One enters the estate via a long drive with an allee of trees (seen at the top of the map below) before reaching the entry court, seen below with a #3 at the English gates.Unmarked on the map, directly behind the gates from the house is a beautiful marble fountain with a fairy-tale like tower in the background.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Nemours water tower
Nemours as an estate in a relatively undeveloped area had to be self-sufficient, like many country houses of the time (and today no doubt).
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Nemours
As some of you guessed correctly, last weekend I visited the stately Nemours mansion outside of Wilmington, Delaware.Built by the industrialist, Alfred I. Dupont, in 1909, the mansion was designed by the prominent New York firm of Carrere and Hastings. The French Beaux Arts styled house was loosely based on the Petit Trianon. On the main facade you can find a stretched out and enlarged version of the western elevation of the villa with a roof plopped down on top and wings to either side.
Dupont had a local contractor build the estate, much to the chagrin of the architects but he was always concerned with using local labor and materials. Much of the stone used for construction came from the actual building site. Designed on a symmetrical axis, beautiful views exist from the main house down through the gardens (inspired by Versailles that I will post on next week) of the reflecting pools and colonnade.
While interior photography was not allowed, I am able to share with you what I noticed on the exterior of the house. Pairs of gracious Corinthian columns grace the front facade.The scale of the place is immense which thanks to a very balanced design isn't instantly recognized. Notice the size of the front porch columns next to the furniture!Doesn't your house have the building date inscribed?The front terrace contains only a fragment of the many urns found throughout the grounds, all filled with beautiful flowers.
The southern side of the house features some beautiful trellis work and green & white striped canvas awnings. Yes, that trellis is flat against the house with some great use of false perspective!
Also located on the south is a neoclassical limestone pavilion which houses the plant (and bird!) filled morning room; probably my favorite room in the house! It was also the favorite room of Jessie Ball Dupont (Alfred's 3rd wife) and where she spent most of her time. Jessie died in 1970 and the house was eventually converted to a museum.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Rodin Museum
I spent this past long holiday weekend in lovely Philadelphia and while there visited the Rodin Museum.Designed in 1929 by one of my favorite architects, Paul Cret (Here and Here), the museum and garden were built to house the largest collection of Rodin's work outside of Paris, collected by Jules Mastbaum.
Located right on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the heart of Philly's City Beautiful movement area, this beaux arts neo-classical styled building graces a lovely green plot and garners quite a lot of attention with Rodin's famous "The Thinker" standing guard!
A replica of the ruined facade of the old Chateau D'Issy graces the front of the garden, providing a gateway into the museum. Rodin had installed the chateau's facade in his own garden in Meudon, France.Inside the courtyard, gravel paving, fragrant lavendar and shade trees seperate you from the busy parkway outside. Shallow steps gracefully bring you up to the recessed entry through Doric columns.
While no longer the main entrance to the museum, Rodin's "Gates of Hell" -originally designed for the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris - still stand outside despite being his most important work of art. Rodin worked on this doorway, which incorporates more than 100 separate figures, from 1880 until his death in 1917.
The movement in this piece was really incredible and lifelike.
One of his most famous sculptures was actually a study for this gateway, The Thinker (1880-1882).
Cret included a number of his own sculpted designs such as these bronze lion heads on the entry doors flanking Rodin's gates.
This was a period in Cret's career where he was transitioning from the Neoclassical design favored by the Beaux Arts into a more streamlined, Art deco style seen in these light fixtures below.
No one did it like Cret in my opinion! Following a discussion with a friend, no great building has a forgotten 'back side'. For example, above is the 'back' of the Rodin museum; better than most front facades, wouldn't you say?The Rodin museum is currently at the end of an intensive restoration but will be open to the public in the spring of 2012. Until then, the gardens are still open for viewing.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Stone houses of Greenwich
I spent a day in Greenwich, Connecticut a few weeks ago (more on that later) and I wanted to share with you some of the amazing houses that I saw driving around.
Many of the houses were built of stone and redolent of English country houses, a look I love, and is suited to the posh greenness of Greenwich.Even the walls surrounding many of the estates ( not mere houses, surely) are also built of stone, whether finished and dressed or rubble walls. Perhaps my favorite use though was on this Victorian house in the village with intermixed painted wood shingles and rubble stone.
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