Apple Core, Baltimore

Evergreen House, Baltimore
Photo by John J. Tackett, April 25, 2012, for
The Devoted Classicist blog.

Last Wednesday was the most beautiful day in Baltimore, Maryland.  As a pre-schooler, my first association with the city's name was through the active children's game "Apple Core, Baltimore," a variation on "Red Rover," if I'm remembering correctly.  But now I associate Baltimore with early 19th century classicism.  I was in town to give a talk, A Devotion to Classicism:  The Enduring Popularity in Decorative Arts -- The South, at Evergreen House Museum & Library and was graciously shown some of the city's highlights.

Homewood House, a five-part Palladian villa in inspiration, was built
starting in 1801 as summer house for Charles Carroll, Jr., and his bride,
Harriet Chew Carroll, as a wedding gift from the groom's father,
Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Photo from HOMEWOOD HOUSE,
by Catherine Rogers Arthur and Cindy Kelly.

Homewood, a particularly outstanding example of architecture and decorative arts, is well known because of its having been recorded with measured drawings by out-of-work architects in the depths of The Great Depression for publication in GREAT GEORGIAN HOUSES IN AMERICA to benefit the Architects' Emergency Committee.  The house has been duplicated, to some degree, many times as exposition pavilions and private homes all over the country.  So I was very familiar with the house despite never seeing it in person.

The main floor plan of Homewood.
Image from HOMEWOOD HOUSE
by Catherine Rogers Arthur and Cindy Kelly.

Pictures do not do Homewood justice, however.  Originally located on 130 acres with distant views to the harbor, the siting of the main house and its relationship to the two surviving brick out-buildings, the barn/carriage house and the privy, is quite unexpected.  The scale of the house is not surprising, but the proportions, both inside and out, are even more impressive in person.

The prinicpal front of Homewood, under repair April 25, 2012.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist blog.

An exterior repair project is currently underway.  In stabilzing the entrance portico, grapevine mortar was found behind the marble steps, leading the curatorial staff to believe that there were wood steps first, with the grander marble steps coming soon afterwards.  (The son's insistence on only the finest materials and craftsmanship and the father's reaction to the cost is well-documented).  Also, it was discovered that the portico floor was built on vaults instead of ruble within the foundation walls as expected.  The museum's curator, Catherine Rogers Arthur, graciously showed me the finished attic, now used as administrative offices.  The dormers are not thought to be part of the original design, although they must have come soon afterwards as there was a fireplace.  The Madeira Garret, providing a safe, warm place for the liquor to mellow, is not part of the usual tour but delightful to see as an ususal hold-over from the past.

Wood shingles in a space below the later roof still cover the original rafters.
Photo from HOMEWOOD HOUSE
by Catherine Rogers Arthur and Cindy Kelly.

Also, it was a real treat to be invited to poke my head through a hatch (the advantage of being tall) to see the wood shingle roof in its original configuration below the existing structure, now roofed with sheets of standing seam lead-coated copper.  The original roof had an unusal form intended to collect water for cisterns, but there is evidence that it leaked almost from the beginning.  The second roof was standing seam metal, later replaced by large pieces of slate that proved too heavy for the structure.  During the 1980s renovation, the house was re-roofed in metal.


Homewood in the 1930s with a slate roof.
Photo from HOMEWOOD HOUSE
by Catherine Rogers Arthur and Cindy Kelly.

The interior of the house has been beatifully restored and furnished as part of the Johns Hopkins University museums.  The original estate is now the university's Homewood Campus.

The Carriage House at Homewood as it appeared in 1890.
Photo: JHU Museums.

The brick Carriage House, thought to have originally been a barn, survives with an adapted use by the university.  Although there was also a bath-house, dairy, smokehouse, springhouse, fenced-in well, and icehouse, the brick privy is the only other outbuilding to survive.

The location of the privy at Homewood.
Image from HOMEWOOD HOUSE
by Catherine Rogers Arthur and Cindy Kelly.

The privy, built of brick at the same time as the house but with less refined details, is impressive none-the-less.  The location is unusual, especially when viewed in person, but the siting is apparently the result of a mathematical plan, as shown in the drawing above.

The Privy at Homewood was located to the rear of the Main House,
with the interior divided into two compartments, each with its own door,
presumably for men on one side, and women & children on the other.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist blog.

The interior of the privy is also unusually high-style.  The walls are panelled in chesnut and painted "en grisaille" in imitation of stone as noted in HOMEWOOD HOUSE.  The pits below the seats are lined in stone and could be "sweetened" by the periodic addition of lime to neutralize the waste.

