Rembrandt Peale's George Washington , Charles Willson Peale's Benjamin Henry Latrobe , and Thomas Sully's Andrew Jackson . President Bill Clinton chose the Childe Hassam and Norman Rockwell paintings mentioned above, along with Waiting for

6996-492: The Curator of the White House . Six desks have been used in the Oval Office by U.S. presidents since its construction in 1909. The desk usually sits in front of the south wall of the Oval Office, which is composed of three large windows. Some presidents only use the desk in this room for ceremonial purposes, such as photo opportunities and press announcements, while others use it as their main workspace. The first desk used in

7155-656: The Gorgon , swans, lions, the heads of oxen, horses and wild beasts, butterflies, claws, winged chimeras , sphinxes , bucrania , sea horses, oak wreaths knotted by thin trailing ribbons, climbing grape vines, poppy rinceaux , rosettes , palm branches, and laurel. There's a lot of Greco-Roman ones: stiff and flat acanthus leaves, palmettes , cornucopias , beads, amphoras , tripods, imbricated disks, caduceuses of Mercury , vases, helmets, burning torches, winged trumpet players, and ancient musical instruments (tubas, rattles and especially lyres ). Despite their antique derivation,

7314-627: The Liberty Bell Center . Architect James Hoban visited President Washington in Philadelphia in June 1792, and probably saw the bow window. The next month, Hoban won the design competition for the White House. The elliptic salon at the center of the White House was the outstanding feature of Hoban's original plan. Oval rooms became common in neoclassical architecture early in the 19th century. In November 1800, John Adams became

7473-632: The Macchiaioli represented a break with the classical school, which came to an end as Italy unified (see Italian modern and contemporary art). Neoclassicism was the last Italian-born style, after the Renaissance and Baroque, to spread to all Western Art. During the 19th century, the predominant style in Wallachia and Moldavia , later the Kingdom of Romania , was Classicism which lasted for

7632-477: The Napoleonic era . Especially in architecture, but also in other fields, Neoclassicism remained a force long after the early 19th century, with periodic waves of revivalism into the 20th and even the 21st centuries, especially in the United States and Russia. Neoclassicism is a revival of the many styles and spirit of classic antiquity inspired directly from the classical period, which coincided and reflected

7791-472: The Presidential Seal . Rather than a chandelier or ceiling fixture, the room is illuminated by light bulbs hidden within the cornice that wash the ceiling in light. In small ways, hints of Art Moderne can be seen, in the sconces flanking the windows and the representation of the eagle in the ceiling medallion. Roosevelt and Gugler worked closely together, often over breakfast, with Gugler sketching

7950-663: The Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1966. Jimmy Carter returned the Resolute desk to the Oval Office in 1977. Artworks are selected from the White House collection or may be borrowed from museums or individuals for the length of an administration. Most presidents have hung a portrait of George Washington – usually the Rembrandt Peale Porthole portrait or the Charles Willson Peale three-quarter-length portrait – over

8109-494: The Villa Albani , by the artist whom his friend Winckelmann described as "the greatest artist of his own, and perhaps of later times". The drawings, subsequently turned into prints , of John Flaxman used very simple line drawing (thought to be the purest classical medium ) and figures mostly in profile to depict The Odyssey and other subjects, and once "fired the artistic youth of Europe" but are now "neglected", while

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8268-502: The cubicle system evolved. The word "office" stems from the Latin " officium " and its equivalents in various Romance languages . An officium was not necessarily a place, but often referred instead to human staff members of an organization, or even the abstract notion of a formal position like a magistrate. The elaborate Roman bureaucracy would not be equaled for centuries in the West after

8427-729: The etchings of Giovanni Battista Piranesi were numerous and profitable, and taken back by those making the Grand Tour to all parts of Europe. His main subject matter was the buildings and ruins of Rome, and he was more stimulated by the ancient than the modern. The somewhat disquieting atmosphere of many of his Vedute (views) becomes dominant in his series of 16 prints of Carceri d'invenzione ("Imaginary Prisons") whose "oppressive cyclopean architecture" conveys "dreams of fear and frustration". The Swiss-born Henry Fuseli spent most of his career in England, and while his fundamental style

8586-489: The fluting and triglyphs so prevalent under Louis XVI are abandoned. Egyptian Revival motifs are especially common at the beginning of the period: scarabs , lotus capitals , winged disks, obelisks, pyramids , figures wearing nemeses , caryatids en gaine supported by bare feet and with women Egyptian headdresses. Neoclassical architecture became widespread as a symbol of wealth and power in Germany, mostly in what

8745-463: The history paintings of Angelica Kauffman , mainly a portraitist, are described as having "an unctuous softness and tediousness" by Fritz Novotny . Rococo frivolity and Baroque movement had been stripped away but many artists struggled to put anything in their place, and in the absence of ancient examples for history painting, other than the Greek vases used by Flaxman, Raphael tended to be used as

8904-655: The mantel goes back to the administration of John F. Kennedy , and the current plants were rooted from the original plant. A Federal longcase clock, made in Boston by John and Thomas Seymour c. 1795–1805 – commonly known as the Oval Office grandfather clock – was purchased by the White House Historical Association in 1972, and has stood next to the Oval Office's northeast door since 1975. President Harry S. Truman replaced

