File:American homes and gardens (1909) (17530616224).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar61909newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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AMERICAN HON
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The terrace front overlooks the lawn, with a marvelous view beyond Thebi situation, a house that belongs here. It is very well studied, but with that supreme care that gives no hint of it. Now that it has been built one realizes that any other sort of a house than this would have been impossible in this situation, and, one may also believe, quite impossible of occupancy by the distinguished artist whose loving care and fine apprecia- tion of the beautiful has embowered the house with grounds and plantings of unusual interest and beauty. Notwithstanding the importance of the house in any coun- try region, it is but the simple truth to say that one lives in the Berkshires for the outdoor beauty and not for the ele- gance and costliness of the houses. Mr. French has de- veloped this idea with singular beauty and complete success. There is no vast estate decoration, no formal gardening in an architectural sense, but, what is very much more delight- ful, a multitude of interesting spots and unexpected beauty. some of them related to each other in a connecting sense, some seemingly sporadic, yet all distinguished by an har- monious feeling for beauty that is at once distinctive and penetrating. In short, the mind of the artist, his creative sense, his feeling for beauty, his love for nature are abun- dantly apparent at every point. This is the supreme quality of this beautiful estate, a quality as rare as it is fine; for one realizes, as one wanders through these grounds, that here is something beyond the unusual, and actually in the realm of the artistic. Beyond the house is the studio. This is a rectangular building with lofty windows and high, shingled, skylighted roof, carrying a central louver. On the north a lower part serves as a reception-room. Here, in the center, is a door- way, with a high glazed semi-circular tympanum rising above the cornice. As in the main house the walls are plain; on

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