The Privy interior with panelled walls painted in imitation of stone.
The seats are painted white, as is the baseboard,
undoubtedly often repainted for sanitary reasons.
Also note the domed plaster ceiling.
Photo from HOMEWOOD HOUSE
by Catherine Rogers Arthur and Cindy Kelly.

The rear of Homewood during a period of repair, April 25, 2012.
This illustrates one of The Devoted Classicist's principal points of residential design:
all elevations are important.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist blog.

A nearby landmark is the Baltimore Museum of Art designed by John Russell Pope and built 1927-29 with later additions.  A remarkable example of twentieth century classicism, it has an impressive permanent collection that includes the world's largest holding of works by Henri Matisse and several period rooms, all open free to the public.  (Incidently, the museum's very popular restaurant Gertrude's served the best crabcakes I have ever eaten).

William Woodward Gallery designed by Billy Baldwin in circa 1956 view.
The Baltimore Museum of Art photo appears in the catalog to accompany
the exhibit "Baltimore's Billy Baldwin" by James Archer Abbott,
2010, at Evergreen Museum & Library.
(Contact the Evergreen Gift Shop to purchase a copy).

No post on Baltimore would be complete without at least a menion of one its most notable natives, Billy Baldwin.  Although no longer completely intact, the William Woodward Gallery at the Baltimore Museum of Art in the added Woodward Wing (by architects Wrenn, Lewis, and Jencks) reveals a sensitive and interesting approach to presentation.  Intended by benefactor Mrs. William Woodward, Sr., to showcase her late husband's renown collection of British sporting paintings in a setting that more resembled a Georgian country house hall than a typical museum gallery of the time, Baldwin was brought in to design the installation in conjunction with the patron, architect, and museum director. 

Completed in 1956, the catalog written by James Archer Abbott to accompany a 2010 exhibit at Evergreen Museum & Library, "Baltimore's Billy Baldwin," describes the walls and wood panelled wainscot painted in two tones of the same light fawn color, and upholstery fabric in red silk damask on a sofa and arm chair, with oxblood colored leather seats on the Queen Anne and Rococo side chairs.  A single scroll-arm easy/wing chair read as tribute to the departed Mr. Woodward, noted the catalog.  Baldwin personally selected the furnishings with approval from Mrs. Woodward, and it is believed that many if not all may have come from Woodward houses, according to Abbott who has done extensive research on the legendary decorator. The false fireplace with an 18th century English chimneypiece was a concession by Baldwin who generally thought such a feature was a sign of bad taste, notes author Abbott.  Several Persian carpets also added to atmosphere of a private home.  One of the most innovative features, created with the help of Baldwin's friend Joseph B.Platt who designed Hollywood sets, was a recess around the perimeter of the room's dropped plaster ceiling that concealed the illumination that washed the walls with light. eliminating the usually distracting lighting of the time.  Today, the rugs and some of the furnishings have been removed to allow the room to easily be adapted for use for special events, and the adjacent lobby, also designed by Baldwin, is now a catering pantry.

More highlights of The Devoted Classicist's trip to Baltimore will follow in the next post.

Highlights of the Camondo Collection

This is a follow-up to The Devoted Classicist post of August 11, 2011, that profiled a brief history of the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris and presented an architectural survey of its principal rooms.  Here we have some highlights of the collection, all previously comprising the furnishings in the home of the Count de Camondo that is now a museum.

Although most of the furnishings belong to either the final phase of the Louis XV period, the transitional style, or to the Louis XVI period, a pair of encoignures (corner cabinets) on the landings of the grand staircase is a notable exception.  They are attributed to Bernard Van Risen, a Parisian master of Dutch extraction.  The door panels of Japanese black and gold lacquer were probably part of a folding screen and the rest of it of vernis Martin lacquer to match, highlighted with mounts of chased and gilt bronze.

A much-admired circa 1760 table en cabaret (drinks table) is topped with a Sevres soft-paste porcelain top, the table is finished with vernis Martin lacquer decoration that originally matched the porcelain but has now yellowed with time.  It is attributed to a collaboration between marchand mercier Poirier and Roger Vandercruse, who stamped his work RVLC.   The marchand mercier, the merchant of merchandise, played a very important role in 18th century decoration.  Working outside the control of the powerful guild system that restricted craftsmen to working only with the one material with which they had apprenticed, these shopkeepers acted as general contractors, able to have Chinese porcelains mounted with gilt bronze handles and stands, and to have Japanese lacquer panels or Sevres plaques incorporated into furniture.  Simon-Phillipe Poirier is credited with introducing furniture such as this with mounted Sevres elements. Purchased in 1934 from the rue Royale dealer Bensimon, it was one of the count's last acquisitions.

