John Gregory Crace
(b London, 26 May 1809; d Dulwich, 13 Aug 1889). Son of (2) Frederick Crace. He joined the family decorating business in London in 1826 and became a full partner in 1830. In 1827 and 1829 Crace travelled to the Continent, where he was impressed by French decorative work of the 18th century, and after a visit to Paris in 1837 he decorated the firm's Wigmore Street showroom in a French Renaissance manner. Crace's first important patron was William Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, for whom he worked at Devonshire House (1840-45) in London and Chatsworth (1840-48), Derbys, providing carpets, upholstery, painted walls and ceilings, and some furniture. In 1843 Crace went to Munich to examine the processes involved in encaustic and fresco painting, and was strongly influenced by the way Bavarian decorative artists used colour to emphasize internal architectural forms. From this period he tended to use strong colours in preference to the French-inspired pastels of his early work, as in the State Drawing-room at Knebworth House, Herts, for example, redecorated in a medieval style in 1843-4 for Edward Bulwer Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803-73).
Part of the Crace family
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