32 
House £5? G ar d e n 
DECORATIVE AMERICAN LANDSCAPES 
How to Select Both Old and Modern 
Types for a Room 
PEYTON BOSWELL 
H OME BUILDING is now a very big sub¬ 
ject in America, and the problem of select¬ 
ing paintings for purposes of decoration is re¬ 
ceiving the thought of thousands of men and 
women. For some rooms owners will prefer 
figure subjects; for others landscapes will be 
required. It is the purpose of this article to sur¬ 
vey the latter field and to set down certain 
facts and make certain classifications which will 
help those who may desire some measure of 
guidance. 
In selecting landscapes as decorations for 
rooms, two distinct elements may be taken into 
consideration. One is the element of association 
between the painting and the rest of the room, 
or, as it might be termed, historical fitness. The 
other is the element of light and atmosphere. 
The former is more or less artificial, and depends 
on sentiment. The latter is predicated on prob¬ 
lems of color and harmony. Both are impor¬ 
tant, but the element of light and atmosphere is 
fundamentally so. 
English Oak and Paintings 
It is historical, or sentimental, fitness that 
makes a Hobbema, a Ruysdael, or any other 
picture that follows the old Dutch landscape 
tradition, so altogether appropriate in an Old 
English interior or in a modern adaptation of 
an Old English room, either oak paneled or half- 
timbered. England in the old days greatly 
admired Dutch landscapes, and literally thous¬ 
ands of them were installed in the mansions of 
the great not only before Cromwell’s time but 
“The Birches of Montigny ,” 
by Henry G. Dearth , a canvas 
of diaphanous colors that 
could find place in a salon. 
Courtesy of the Folsom 
Galleries 
“Lan ds c ape,” 
by Ralph A. 
Blackelock, the 
tragic master of 
the old American 
landscape school. 
Courtesy of the 
Reinhardt Gal¬ 
leries 
“The Golden 
Hour,” by Wil¬ 
lard L. Metcalfe. 
A pulsing canvas 
such as this en¬ 
livens a living 
room. Courtesy 
of the Milch 
Galleries 
after. Because they seemed to symbolize the 
aristocracy, the Leveller and his Ironsides de¬ 
stroyed hundreds of them in the few years fol¬ 
lowing the execution of Charles I, who was him¬ 
self perhaps the greatest patron of the arts of 
the Netherlands that England ever had. But 
in the reaction that set in with the Restoration, 
Dutch paintings were more eagerly sought than 
ever. Their richness and their contrasts of light 
and shade seemed perfectly to accord with the 
color and texture of English oak. 
It is the element of association, even more 
directly applied, that makes a landscape by 
Constable, Gainsborough, John Stark, Old 
Crome, or even as late a man as Vincent, fit 
perfectly into an English period room. 
Using the Americans 
But American home builders have little to do 
with Hobbemas, Ruysdaels, Gainsboroughs and 
Constables, for these are collector’s paintings. 
They are not bought as decorations for rooms. 
On the contrary, the man fortunate enough to 
own them is just as likely as not to ransack the 
world for a room that gives them a proper set¬ 
ting. They rank so high as gems of art that 
they command, rather than serve, any scheme 
of decoration. 
