Design with Overlay for Portion of Stairway in Château-sur-Mer, Newport, Rhode Island

This architectural rendering by Charles Salagnad demonstrates the decorative ambitions of the Gilded Age. The design shows a grand staircase wall featuring an expansive pastoral mural—hunters on horseback, figures in landscape, and trees rendered in soft greens and blues. The wooden balustrade with its repeated paneled sections establishes rhythm and proportion. The overlay technique, with translucent paper showing structural elements, reveals the designer's working method: establishing architecture first, then envisioning ornamental possibilities. Such interior designs were integral to the era's mansion construction, where European artistic traditions met American industrial wealth and craftsmanship.