The RISD Museum highlights the fragile beauty and striking designs of centuries-old examples of wallpaper from the collection of a French-American couple, purchased in 1934.

Art & Exhibitions ‘Exceptionally Rare’ French Wallpaper Is the Focus of an Expansive New Museum Show French, View of Venice Wallpaper, ca. 1840. Image courtesy of RISD Museum, Rhode Island.

Using its collection of French wallpaper made from the 1770s to the 1840s, likely the finest outside France, the RISD museum again shows us what a uniquely smart and inventive place it is.

A fragment of antique wallpaper, Greer suggests, is precious enough to frame and hang as art. Hence the title of a transporting exhibition at the RISD Museum, “The Art of French Wallpaper Design.” ...