The circa 1780 bureau a cylindre (roll-top desk) by Claude-Charles Saunier in the Grand Bureau is typical of the Louis XVI style.  It is made of oak with veneer panels of flame grain mahogany and ornamented with chased and gilt bronze mounts.



After the 1765 discovery of limousin kaolin at Saint-Yrieix, France was able to produce hard-paste porcelain, such as this garniture by Niderviller consisting of a clock and a pair of vases, circa 1785



This very unusual table en chiffoniere was made by Jean-Henri Riesener and delivered in 1788 for the cabinet interieur of Queen Marie-Antoinette at Saint-Cloud.  Although a trough-shaped top with a high edge indicates its use as a sewing table, the drawer with a leather lid and a silver-plated pen holder also makes it a writing table.

The ebeniste Adam Weisweiler became a master in 1778 and was a favored supplier of the French and English aristocracy.  Rather than using marquetry for decoration, gilt bronze was usually enmployed, as seen in this dessert console.  The marble shelves are backed by mirror and the piece is set against a shallow mirrored niche in the Dining Room.

The leather desk armchair by Jean-Rene Nadal l'Aine was delivered in 1775 for the cabinet interieur of Count d'Artois at Versailles.  (Louis XVI's younger brother, born 1757, survived the Revolution to become Charles X in 1824).

The pair of voyeuses (conversation chairs) in the Grand Bureau were part of a set of four that were commissioned from Jean-Baptiste Claude Sene for the Salon Turc, the game room of the king's sister Madame Elisabeth, in her small Chateau de Montreuil in Versailles.  The grey and white rechampi finish has survived, but the original fabric, with a design of flowers and palm trees on a white ground, has not.

Although the maker of the clock in the count's room is not known, it is a famous model with both Marie-Antoinette and Count d'Artois owning copies.  Known as a clock a l'oiseau (with a dead bird), circa 1780, of chased and gilt bronze, white and blue marble, it is notable for the hands coverd in diamonds.

The exception gilt bronze chandelier in the Grand Salon is attributed to Francois Remond, a favorite supplier of both Marie-Antoinette and the Count d'Artois.  Believed to have originated from the Royal Household, Napolean presented it to the Arch-Chancellor of the Empire for his Parisian residence in 1808.

Little is known of the three-legged center table in the Grand Salon bought from Seligmann in 1900.  Made of chased and gilt bronze with Sarancolin marble, it dates from the end of the 18th century.  A detail of one of the three griffins on the base is shown in the first image.

A pair of circa 1780 vases carved from petrified wood and entwined with chased gilt bronze serpents decorated the cabinet interieurs (most private rooms) of Marie-Antoinette.  In 1789, at the beginning of the Revolution, the queen entrusted her collections of precious objects to Dominique Daguerre, the marchand mercier who had been in partnership with Simon-Phillipe Poirer before assuming the business.  (In 1778, Daguerre had moved to London where he was responsible for Carlton House and Brighton Pavilion decoration).  In 1793, shortly after the execution of Marie-Antoinette, the whole lot was returned to the Nation.  The Directoire put these vases up for sale, with some other objects, in 1798.  And they were known to be sold again in 1841 before joining Count de Camondo's collection.

The silver tureen and try commissioned by Catherine II for Gregory Orloff, 1770/71, was made by Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers de La Tour.  The Soviet government dispersed the magnificent vestiges of the Russian court in the late 1920s and the Count de Camondo was able to acquire several pieces from the same French-made service.

A two-handled milk goblet and its saucer, dating from 1753, are a remarkable example of Manufacture de Vincennes, founded in 1738 to compete with Meissen.  In 1756, the manufacture moved to Sevres, where it remains today. 

This detail shows the Manufacture de la Savonnerie carpet, circa 1740, in the Grand Salon.  Part of the set of ninety three commissioned by Louis XIV for the Grande Galerie of the Louvre, this one, the fiftieth of the series, represents the "Allegory of Air" with four heads representing the winds blowing into trumpets.

The folding screen was an important element in 18th century interior decoration, deflecting drafts and making large rooms more cozy.  This Manufacture de la Savonnerie folding screen of six panels, circa 1735-1740, was made in the older style with tapestry on both faces.  Later screens had crimson cloth on the obverse.

