Category: European gardens

The Sunday porch: Belgrade

Cindy at enclos*ure1 Comment

The front porch of an inn* on the Avala road, Belgrade area, Serbia, April 1913, by
Auguste Léon, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Département des Hauts-de-Seine (all three images here).

Two young girls in traditional dress.

These autochromes are three of about seventy-two thousand that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker who was committed to the ideal of universal peace and believed that “knowledge of foreign cultures encourages respect and peaceful relations between nations.”† He was also acutely aware that the 20th century was going to bring rapid material change to the world.

Accordingly, from 1909 to 1931, Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to fifty countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.’”†† The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.

Showing the backs of the skirts and vests.

*On the first image above it is called an auberge (inn), on the others, it is called a maison (house).
†Collections Albert Kahn website. Also, the above photos (A 1 798, A 1 800, A 69 405 X) are © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.
††Words of Albert Kahn, 1912.

A curious scene

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“Women and a child in a garden,” Tarn-et-Garonne, France, between 1880 and 1910, by Eugène Trutat, via Bibliothèque de Toulouse Commons on flickr.

Is the lady with the garden hose threatening the little girl with a shower if she doesn’t sit still for the photographer? An empty threat, almost certainly, since water would ruin those hats. (The young woman in the center does seem to be shrinking back a bit though.)

In a vase on Monday: Artischocke Blüte

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Or artichoke bloom. I bought it on Saturday at the Stuttgart flower market for €4. The directions on the tag said to keep it dry; no water necessary. The easiest “arrangement” possible.


It smells something like honey.

To see what other bloggers have put in a vase today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

In France

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“In a courtyard, somewhere in France (undated),” a photo postcard by an unknown photographer, via pellethepoet on flickr (under CC license). You can click on the image for a larger view.

The flower seller, Chartres

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Le marché aux fleurs, Chartres, France, August 19, 1922, by Auguste Léon, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Département des Hauts-de-Seine.

One of my favorite blogs, It’s About Time by garden historian Barbara Wells Sarudy, is currently posting a series on paintings of flower sellers by American artists. Check it out here.

The autochrome above is one of about seventy-two thousand that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker, between 1909 and 1931. Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to fifty countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.'”* The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.

*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. Also, the above photos (A 33804 S) are © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.