9063-741: The 18th century to suit the needs of large and growing organizations such as the Royal Navy and the East India Company . The Old Admiralty ( Ripley Building ) was built in 1726 and was the first purpose-built office building in Great Britain. As well as offices, the building housed a board room and apartments for the Lords of the Admiralty. In the 1770s, many scattered offices for the Royal Navy were gathered into Somerset House ,

9222-435: The 18th-century Age of Enlightenment , and continued into the early 19th century, eventually competing with Romanticism . In architecture, the style endured throughout the 19th, 20th, and into the 21st century. European Neoclassicism in the visual arts began c.  1760 in opposition to the then-dominant Rococo style. Rococo architecture emphasizes grace, ornamentation and asymmetry; Neoclassical architecture

9381-595: The 19th century, contrasted Neoclassicism. Whilst Neoclassicism was characterized by Greek and Roman-influenced styles, geometric lines and order, Gothic revival architecture placed an emphasis on medieval-looking buildings, often made to have a rustic, "romantic" appearance. It marks the transition from Rococo to Classicism. Unlike the Classicism of Louis XIV , which transformed ornaments into symbols, Louis XVI style represents them as realistic and natural as possible, i.e. laurel branches really are laurel branches, roses

9540-552: The Empire marks its rapid decline and transformation back once more into a mere antique revival, drained of all the high-minded ideas and force of conviction that had inspired its masterpieces". An earlier phase of the style was called the Adam style in Great Britain. Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in academic art through the 19th century and beyond—a constant antithesis to Romanticism or Gothic revivals —, although from

9699-790: The Federal style, has developed completely in the 18th and early 19th centuries, which has flourished being influenced by Britannic taste. Under the impulse of Neoclassicism, architecture, interiors, and furniture have been created. The style, although it has numerous characteristics which differ from state to state, is unitary. The structures of architecture, interiors, and furniture are Classicist, and incorporate Baroque and Rococo influences. The shapes used include rectangles, ovals, and crescents. Stucco or wooden panels on walls and ceilings reproduce Classicist motifs. Furniture tend to be decorated with floral marquetry and bronze or brass inlays (sometimes gilded ). In England, Augustan literature had

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9858-455: The Great 's lover, Count Grigory Orlov , designed by an Italian architect with a team of Italian stuccadori : only the isolated oval medallions like cameos and the bas-relief overdoors hint of Neoclassicism; the furnishings are fully Italian Rococo. A second Neoclassic wave, more severe, more studied (through the medium of engravings ) and more consciously archaeological, is associated with

10017-599: The Hour by William T. Carlton, a genre scene depicting African-Americans gathered in anticipation of the Emancipation Proclamation going into effect on January 1, 1863. President George W. Bush mixed traditional works with paintings by Texas artists and Western sculptures. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, British Prime Minister Tony Blair lent him a bust of Winston Churchill , who had guided

10176-856: The Louis XIV style, and nature. Characteristic elements of the style: a torch crossed with a sheath with arrows, imbricated disks, guilloché , double bow-knots, smoking braziers, linear repetitions of small motifs ( rosettes , beads, oves), trophy or floral medallions hanging from a knotted ribbon, acanthus leaves, gadrooning , interlace, meanders , cornucopias , mascarons , Ancient urns, tripods, perfume burners, dolphins, ram and lion heads, chimeras , and gryphons . Greco-Roman architectural motifs are also heavily used: flutings , pilasters (fluted and unfluted), fluted balusters (twisted and straight), columns ( engaged and unengaged, sometimes replaced by caryathids ), volute corbels , triglyphs with guttae (in relief and trompe-l'œil ). Neoclassicism

10335-675: The Navy Yard by George Cooke , Eastport and Passamaquoddy Bay by Victor de Grailly, and The President's House , a copy after William Henry Bartlett – have adorned the walls in multiple administrations. Passing the Outpost (1881) by Alfred Wordsworth Thompson , a Revolutionary War genre scene of a carriage stopped at a British checkpoint , hung in Gerald Ford's office, and in Jimmy Carter's and Ronald Reagan's. The Avenue in

10494-595: The Oval Office began on November 21, 1963, while she and President Kennedy were away on a trip to Texas. The following day, November 22, a red carpet was installed, just as the Kennedys were making their way through Dallas, where the president was assassinated. Johnson had the red carpet removed and the Truman carpet reinstalled, and used the latter for his administration. Since Johnson, most administrations have created their own oval carpet, working with an interior designer and

10653-602: The Oval Office was the Theodore Roosevelt desk , and the desk currently in use by Joe Biden is the Resolute desk . Of the six desks used in the Oval Office, the Resolute desk has spent the longest time there, having been used by eight presidents in the room. The Resolute has been used by all U.S. presidents since 1977 with the exception of George H. W. Bush , who used the C&;O desk for his one term, making it

10812-475: The Oval Office's 23-year-old dark green carpet in 1947. He had revised the seal of the president of the United States after World War II, and his blue-gray carpet incorporated the 1945 revised Seal , represented monochromatically through varying depths of its cut pile. The Truman carpet remained in the office through the Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy administrations. Jacqueline Kennedy's redecoration of

10971-471: The President, and turning off, stood on one side. President John Adams occupied the Philadelphia mansion from March 1797, and used the bow window in the same manner as had his predecessor. Curved foundations of Washington's bow window were uncovered during archaeological excavation of the site of the President's House in 2007. They are exhibited under glass at the President's House Commemoration, next to