The "Bust of a Black Woman" presented in the Dining Room was acquired in 1932.  About 1781, Houdon was commissioned to create a fountain for Folie Monceau representing a black woman, executed in lead, pouring water on the shoulders of a bather of white marble.  During the revolution, the figures were lost, with the bather eventually being acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in New York.  Houdon had kept a plaster bust of the black woman, however, and later used it in an allegory celebrating the emancipation of the black slaves.  This patinated bronze bust bears the inscription that it was cast by Thomire after Houdon.

"The Shepardess in Love" is one in a series of seven oil on canvas panels and two overdoor panels by Jean-Baptist Huet purchased by Count de Camondo in 1900.  Painted in the second half of the 18th century, the lot came from the Chateau of Benguet, near Mont-de-Marsan. A third overdoor panel, dated 1776, was acquired in 1927, but nothing is known of its provenance.
Bronze played an increasingly important role in furniture in the last third of the 18th century as evidenced by this silver-plated and gilt bronze console with green Egyptian marble.  Designed by Victor-Louis, it was delivered to the royal palace of Warsaw in 1766.
The footstool, circa 1780, was made by Georges Jacob.

The small genre oil painting "Bad Tidings", 1740, by Jean-Baptist-Marie Pierre reflects the love that the Count de Camondo had for the 185h century decorative arts and the representation of the touching reality of everyday life. 

Most of the factual information and all the photos presented in this essay come from the 1991 book The Nissim De Camondo Museum available through The Devoted Classicist Library here.

Camondo, Paris

The Entrance Court of the Nissim De Camondo Museum, Paris.

The Devoted Classicist is sometimes asked to recommend a "secret" place in Paris that can be visited.  As an instructor for a course at Parsons Paris that I developed where all the class sessions were held at historic sites, I took my students to a number of locations not regularly open to the public.  But one of the most rewarding venues requires no special permission, and yet it is not frequently visited by tourists.  The Nissim De Camondo Museum, part of the Musees Et Monuments De France, is an extraordinary destination for all those interested in the decorative arts.

The original construction drawing for the garden facade.

When Count Moise de Camondo inherited the Napoleon III style family home at 63 rue de Monceau in 1910, he razed it and spent the next three years working with architect Rene Sergent to create a residence as a suitable setting for his collection of mostly Louis XVI period furnishings.  The purchase of period boiserie in 1911 determined the height of the windows, and certain pieces of furniture and tapestries warranted special architectural detailing to accommodate them.  While some of the decorative door and window hardware was collected as antique, reproductions were made as needed.  The staircase balustrade was executed in partly gilt wrought-iron by the Bagues firm after the original at the Hotel Dassin in Toulouse.

The prinicpal floor plans of the Nissim De Camondo Museum, Paris.

As currently interpreted, it is not a house museum in the usual sense.  Originally, reproductions were some times employed until the desired antique was acquired.  When the museum was opened, any contemporary pieces added for utility and/or comfort were removed, and the contents are displayed for viewing rather than to reflect a residential arrangement.  So it takes a little imagination to see it as someone's home, and these images show some of the furnishings relocated for a better camera angle.  But it is a remarkable museum experience, none-the-less, and a great treat to visit as it is almost deserted on a typical summer weekday when other museums like the Louvre are packed.

The main staircase, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

Some highlights of the collection will be presented in the next post, but here is a survey of the principal rooms.

The Grand Bureau, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

The provenance of the oak boiserie of the Grand Bureau is not known.  The Aubusson tapestries depict the "Fables of La Fontaine" after Jean-Baptiste Oudry.

The Grand Salon, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

The white and gilt boiserie in the Grand Salon or Salon Dore comes from a townhouse at 11 rue Royale.  The seating suite by Jacob is upholstered with Aubusson tapestries.

The Salon Huet, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

The Salon Huet is named after the famous series of paintings by Jean-Baptiste Huet depicting an arcadian romance.  The white marble chimneypiece come from the Hotel Jean-Joseph de Laborde, rue Lafitte, Paris.

The Dining Room, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

The boiserie of the Dining Room in green rechampi (meaning glazed in various tones) is partly 18th century.



The Petit Salon, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

 The walls of the Petit Bureau are upholstered in a cerise stripe-on-stripe fabric, a replacement of the original in the late 1980s restoration.

The Bedroom of the son Nissim, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

The bedroom of the son Nissim de Camondo features a portrait of his grandfather of the same name and a steel and gilt bronze bed, circa 1790-1795.

The Bedroom of Moise, the Count de Camondo.



The view of the Count's bedroom shows a circa 1775 chest by Mathieu-Guillaume Cramer and a circa 1780 armchair a la reine by Georges Jacob.

