Explore Black History

2021

For this commission for the cover of Elle Decor magazine, illustrator Rachelle A. Baker was asked to “re-see" the iconic “Yellow Room” designed by American socialite and decorator Nancy Lancaster for her home on London’s Avery Row. The original room featured marigold yellow walls along with two “blackamoor” figure tables. The term “blackamoor” describes a dark-skinned Black figure, often a man. The use of blackamoor depictions in decorative arts began in the 17th Century and expanded in popularity through the 1850s to 1890s. The figures are most often shown holding tables or trays above their heads, while wearing brightly colored gold and jeweled turbans or jewelry, and are common representations of race, bondage, and exoticism in the decorative arts. Baker told NMAAHC she “re-imagined the room as something more modern and featured a seated figure (a Black woman), making eye contact with the viewer and commanding the room.”
Baker’s illustration was one of two featured covers for the March 2021 issue of the magazine, the first complete issue overseen by Elle Décor’s first Black editor, Asad Syrkett.

A digital sketch created by Rachelle A. Baker for the March 2021 cover of Elle Decor magazine. The sketch is a symbolic re-imagining of Nancy Lancaster’s famous “Yellow Room," and features the distinct elements of the room rendered in red, green, and purple sketched outlines against a white background.
At the very top of the image, the word [ELLE] is printed vertically, beside [DECOR] in large, green, uppercase letters. Underneath the "R" in Decor, the issue date [MARCH 2021] is printed as a subscript. Fine red lines outline the room's barrel vault ceiling, cornices, walls, skirting boards, and double doors, while most of the fixtures and furniture are outlined in either green or purple. Along the left wall, are two fringed settees in green, separated by two purple side chairs, with purple curtains at the corner. Sketched in green along the back wall is a bookshelf with a vase on top, and a round mirror behind the vase. The partial sketch of a chandelier hovers above a purple armchair in the middle of the room. A female figure, faintly sketched in blue, sits on the purple armchair with her proper left hand on her cheek and her proper right hand resting on the chair itself. In the foreground is a writing desk sketched in green, with several decorative objects on top in purple. In the center of the image, handwritten dark green text on top of the illustration read [THE LATEST ISSUE / HOME] followed by placeholder text.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection

Visual Arts
Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Rachelle A. Baker

National Museum of African American History and Culture

2021.47.2

illustrations
preliminary sketches
digital media - born digital

© Rachelle Baker, ® Elle Decor
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digital

H x W: 3900 pixels × 2700 pixels
40.18 MB

Object Name • Digital process sketch by Rachelle A. Baker for the cover of Elle Decor magazine

nmaahc_2021.47.2

NMAAHC

DIGITAL PROCESS SKETCH BY RACHELLE A. BAKER FOR THE COVER OF ELLE DECOR MAGAZINE

National Museum of African American History and Culture

CC0

2020s

ELLE DECOR • Baker, Rachelle A.

Greater London • Europe • London • England • United Kingdom

Design • Art • Interior decoration • Mass media • Ornamentation

City • London • State • Greater London • Country • England • Nation • United Kingdom • Continent • Europe

Illustrations • digital media - born digital • Sketches

Images

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