11130-1396: The Rain by Childe Hassam and Working on the Statue of Liberty by Norman Rockwell flanked the Resolute desk in Bill Clinton's office and did the same in Barack Obama's. Avenue in the Rain currently hangs beside the Resolute desk in Joe Biden's office. Statuettes, busts, heads, and figurines are frequently displayed in the Oval Office. Abraham Lincoln has been the most common subject, in works by sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens , Gutzon Borglum , Adolph Alexander Weinman , Leo Cherne and others. Over time, traditional busts of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin have given way to heads of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman or Dwight Eisenhower. Western bronzes by Frederic Remington have been frequent choices: Lyndon Johnson displayed The Bronco Buster , as did Gerald Ford , Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush added its companion piece, The Rattlesnake . According to The New York Times , an estimated 43 paintings and one photograph have decorated

11289-577: The Revolution, the court portraitist Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun had held a Greek supper where the ladies wore plain white Grecian tunics. Shorter classical hairstyles, where possible with curls, were less controversial and very widely adopted, and hair was now uncovered even outdoors; except for evening dress, bonnets or other coverings had typically been worn even indoors before. Thin Greek-style ribbons or fillets were used to tie or decorate

11448-448: The Revolutionary period, and perhaps, like other exotic styles, as undress at home. But the styles worn in portraits by Juliette Récamier , Joséphine de Beauharnais , Thérésa Tallien and other Parisian trend-setters were for going-out in public as well. Seeing Mme Tallien at the opera, Talleyrand quipped that: " Il n'est pas possible de s'exposer plus somptueusement! " ("One could not be more sumptuously undressed"). In 1788, just before

11607-595: The Romanian tradition. Usually using Classicism, they started building together with Romanian artisans, usually prepared in foreign schools or academies. Romanian architects studied in Western European schools as well. One example is Alexandru Orăscu , one of the representatives of Neoclassicism in Romania. Classicism manifested both in religious and secular architecture. A good example of secular architecture

11766-845: The Ruins of Palmyra (1758) by Gavin Hamilton , the two gentleman antiquaries are shown in toga -like Arab robes. In Watson and the Shark (1778) by John Singleton Copley , the main figure could plausibly be shown nude, and the composition is such that of the eight other men shown, only one shows a single breeched leg prominently. However the Americans Copley and Benjamin West led the artists who successfully showed that trousers could be used in heroic scenes, with works like West's The Death of General Wolfe (1770) and Copley's The Death of Major Peirson, 6 January 1781 (1783), although

11925-670: The United Kingdom through World War II. President Barack Obama honored Abraham Lincoln with the portrait by Story, a bust by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. Below the proclamation was a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. by Charles Alston , and in the nearby bookcase was displayed a program from the August 28, 1963, March on Washington , at which King gave his "I Have

12084-540: The United States did not have a sculpture tradition of its own, save in the areas of tombstones, weathervanes and ship figureheads, the European Neoclassical manner was adopted there, and it was to hold sway for decades and is exemplified in the sculptures of Horatio Greenough , Harriet Hosmer , Hiram Powers , Randolph Rogers and William Henry Rinehart . Neoclassical art was traditional and new, historical and modern, conservative and progressive all at

12243-469: The White House. He spent most of his presidency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , which served as the temporary national capital for 10 years, from 1790 to 1800, while Washington, D.C. , a new city, was under construction. In 1790, Washington built a large, two-story, semi-circular addition to the rear of the President's House in Philadelphia , creating a ceremonial space in which the public would meet

12402-466: The advent of the Grand Tour , a fad of collecting antiquities began that laid the foundations of many great collections spreading a Neoclassical revival throughout Europe. "Neoclassicism" in each art implies a particular canon of a "classical" model. In English, the term "Neoclassicism" is used primarily of the visual arts; the similar movement in English literature , which began considerably earlier,

12561-453: The apparent size of the building, Gugler excavated a full basement, added a set of subterranean offices under the adjacent lawn, and built an unobtrusive penthouse storey. The directive to wring the most office space out of the existing building was responsible for its narrow corridors and cramped staff offices. Gugler's most visible addition was the expansion of the building eastward for a new Cabinet Room and Oval Office. The modern Oval Office

12720-558: The art and culture of classical antiquity . Neoclassicism was born in Rome , largely due to the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann during the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum . Its popularity expanded throughout Europe as a generation of European art students finished their Grand Tour and returned from Italy to their home countries with newly rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. The main Neoclassical movement coincided with

12879-472: The artistic generation associated with Phidias , but sculpture examples they actually embraced were more likely to be Roman copies of Hellenistic sculptures. They ignored both Archaic Greek art and the works of late antiquity . The discovery of ancient Palmyra 's "Rococo" art through engravings in Robert Wood 's The Ruins of Palmyra came as a revelation. With Greece largely unexplored and considered

13038-499: The building From the second half of the 18th century through the 19th century, Italy went through a great deal of socio-economic changes, several foreign invasions and the turbulent Risorgimento, which resulted in Italian unification in 1861. Thus, Italian art went through a series of minor and major changes in style. Italian Neoclassicism was the earliest manifestation of the general period known as Neoclassicism and lasted more than

13197-428: The central office each day. As the Industrial Revolution intensified in the 18th and 19th centuries, the industries of banking , rail , insurance , retail , petroleum , and telegraphy dramatically grew in size and complexity. Increasingly large number of clerks were needed to handle order processing, accounting, and document filing, and these clerks needed to be housed in increasingly specialized spaces. Most of