The Library, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

The Library of oak boiserie looks down on a private garden adjacent to the house and Parc Monceau beyond.

The Salon Bleu, the Nissim De Camondo Museum.

The Salon Bleu was formerly daughter Beatrice's bedroom.  The color of the silk on the walls is called "the queen's hair".

Sister and brother, Beatrice and Nissim de Camondo, 1916.

Both Moise de Camondo and his wife Irene Cahen d'Anvers were from prominent Jewish banking families.  When they divorced in 1901, the Count was granted custody of their two children, Nissim, born in 1892, and Beatrice, born two years later.  Nissim was a fighter pilot in World War I and was killed in action in 1917.  The death meant the end of the Camondo name.  Perhaps influenced by his cousin Isaac's bequest of his collection to the Louvre which was dispersed among three other museums, Moise's will left the house and the furnishings to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, to be kept together as a collection bearing the name of his son Nissim de Camondo.  The museum opened in 1936 after the Count's death in 1935.  Beatrice, who had married composer Leon Reinach in 1918 and had two children, inherited a large fortune on her father's death.  But she and her familiy were forcibly taken from their home during the German occupation of Paris, and were killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.

All the color photos and the floor plans shown come from the 1991 book The Nissim De Camondo Museum published by the Musees et Monuments de France and sold in the museum bookstore as a guide to the collection. Both English and French versions of the book can be purchased here.

A Maverick's Country House

William Randolph Hearst, shown at age 31 in an 1894 portrait by Orrin Peck, built a still-mighty publishing empire and lived lavishly on a grand scale.  He was an art collector who personally selected and placed every object in his vast collection at the magnificent castle La Costa Enchanted (The Enchanted Hill), San Simeon, California, on the Pacific coast half-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Working for 28 years with Julia Morgan, the first female architect to achieve national prominence, Hearst created a hybrid of informal California traditions infused with English country house sensibilities.  With actress Marion Davies as hostess, media mogul Hearst famously entertained the Hollywood in-set, such Charlie Chaplin and Gary Grant, mixed with the likes of Calvin Coolidge and Bernard Shaw for weekend house parties.

Guests usually arrived by train to the village that consisted mainly of warehouses for Hearst's treasures, the buildings often mistaken for the remnants of a historic colonial mission.  The five mile drive up to The Enchanted Hill complex winds upward giving occassional glimpses of the picturesque massing, disappearing again and again before dramatically arrive at Casa Grande, a castle-like main house with twin towers modeled after the Cathedral at Ronda, Spain.

Hearst had camped and picnicked on the 1,600 foot high hill as a child and continued that tradition until he decided it was time to give up the village of tents for a more permanent building.  There is some question as to whether it was Hearst or Morgan who came up with the idea of utilizing the Spanish colonial style, but clearly both embraced it completely.

The main entrance of Casa Grande combines contemporary limestone and cast stone with historic sculptural fragments.  The statue of "Galatea" by Leopoldo Ansiglioni in the fishpond is just one of many placed around the complex.

An early 1920s sketch by Julia Morgan for the rear of Casa Grande is similar to what was eventually built.

Just as architecturally significant and as fabulously furnished, there are three guest houses, pictured above:  Casa del Mar (House of the Sea), Casa del Monte (House of the Mountain), and Casa del Sol (House of the Sun).  There are two swimming pools.  The outdoor Neptune Pool is the most fantastic one could ever imagine.

Until you saw the indoor pool, located in the separate athletic building, that gives the effect of being in a classical aquarium because of the shimmering mosaic glass tiles.  This view below shows the diving balcony and the more shallow wading alcove beyond.

All the photos shown here are by Curtis Bruce and appear in the wonderfully informative book Hearst Castle, San Simeon with text by Thomas R. Aidala, published by Hudson Hills Press, 1981.  Additional photos, including some shots of the interior, taken by a fellow blogger and reproduced by permission of Hearst Castle, were published in a recent series of posts in the ArchitectDesign blog, at http://architectdesign.blogspot.com/.

As a fan of the Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, an unfair but fictionalized portrayal of Hearst that is none-the-less an incredible film, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the estate some years ago with architect and film buff Emiliano F. Castro.  It is a state park and there are guided tours of the main house and the mini-mansion guest houses.

Victoria Kastner, the historian at Hearst Castle for 30 years, will present "A Maverick's Country House:  William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon" at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Saturday, March 12, 2011, at 2 pm.  There is no charge for the talk with museum admission.  The Devoted Classicist is the President of Decorative Arts Trust which is co-sponsor of the event with The Royal Oak Foundation, so it is hoped that blog readers in the area will be able to attend.