Macrame Rope Doorways of Kyoto

I am so inspired to do something like this over a hall window at home!  If I see any more before leaving Kyoto I will add them to this post.  The first and last doorways above are in the house museum of the William Morris of Japan----next post!

M. H. Baillie Scott, Art and Soul

Baillie Scott was one of the most well-known architects of the British Arts and Crafts movement, along with Voysey, Gimson, and Mackintosh, and most certainly studied the work of William Morris.  In 1906, in his early forties, he published his opus, Houses and Gardens, which carefully and systematically laid out his philosophy of architecture and interior design, complete with dozens of drawings, floorplans, photographs, and his own watercolor paintings (some of which are reproduced here, all click to enlarge).

I particularly enjoyed this passage from the book's Introduction:  "And so the art of building as practised in modern times is not so much an Art as a disease.  In the early stages of the Victorian era it took the form of a pallid leprosy.  Nowadays, it has become a scarlet fever of red brick, and has achieved a development of spurious Art expressed in attempts to achieve the picturesque, which in its smirking self-consciousness has made the earlier candid ugliness appear an almost welcome alternative.  There is no town or village but is being gradually disfigured by this plague of modern building, and one has almost forgotten that houses have been and may yet be an added beauty rather than a disfigurement on the land."

Nothing like a good rant, eh?  I am reminded of all the quarter acre lots across our country upon which the ugly McMansions of our day have been built.  Will these houses seem much more attractive, even sought after, a century from now?  The leprosy and scarlet fever Baillie Scott alludes to above are now our gorgeous old Queen Anne, Italianate, Stick Style, and Mansard Victorians.  Does time heal all wounds, architectural or otherwise?

(Dan, thanks for lending me this beautiful book.) 

 

Whistler's Amazing Peacock Room, Freer Gallery

 

I had the opportunity to visit the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. this week.  This museum, on the National Mall, is named after Charles Lang Freer who donated his extensive collection of art, including much ancient Asian art, to the Smithsonian in the early 20th century.  In one room of the Freer Gallery is The Peacock Room, which was moved intact from Freer's home in Detroit after his death in 1919.

The story of the Peacock Room is an over-the-top cautionary tale of the perils of contracting with artists.  The dining room was originally constructed by architect Thomas Jeckyll for the shipping magnate (and Pre-Raphaelite patron) Frederick Leyland; it included an elaborate lattice of shelves to display the owner's porcelain and the walls were hung with gilded leather.  Leyland had also commissioned James McNeill Whistler to paint the portrait over the fireplace, "The Princess From the Land of Porcelain" (first pic).  The room was nearly done when Jeckyll asked Whistler for advice on the color of the shutters (see below).  From this point, and with Leyland's approval (who shortly after departed on business), a series a small color adjustments were made to the room by Whistler.

But then Whistler stayed on, becoming increasingly enamored of the alterations he was making to the room (and possibly also of Leyland's wife), including gilding the ceiling and shelving, painting the leather prussian blue, and painting dramatic gold peacocks on the shutters.   Whistler wrote to Leyland saying that the dining room was "really alive with beauty — brilliant and gorgeous while at the same time delicate and refined to the last degree," and that the changes he had made were past imagining. "I assure you," he said, "you can have no more idea of the ensemble in its perfection gathered from what you last saw on the walls than you could have of a complete opera judging from a third finger exercise!" 

When Leyland got the bill for the "expanded" project he did not authorize, he refused to pay and the two got involved in a bitter lawsuit (is there any other kind?).  Whistler's revenge was his final modification to the room, two large peacocks fighting over a pile of silver at the end of room (pic above).  He called the mural "Art and Money; or, The Story of the Room." 

Years later, after Leyland's death, Freer, a long-time patron of Whistler, purchased the room (in 1904) and installed it in an addition on his house in the U.S.   The room is considered by many to be Whistler's greatest creation. 

Would you like some lace with that designer?

Charles Locke Eastlake

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Frank Lloyd Wright

Charles and Henry Greene

Gustav Stickley

Charles Voysey

All these and more at Cooper's Cottage Lace.

Klimt's Golden Kiss and Needlepoint

 The Kiss (1907-08, Oil and gold leaf on canvas)

Is there a romantic anywhere that isn't moved by this painting?  From wikipedia, "The Kiss falls in line with (Gustav) Klimt’s exploration of fulfillment and the redeeming, transformative power of love and art."  Click on it and be dazzled.

You can view the painting at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in Vienna, Austria.  If you'd like to make your own little piece of Klimtian beauty, Candace Bahouth's gorgeous needlepoint pillows are now on sale at Ehrman Tapestry.  They are in a pleasant 10-holes-to-an-inch size.

Voysey's Alice in Wonderland

With Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland now in theatres it seems a good time to post a photo of designer and architect Charles Voysey's beautiful Alice wallpaper designed about 1930.  How perfect would this be in a nursery?  You can buy it from he of all things Voysey, David Bermen at Trustworth Studios.

click to enlarge, the detail is gorgeous

And if you'd like a few pillows to throw around the room, Marie at William Morris Cushion Covers (link in left sidebar) has found some vintage material from The Habitat V&A Collection printed in 1988 which she has sewn up.

And if you are a huge Lewis Carroll fan and have a ridiculous amount of money to spend on something fascinating, check out the celestial constellation globes below (and a more detailed description here).

Tweedledum and Tweedledee as Gemini twins along zodiac
 

Morris in real life - A Jasmine hall

My friend Janet, a graphic designer, has William Morris's Jasmine (1872) wallpaper in her front hall.  Morris used the same paper in his study at Kelmscott House.  It is incredibly welcoming.  This pattern comes in a number of other colorways (and in fabric) which you can see here and below.

Note added later:  The paint is Benjamin Moore Bavarian Cream.

You can find a link to post about push button electrical switches here.