13356-612: The classical canon, others (Fomin, Schuko, Ilya Golosov ) developed their own modernized styles. With the crackdown on architect's independence and official denial of modernism (1932), demonstrated by the international contest for the Palace of Soviets , Neoclassicism was instantly promoted as one of the choices in Stalinist architecture , although not the only choice. It coexisted with moderately modernist architecture of Boris Iofan , bordering with contemporary Art Deco (Schuko); again,

13515-400: The classical models. Neoclassicism and neo-Renaissance persisted in less demanding residential and office projects until 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev put an end to expensive Stalinist architecture. The Adam style was created by two brothers, Adam and James , who published in 1777 a volume of etchings with interior ornamentation. In the interior decoration made after Robert Adam's drawings,

13674-451: The country and devoted himself to the highly distinctive "character heads" of bald figures pulling extreme facial expressions. Like Piranesi's Carceri , these enjoyed a great revival of interest during the age of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century. The Dutch Neoclassical sculptor Mathieu Kessels studied with Thorvaldsen and worked almost exclusively in Rome. Since prior to the 1830s

13833-869: The decorative arts, Neoclassicism is exemplified in Empire furniture made in Paris, London, New York, Berlin; in Biedermeier furniture made in Austria; in Karl Friedrich Schinkel 's museums in Berlin, Sir John Soane 's Bank of England in London and the newly built " United States Capitol " in Washington, D.C.; and in Josiah Wedgwood 's bas reliefs and "black basaltes" vases . The style

13992-545: The designs of Zholtovsky, Fomin and other old masters were easily replicated in remote towns under strict material rationing . Improvement of construction technology after World War II permitted Stalinist architects to venture into skyscraper construction, although stylistically these skyscrapers (including "exported" architecture of Palace of Culture and Science , Warsaw and the Shanghai International Convention Centre) share little with

14151-418: The desks of the era were top-heavy and had a cubicle-like appearance, with paper storage bins extending above the desk-work area, offering workers some degree of privacy. The relatively high price of land in the central core of cities led to the first multi-story buildings, which were limited to about 10 stories until the use of iron and steel allowed for higher structures. The first purpose-built office block

14310-547: The developments in philosophy and other areas of the Age of Enlightenment, and was initially a reaction against the excesses of the preceding Rococo style. While the movement is often described as the opposed counterpart of Romanticism , this is a great over-simplification that tends not to be sustainable when specific artists or works are considered. The case of the supposed main champion of late Neoclassicism, Ingres , demonstrates this especially well. The revival can be traced to

14469-531: The disapproval of critics. Neoclassicism was strongest in architecture , sculpture and the decorative arts , where classical models in the same medium were relatively numerous and accessible; examples from ancient painting that demonstrated the qualities that Winckelmann's writing found in sculpture were and are lacking. Winckelmann was involved in the dissemination of knowledge of the first large Roman paintings to be discovered, at Pompeii and Herculaneum and, like most contemporaries except for Gavin Hamilton ,

14628-466: The eastern third of the building. Its furniture, including the president's desk , was designed by architect Charles Follen McKim , and executed by A. H. Davenport and Company , both of Boston. Now much altered, the 1902 Executive Office survives as the Roosevelt Room, a windowless interior meeting room situated diagonally from the Oval Office. President William Howard Taft made the West Wing

14787-619: The establishment of formal archaeology . The writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann were important in shaping this movement in both architecture and the visual arts. His books Thoughts on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture (1750) and Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums ("History of Ancient Art", 1764) were the first to distinguish sharply between Ancient Greek and Roman art, and define periods within Greek art, tracing

14946-401: The existence of such "offices". These rooms are sometimes called "libraries" by some archaeologists because of scrolls' association with literature. They were, however, closer to modern offices because the scrolls were meant for record-keeping and other management functions, not for poetry or works of fiction. The High Middle Ages (1000–1300) saw the rise of the medieval chancery , which was

15105-479: The fall of Rome , with areas partially reverting to illiteracy. Further east, the Byzantine Empire and varying Islamic caliphates preserved a more sophisticated administrative culture. Offices in classical antiquity were often part of a palace complex or a large temple. There was often a room where scrolls were kept and scribes did their work. Ancient texts mentioning the work of scribes allude to

15264-630: The figures being white and the background blue. On the American continent , architecture and interior decoration have been highly influenced by the styles developed in Europe. The French taste has highly marked its presence in the southern states (after the French Revolution some emigrants have moved here, and in Canada a big part of the population has French origins). The practical spirit and

15423-542: The first block purpose-built for office work. The East India House was built in 1729 on Leadenhall Street as the headquarters from which the East India Company administered its Indian colonial possessions . The Company developed a very complex bureaucracy for the task, necessitating thousands of office employees to process the required paperwork. The Company recognized the benefits of centralized administration and required that all workers sign in and out at

15582-406: The first president to occupy the White House. He and his successor, President Thomas Jefferson , used Hoban's oval rooms as Washington had used his bow window salon, standing before the three windows at the south end to receive guests. In the 19th century, some presidents used the White House's second-floor Yellow Oval Room as their private offices and libraries. This cultural association, between

15741-479: The front, giving a full view of tight-fitting trousers, was often worn when not on duty, and influenced civilian male styles. The trouser-problem had been recognised by artists as a barrier to creating contemporary history paintings ; like other elements of contemporary dress they were seen as irredeemably ugly and unheroic by many artists and critics. Various stratagems were used to avoid depicting them in modern scenes. In James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering

