Category: art

Life in gardens: animal court

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Jane Addams Housing fountain, via LoC“Sculpture and children in fountains – Jane Addams Houses,” between 1938 and 1940, Chicago, Illinois, by Peter Sekaer for the U.S. Housing Authority, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Jane Addams Homes public housing project was built in 1938 under the New Deal Public Works Administration Act. The “Animal Court” figures were carved from limestone by Edgar Miller.

The sculptures still exist, although the buildings around them were razed in the early 2000s.  As of September 2013, they were in storage awaiting restoration and a new home.  They may eventually return to a place near their old location, as part of a National Public Housing Museum.

There are more photos here, at the blog Playscapes.

Life in gardens: tree swing

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Study with swing, 1910, G. Kasebier, via LoC“The swing, a study of Mrs. Turner and her children,” 1910, by Gertrude Käsebier, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Mrs. Turner is probably Käsebier’s daughter, Hermine, who took over her mother’s photography studio in the 1920s.

Tuinhuis garden

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The tuinhuis or ‘garden house’ (shown in the fifth slide above)  is a small cafe on the grounds of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The surrounding garden was a very pretty place to rest after a long ramble around parts of the city center and the Museumplein, during a one-day travel stopover last week.

About half the area is composed of wide gravel paths around a simple boxwood parterre — which is filled with cottage annuals like variegated nasturtium and lime green flowering tobacco.

On the other side, white marble (I think) outlines the narrow planting beds.  Currently, you can see a free exhibition of Calder sculptures in the garden, as well.

Continue reading “Tuinhuis garden” →

Life in gardens: more chickens

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Hugh Magnum chickens, via Duke on flickrChild with white chickens, taken between 1890 and 1922, by Hugh Mangum, via David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University (on flickr).

Mangum was a traveling photographer who worked along a rail circuit in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. You can see his portraits here.

Life in gardens: Ruyl family

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Ruyl family, via Library of CongressBeatrice Baxter Ruyl on the chaise lounge with Barbara, and Mr. Ruyl seated with Ruth, 1913, by F. Holland Day, via The Louise Imogen Guiney Collection, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The photo was probably taken at Five Islands, Maine, where both F. Holland Day and the Ruyl family had homes.

Day was part of the pictorialist movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Its photographers posed or otherwise manipulated their images to create ‘fine art.’

Baxter Ruyl illustrated children’s books and also drew for the Boston Herald. She frequently served as a model for Day and Gertrude Käsebier.

Happy Labor Day weekend in the U.S.!