August, 1 910 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



309 



Decorations and Furnishings for the Home 



By Alice M. Kellogg 



VI — The Arrangement and Hanging of Pictures 



PICTURELESS room lacks decorative in- 

 terest. However complete is the equip- 

 ment for comfort and utility, if the walls 

 have no focussing points at which the 

 attention may be caught and held, there 

 is a sense of something withheld and 

 missing. 



Children are unconsciously very sensitive to their sur- 

 roundings, and if brought up in a home where pictures are 

 recognized as a part of the necessary furnishings, their 

 absence is quickly felt. A child of five years was taken to a 

 country boarding place for the summer, where the walls 

 were of hard-finished plaster, without decoration of any 

 kind. Before the trunks could be unpacked, the child 

 showed evident dissatisfaction with the place, repeating 

 over and over that she did not like it, and wanted to go 

 back to the city. A visit to another house in the vicinity 

 drew forth a different expression from the child, who, point- 

 ing to the walls hung with attractive pictures, exclaimed, "I 

 like this house. Let's stay here, mother!" 



Of the selection of pictures for a home much might be 

 said, with a warning on the over-accumulation of those that 

 are not of permanent value. Frequently one finds in a 

 home an assortment of pictures on hand of varying degrees 

 of mediocrity, some of too ephemeral an interest for pre- 

 serving with a glass and frame, others of so personal a 

 value that they convey no general pleasure. The pursuit of 

 amateur photography has contributed to the too profuse 

 collecting of pictures and the displaying of small, insignifi- 

 cant subjects. A better method for the preservation of 

 prints of this description is their enclosure in books and 



portfolios. When the elimination of uninteresting pictures 

 is not possible, there is still something to be done by a care- 

 ful arrangement and hanging that will, at least, add sym- 

 metrical lines and spaces to the room. 



Large family portraits present difficult problems when 

 they have not been designed for specific situations. 

 More often than not they are misfits, either in size, color- 

 ing or framing, yet for their association it is necessary to 

 give them a prominent position. In a hall or dining-room 

 a portrait seems to find its best surroundings, and over the 

 mantel one of round or square shape often appears to the 

 best advantage. 



The wall spaces around a portrait should be extensive 

 enough to balance the canvas, as in the first illustration, and 

 the attention should not be diverted by smaller, less signifi- 

 cant subjects grouped about it. On a paneled wall of dark 

 wood a portrait, real or imaginary, is a specifically good 

 decoration. In the illustration the best method for hang- 

 ing such a picture, with invisible hooks, is adopted. The 

 choice between hanging a large picture from a center hook 

 with the cord or wire forming a triangle below the ceiling 

 (as in the two illustrations of dining-rooms) and of using 

 two separate cords in straight lines from the picture to the 

 ceiling, can be easily settled from the practical standpoint, 

 which would exact the double security of the latter plan. 

 With pictures of light weight the .first method may be em- 

 ployed, or, a tack may be driven into the wall back of the 

 frame, and the cord made short enough to be concealed 

 by the picture, as in the two side prints of the illustration, 

 "A Group of Prints." 



Old family portraits are often inherited with their 



A well-hung portrait with good 

 wall spaces 



An over-mantel decoration in a 

 drawing-room 



Portraits make excellent dining-room 

 decorations 