15900-485: The hair instead. Very light and loose dresses, usually white and often with shockingly bare arms, rose sheer from the ankle to just below the bodice, where there was a strongly emphasized thin hem or tie round the body, often in a different colour. The shape is now often known as the Empire silhouette although it predates the First French Empire of Napoleon, but his first Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais

16059-596: The height of the Napoleonic Empire . In France, the first phase of Neoclassicism was expressed in the " Louis XVI style ", and the second in the styles called " Directoire " and Empire . The Rococo style remained popular in Italy until the Napoleonic regimes brought the new archaeological classicism, which was embraced as a political statement by young, progressive, urban Italians with republican leanings. In

16218-564: The invention of the printing press and its wider distribution, there was often no clear cultural distinction between a private office and a private library ; books were both read and written at the same desk or table , as were personal and professional accounts and letters. During the 13th century, the English word "office" first began to appear when referring to a position involving specific professional duties (for example, "the office of the....") Geoffrey Chaucer appears to have first used

16377-475: The late 19th century on it had often been considered anti-modern, or even reactionary, in influential critical circles. The centres of several European cities, notably Saint Petersburg and Munich , came to look much like museums of Neoclassical architecture. Gothic revival architecture (often linked with the Romantic cultural movement), a style originating in the 18th century which grew in popularity throughout

16536-570: The leader of French art, and after the French Revolution became a politician with control of much government patronage in art. He managed to retain his influence in the Napoleonic period, turning to frankly propagandistic works, but had to leave France for exile in Brussels at the Bourbon Restoration . David's many students included Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres , who saw himself as a classicist throughout his long career, despite

16695-614: The main figures of the period include Vittorio Alfieri , Giuseppe Parini , Vincenzo Monti and Ugo Foscolo , Giacomo Leopardi and Alessandro Manzoni (nephew of Cesare Beccaria ), who were also influenced by the French Enlightenment and German Romanticism. The virtuoso violinist Paganini and the operas of Rossini , Donnizetti , Bellini and, later, Verdi dominated the scene in Italian classical and romantic music. The art of Francesco Hayez and especially that of

16854-501: The mantel and later beside his desk. He also displayed the painting Fired On by Western artist Frederic Remington. President Dwight D. Eisenhower filled the office walls with landscape paintings, as well as a portrait of Robert E. Lee . President John F. Kennedy surrounded himself with paintings of naval battles from the War of 1812 , photographs of sailboats, and ship models. President Lyndon Johnson installed sconces on either side of

17013-455: The mantel at the north end of the room. A portrait of Andrew Jackson by Thomas Sully hung in the offices of Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. A portrait of Abraham Lincoln by George Henry Story hung in George W. Bush's office, continued in Barack Obama's and currently hangs in Joe Biden's. Three landscapes and cityscapes – City of Washington from Beyond

17172-585: The mantel, and added the office's first painting by a woman artist, Franklin D. Roosevelt by Elizabeth Shoumatoff . President Richard Nixon tried three different portraits of George Washington over the mantel, and hung a copy of Earthrise – a photograph of the Earth taken from the Moon's orbit during the Apollo 8 mission – beside his desk. President Gerald Ford hung historic paintings, possibly in anticipation of

17331-421: The mantel, including Rembrandt Peale's George Washington , Charles H. Woodbury 's Woodrow Wilson , Luis Cadena 's George Washington (the gift of Ecuador ), and a copy of Tito Salas 's Equestrian Portrait of Simon Bolivar (the gift of Venezuela). A large photograph of the White House portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, under whom Truman had served as vice president and who died in office in 1945, hung beside

17490-660: The material situation of the Americans at that time gave the interiors a typic atmosphere. All the American furniture, carpets, tableware, ceramic, and silverware, with all the European influences, and sometimes Islamic , Turkish or Asian , were made in conformity with the American norms, taste, and functional requirements. There have existed in the US a period of the Queen Anne style , and an Chippendale one. A style of its own,

17649-655: The midpoint of the 20th century, it became apparent that an efficient office required more privacy in order to combat tedium, increase productivity, and encourage creativity. In 1964, the Herman Miller (office equipment) company contracted Robert Propst , a prolific industrial designer. Propst came up with the concept of the Action Office , which later evolved into the cubicle office furniture system. Offices in Japan have developed unique characteristics partly as

17808-481: The mind alone". The theory was very far from new in Western art, but his emphasis on close copying of Greek models was: "The only way for us to become great or if this be possible, inimitable, is to imitate the ancients". The Industrial Revolution saw global transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacturing processes. There was tremendous material advancement and increased prosperity. With

17967-518: The modern Oval Office was completed in 1934. The basic Oval Office furnishings have been a desk in front of the three windows at the south end, a pair of chairs in front of the fireplace at the north end, a pair of sofas, and assorted tables and chairs. The Neoclassical mantel was made for the Taft Oval Office in 1909 and salvaged after the 1929 West Wing fire. A tradition of displaying potted Swedish ivy ( Plectranthus verticillatus ) atop

18126-496: The most classicizing interiors of the Baroque , or the most "Roman" rooms of William Kent were based on basilica and temple exterior architecture turned outside in, hence their often bombastic appearance to modern eyes: pedimented window frames turned into gilded mirrors, fireplaces topped with temple fronts. The new interiors sought to recreate an authentically Roman and genuinely interior vocabulary. Techniques employed in

