File:American homes and gardens (1909) (17965349078).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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situation, 1 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 Berkshircs for the outdoor beauty and not for the ele- gance and costliness of the houses. Mr. French has de- ^■eloped 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 line; 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 seires 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 hnusc the walls arc plain; on each side of the door is a green trellis that supports clematis; beyond, at the ends, is Virginia creeper. On the step arc two grot£sque marble dolphins, and at the base arc two small red terra-cotta jars, each containing a mimic Scotch pine. A great gray-pebbled circle lies before the door; in the center is a marble block supporting a large yellow-brown pottery jar. The further border of the circle is arranged as an exedra, with a semi-circular scat of concrete with marble ends. In the center are marble steps to a higher pathway, here and at the ends are red pots containing small bushes of pyramid box. Above the steps is a grassed path that pres- ently loses itself in the distant woods. At the beginning it is bordered with peonies, high-growing lilies and tree hydrangeas, which are continued to t\vo stands of clematis and a couple of poplar trees. Then comes an apple orchard, and here the path boniir consists of large ferns; further off these gi\e way to mountain laurel, and hnally, when the path has penetrated the dense wood, the border is low hem- locks. On the left, at the beginning of the path, is the tennis court, so overshadowed by the woods as to be completely without sun in the afternoon. One enters the enchanted space in which all this simple beauty lies through a picket gate in a brick wail, drab painted and overgrown with Virginia creeper. Just without are two shaped hemlocks. On the right is a low stone wall, capped with white marble, above which is a hedge of clipped lilacs. Inside a brilliant flower border of hardy phlox, golden glow, larkspur, poppies, lilies and other gay flowering plants runs to the exhedra and beyond it. The forespace there is arranged with great simplicity but in quite a formal way. On the left is a square of lawn; sunk in it, near the studio, is a small square lily pond with white marble border. The lawn
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The hall, with lis Rne old furnituit

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