House and Garden 
of many decades have acquired a 
fine green patina. Again no style, 
no ornament, and vet these houses 
are beautiful. Here is a door 
from a very old house which serves 
at the same time as a window. 
The round arch cut into the wall, 
the door frame of plain, brown 
wood, the panes simply inserted 
and divided by graceful muntins : 
no carving, no metal-ornament, 
no peculiar form,—and yet at a 
glance we feel the charm. Do 
we ask ourselves, why we are thus 
impressed, we find that beside 
their simplicity these objects have 
a close relation to their environ¬ 
ment, and with nature. This our 
modern buildings lack notwith¬ 
standing a wealth of ivy in their 
front gardens. The Virginia creeper which 
covers the old crumbling walls and grows as 
it pleases has more artistic power than the 
hand of the most skillful gardener ; and a 
well-planted tree in front of a small house 
gives more tone to the abode than the 
wholesale plastic ornament which one buys 
in a factory to lavish upon the front door. 
A further effect lies in the choice of ma¬ 
terial. A characteristic of the modern build¬ 
ings is that more and more imitations of 
valuable stone are being used. The heavier 
A BRIDGE WITH DIGNIFIED AND 
SATISFACTORY LINES 
AN ATTEMPT AT A £< NATURAL EFFECT” 
IN WOODWORK 
and more elaborate the facades become, the 
more suspicious the observer grows, and 
altogether too often he is right in his dis¬ 
trust of their materials. Only a very few of 
the stone buildings one sees are really of 
stone, and there is something in the true 
man of today that revolts against all this 
outward dishonesty and empty appearance. 
As a proof that there are also good modern 
buildings I point to the house illustrated on 
page 135, which a modern artist, Herr Rich¬ 
ard Beimerschmeidt, has built for himself in 
Munich. It is a plain brick 
house with the walls finished in 
white without ornamentation ; the 
windows are well distributed; the 
roof has been utilized for pictur¬ 
esqueness by changing its level 
and the good lines of the gable 
and the mansard appear to the 
best effect although in the most 
unpretentious way. Wide 
windows give single sources of 
light for the rooms and the 
mullions furnish from the out¬ 
side as well as from the inside 
an excellent decorative element. 
Alas, that a glance at the 
illustration shows the environ¬ 
ment of the house to be in¬ 
sipid, revealing no touch of the 
artist, and without the least 
charm ! 
137 