18285-623: The nation from the Oval Office on occasion. Examples include Kennedy presenting news of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), Nixon announcing his resignation from office (1974), Ronald Reagan following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986), and George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11 attacks (2001). The White House was not ready for occupancy until 1800. George Washington never occupied

18444-596: The notable figures of the Enlightenment, and travelled to America to produce a statue of George Washington , as well as busts of Thomas Jefferson , Benjamin Franklin and other founders of the new republic. Antonio Canova and the Dane Bertel Thorvaldsen were both based in Rome, and as well as portraits produced many ambitious life-size figures and groups; both represented the strongly idealizing tendency in Neoclassical sculpture. Canova has

18603-453: The occasional half circle or oval. Interior decor also honored this taste for rigor, with the result that flat surfaces and right angles returned to fashion. Ornament was used to mediate this severity, but it never interfered with basic lines and always was disposed symmetrically around a central axis. Even so, ébénistes often canted fore-angles to avoid excessive rigidity. The decorative motifs of Louis XVI style were inspired by antiquity ,

18762-538: The other national variants of neoclassicism. It developed in opposition to the Baroque style around c.  1750 and lasted until c.  1850 . Neoclassicism began around the period of the rediscovery of Pompeii and spread all over Europe as a generation of art students returned to their countries from the Grand Tour in Italy with rediscovered Greco-Roman ideals. It first centred in Rome where artists such as Antonio Canova and Jacques-Louis David were active in

18921-665: The place where most government letters were written and laws were copied within a kingdom. The rooms of the chancery often had walls full of pigeonholes, constructed to hold rolled-up pieces of parchment for safekeeping or ready reference. This kind of structure was a precursor to the modern bookshelf. The introduction of the printing press during the Renaissance did not impact the setup and function of these government offices significantly. Medieval paintings and tapestries often show people in their private offices handling record-keeping books or writing on scrolls of parchment . Before

19080-401: The presidency itself through memorable images, such as a young John F. Kennedy, Jr. peering through the front panel of his father's desk, President Richard Nixon speaking by telephone with the Apollo 11 astronauts during their moonwalk, and Amy Carter bringing her Siamese cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang to brighten her father President Jimmy Carter 's day. Several presidents have addressed

19239-404: The president and an oval room, was more fully expressed in the Taft Oval Office (1909) in the West Wing. The West Wing was the idea of President Theodore Roosevelt , brought about by his wife's opinion that the second floor of the White House, then shared between bedrooms and offices, should be solely a domestic space. Completed in 1902, the one-story Executive Office Building was intended to be

19398-435: The president's ideas. One notion resulting from these sketches that has become fixed in the layout of the room's furniture is that of two high back chairs in front of the fireplace. The public sees this most often with the president seated on the left and a visiting head of state on the right. This allowed Roosevelt to be seated, with his guests at the same level, de-emphasizing his inability to stand without help. Construction of

19557-528: The president. Standing before the three windows of this bow window , he formally received guests for his Tuesday afternoon audiences , delegations from Congress and foreign dignitaries, and the general public at open houses on New Year's Day , the Fourth of July , and his birthday. Washington received his guests, standing between the windows in his back drawing-room. The company, entering a front room and passing through an unfolding door, made their salutations to

19716-514: The purest examples of the style were produced by Zholtovsky school that remained an isolated phenomena. The political intervention was a disaster for constructivist leaders yet was sincerely welcomed by architects of the classical schools. Neoclassicism was an easy choice for the Soviet Union since it did not rely on modern construction technologies ( steel frame or reinforced concrete ) and could be reproduced in traditional masonry . Thus

19875-511: The room has remained mostly unchanged architecturally. More than any president, Roosevelt left an impression on the room and its use. Doors and window frames have been modified slightly. A screen door on the east wall was removed after the installation of air conditioning. President Lyndon B. Johnson's row of wire service Teletype machines on the southeast wall required cutting plaster and flooring to accommodate wiring. The Georgian style plaster ornament has been cleaned to remove accumulated paint, and

20034-441: The royal government, which David insisted on painting in Rome. David managed to combine an idealist style with drama and forcefulness. The central perspective is perpendicular to the picture plane, made more emphatic by the dim arcade behind, against which the heroic figures are disposed as in a frieze , with a hint of the artificial lighting and staging of opera , and the classical colouring of Nicolas Poussin . David rapidly became

20193-537: The rug of their predecessor until their new one is installed. The retired carpet very often is then moved to storage. The redecoration of the Oval Office is usually coordinated by the first lady's office in the East Wing , working with an interior designer and the White House curator . Since the present Oval Office's construction in 1934 during the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

20352-524: The same pattern as the Reagan floor. In the late 1980s, a comprehensive assessment of the entire house, including the Oval Office, was made as part of the National Park Service 's Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) . Detailed photographs and measured drawings were made documenting the interior and exterior and showing even slight imperfections. A checklist of materials and methods

20511-473: The same source of inspiration, classical antiquity. The Adam style emphasizes refined rectangular mirrors, framed like paintings (in frames with stylised leafs), or with a pediment above them, supporting an urn or a medallion. Another design of Adam mirrors is shaped like a Venetian window , with a big central mirror between two other thinner and longer ones. Another type of mirrors are the oval ones, usually decorated with festoons. The furniture in this style has

