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Photo courtesy of chictip.com
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While contemplating the theme and title of this feature, one phrase continued to dominate, persistent as a determined toddler: A Room With a View. And if the view (or lack of it) altered the life of Lucy Honeychurch, surely it's worthy of acknowledgement in your own home.
As tasseled, Victorian-era velvets disappeared from our windows, designers looked to swags, valances, blinds (both mini and not), plantation shutters, or plain old curtains to “dress” a window. For awhile, we even used the window as an element for further display, observing the basil or knick-knack poised in a greenhouse window. (A trend that thankfully followed Victorian draperies into design history.)
But before you begin thinking about dressing the window, consider if it’s even necessary. If you choose your real estate carefully—coastal or mountain properties come to mind—you may opt for no window treatments whatsoever, unless the long lenses of the paparazzi are a concern. Can the view stand alone as art? Then leave it be—it’s already framed and hung, no level or hammer required.
The concept of a window view as art is hardly new. A 2001 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring more than 40 artists from the early 19th century, was focused entirely on the subject. So even if you don’t have the real thing just outside your door, you can have the vision on your wall. (Van Gogh’s Wheat Field Series might be a good choice, if you’re OK with a view from the asylum…)
The German poet and philosopher Novalis, quoted in the Met’s catalog, said, “Everything at a distance turns into poetry: distant mountains, distant people, distant events: all become Romantic.” Even if your horizon stops at the neighbor’s garage roof, a small vase of flowers on the sill might be all you need to create the illusion of your very own flowering orchards.
The work of Caspar David Friedrich, featured in the Met’s 2001 exhibition, "Rooms with a View." Photo courtesy caspardavidfriedrich.org.
Curl up and enjoy the view from a $14 million home in La Jolla, Calif. Photo courtesy beautifullycoastal.com.
The view as art: Van Gogh’s View from the Window of Vincent’s Studio in Winter. Photo courtesy saleoilpaintings.com.
Through the simple window of St. Tuqual’s church on Herm Island. Photo by Joan Lerch.
