19th c. Floral Screen

Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, this 19th-century screen once stood in the private half of a French home, the corner where you dressed, undressed, and kept the rest of the room from seeing. It folds across four tall panels with gently arched tops, each side covered in an old floral fabric of roses and trailing greenery. Screens like this began as something practical, a way to block a draft and fold off a private corner, which is exactly what the French name means, a guard set against the wind. Sylvie opens it into a corner of the bedroom, drawn part way around a chair so the space behind it feels like a room of its own.