20670-455: The same time. Neoclassicism first gained influence in Britain and France, through a generation of French art students trained in Rome and influenced by the writings of Winckelmann, and it was quickly adopted by progressive circles in other countries such as Sweden , Poland and Russia . At first, classicizing decor was grafted onto familiar European forms, as in the interiors for Catherine

20829-444: The same, and so on. One of the main decorative principles is symmetry. In interiors, the colours used are very bright, including white, light grey, bright blue, pink, yellow, very light lilac, and gold. Excesses of ornamentation are avoided. The return to antiquity is synonymous with above all with a return to the straight lines: strict verticals and horizontals were the order of the day. Serpentine ones were no longer tolerated, save for

20988-589: The second half of the 18th century, before moving to Paris. Painters of Vedute , like Canaletto and Giovanni Paolo Panini , also enjoyed a huge success during the Grand Tour. Neoclassical architecture was inspired by the Renaissance works of Andrea Palladio and saw in Luigi Vanvitelli the main interpreters of the style. Classicist literature had a great impact on the Risorgimento movement:

21147-555: The shorter styles that finally despatched the use of wigs, and then white hair-powder, for younger men. The trouser had been the symbol of the barbarian to the Greeks and Romans, but outside the painter's or, especially, the sculptor's studio, few men were prepared to abandon it. Indeed, the period saw the triumph of the pure trouser, or pantaloon , over the culotte or knee-breeches of the Ancien Régime . Even when David designed

21306-624: The shortest-serving desk to date. Other past presidents have used the Hoover desk , the Johnson desk , and the Wilson desk . The Resolute desk, the current desk in use, is built from oak timbers that were once part of the ship HMS  Resolute . The British Resolute was trapped in Arctic ice in 1854 and abandoned. The ship was discovered in 1855 by an American whaling ship and later underwent

21465-523: The storage of frequently used files and documents. Storage space : an open or enclosed support space for the storage of commonly used office supplies. Print and copy area : an open or enclosed support space with facilities for printing, scanning and copying. Mail area : an open or semi-open support space where employees can pick up or deliver their mail. Pantry area : an open or enclosed support space where employees can get refreshments and where supplies for visitor hospitality are kept. Break area :

21624-457: The style included flatter, lighter motifs, sculpted in low frieze -like relief or painted in monotones en camaïeu ("like cameos"), isolated medallions or vases or busts or bucrania or other motifs, suspended on swags of laurel or ribbon, with slender arabesques against backgrounds, perhaps, of "Pompeiian red" or pale tints, or stone colors. The style in France was initially a Parisian style,

21783-427: The timbers of Resolute . The one that is now known as the Resolute desk was designed by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford, built by William Evenden at Chatham Dockyard , and announced as "recently manufactured" on November 18, 1880. The desk was delivered as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that a panel be installed in the kneehole during his presidency. The desk

21942-600: The use of large, open floor plans and desks that faced supervisors. As a result, in 1915, the Equitable Life Insurance Company in New York City introduced the "Modern Efficiency Desk" with a flat top and drawers below, designed to allow managers an easy view of the workers. This led to a demand for large square footage per floor in buildings, and a return to the open spaces that were seen in pre–industrial revolution buildings. However, by

22101-578: The walls of the Oval Office since 1961. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to occupy the Modern Oval Office, and placed Rembrandt Peale's George Washington over the mantel. Assorted prints of the Hudson Valley hung on the walls. President Harry S. Truman displayed works related to his home state of Missouri , prints of biplanes and sailing ships, and models of jet airplanes. A series of paintings held pride of place over

22260-543: The walls, ceilings, doors, and any other surface, are divided into big panels: rectangular, round, square, with stuccos and Greco-Roman motifs at the edges. Ornaments used include festoons , pearls, egg-and-dart bands, medallions , and any other motifs used during the Classical antiquity (especially the Etruscan ones). Decorative fittings such as urn-shaped stone vases, gilded silverware, lamps, and stauettes all have

22419-459: The western wall. There are four doors: the east door opens to the Rose Garden ; the west door leads to a private study and dining room; the northwest door opens onto the main corridor of the West Wing; and the northeast door opens to the office of the president's secretary. The room takes inspiration from the bow oval rooms in the main residence of the White House. The west wing oval office

22578-709: The word in 1395 to mean a place where business is transacted in The Canterbury Tales . As mercantilism became the dominant economic theory of the Renaissance , merchants tended to conduct their business in buildings that also sometimes housed people doing retail sales, warehousing, and clerical work. During the 15th century, the population density in many cities reached a point where merchants began to use stand-alone buildings to conduct their business. A distinction began to develop between religious, administrative/military, and commercial uses for buildings. The first purpose-built office spaces were constructed in

22737-590: Was also, or mainly, a sculptor, mostly producing severely classical reliefs that are comparable in style to his prints; he also designed and modelled Neoclassical ceramics for Josiah Wedgwood for several years. Johann Gottfried Schadow and his son Rudolph , one of the few Neoclassical sculptors to die young, were the leading German artists, with Franz Anton von Zauner in Austria. The late Baroque Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt turned to Neoclassicism in mid-career, shortly before he appears to have suffered some kind of mental crisis, after which he retired to

22896-430: Was an avid golfer and damaged the floor with his golf spikes. Johnson had the floor replaced in the mid-1960s with wood-grain linoleum . In 1982, President Ronald Reagan had the floor replaced with quarter sawn oak and walnut, in a cross parquet pattern similar in design to a 1933 Eric Gugler sketch, which had never been executed. In August 2005, the floor was replaced again under President George W. Bush , in exactly

23055-519: Was based on Neoclassical principles, his subjects and treatment more often reflected the "Gothic" strain of Romanticism , and sought to evoke drama and excitement. Neoclassicism in painting gained a new sense of direction with the sensational success of Jacques-Louis David 's Oath of the Horatii at the Paris Salon of 1785. Despite its evocation of republican virtues, this was a commission by

23214-408: Was built at the West Wing's southeast corner, offering Roosevelt, who was physically disabled and used a wheelchair , more privacy and easier access to the Residence. He and Gugler devised a room architecturally grander than the previous two offices, with more robust Georgian details: doors topped with substantial pediments, bookcases set into niches, a deep bracketed cornice, and a ceiling medallion of

23373-410: Was created when the wing was expanded in the early 1900s, a few years after the wing was built. Presidents generally decorate the office to suit their own personal tastes, choosing furniture and drapery and often commissioning oval carpets. Artwork is selected from the White House collection, or borrowed from museums for the president's term. The Oval Office has become associated in Americans' minds with

23532-423: Was generated for future conservation and restoration. The ratio of the major axis to the minor axis is approximately 21:17 or 1.24. Cowboy's Meditation by Harry Jackson Buffalo Skull by James L. Clark Numerous family photographs Office In classical antiquity , offices were often part of a palace complex or a large temple. In the High Middle Ages (1000–1300), the medieval chancery acted as

23691-505: Was influential in spreading it around Europe. A long rectangular shawl or wrap, very often plain red but with a decorated border in portraits, helped in colder weather, and was apparently laid around the midriff when seated—for which sprawling semi-recumbent postures were favoured. By the start of the 19th century, such styles had spread widely across Europe. Neoclassical fashion for men was far more problematic, and never really took off other than for hair, where it played an important role in

23850-406: Was intended to idealize Napoleon's leadership and the French state. The style corresponds to the more bourgeois Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Federal style in the United States, the Regency style in Britain, and the Napoleon style in Sweden. According to the art historian Hugh Honour "so far from being, as is sometimes supposed, the culmination of the Neoclassical movement,

24009-563: Was international; Scots architect Charles Cameron created palatial Italianate interiors for the German-born Catherine the Great, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Indoors, Neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine classic interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum . These had begun in the late 1740s, but only achieved a wide audience in the 1760s, with the first luxurious volumes of tightly controlled distribution of Le Antichità di Ercolano ( The Antiquities of Herculaneum ). The antiquities of Herculaneum showed that even

24168-401: Was mainly portraits, very often as busts, which do not sacrifice a strong impression of the sitter's personality to idealism. His style became more classical as his long career continued, and represents a rather smooth progression from Rococo charm to classical dignity. Unlike some Neoclassical sculptors he did not insist on his sitters wearing Roman dress, or being unclothed. He portrayed most of

24327-443: Was not until after it that thorough-going attempts to imitate ancient styles became fashionable in France, at least for women. Classical costumes had long been worn by fashionable ladies posing as some figure from Greek or Roman myth in a portrait (in particular there was a rash of such portraits of the young model Emma, Lady Hamilton from the 1780s), but such costumes were only worn for the portrait sitting and masquerade balls until

24486-540: Was regarded as being revived varying considerably. Ancient models were certainly very much involved, but the style could also be regarded as a revival of the Renaissance, and especially in France as a return to the more austere and noble Baroque of the age of Louis XIV , for which a considerable nostalgia had developed as France's dominant military and political position started a serious decline. Ingres 's coronation portrait of Napoleon even borrowed from Late Antique consular diptychs and their Carolingian revival, to

24645-518: Was representative for the new French society that exited the revolution , setting the tone in all life fields, including art. The Jacquard machine was invented during this period (which revolutionised the entire sewing system, manual until then). One of the dominant colours was red, decorated with gilt bronze . Bright colours were also used, including white, cream, violet, brown, blue, dark red, with little ornaments of gilt bronze. Interior architecture included wood panels decorated with gilt reliefs (on

24804-414: Was the Brunswick Building, built in Liverpool in 1841. The invention of the safety elevator in 1852 by Elisha Otis enabled the rapid upward escalation of buildings. By the end of the 19th century, larger office buildings frequently contained large glass atriums to allow light into the complex and improve air circulation. By 1906, Sears , Roebuck, and Co. had opened their headquarters operation in

24963-425: Was then Prussia . Karl Friedrich Schinkel built many prominent buildings in this style, including the Altes Museum in Berlin. While the city remained dominated by Baroque city planning, his architecture and functional style provided the city with a distinctly neoclassical center. His Bauakademie is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its hithertofore relatively streamlined façade of

25122-533: Was unimpressed by them, citing Pliny the Younger 's comments on the decline of painting in his period. As for painting, Greek painting was utterly lost: Neoclassicist painters imaginatively revived it, partly through bas-relief friezes , mosaics and pottery painting, and partly through the examples of painting and decoration of the High Renaissance of Raphael 's generation, frescos in Nero 's Domus Aurea , Pompeii and Herculaneum, and through renewed admiration of Nicolas Poussin . Much "Neoclassical" painting

25281-406: Was used in various areas of the White House until Jacqueline Kennedy had it moved to the Oval Office in 1961. Following the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy , the Resolute desk was transferred, on loan, to the Smithsonian Institution and went on tour around the country to help raise funds for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum . After this tour, the desk was put on view at

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