The Library by Frederick Frieseke
Audrey at books as food used this lovely painting in one of her Wives and Daughters posts earlier this week and I immediately fell in love with it. Isn’t it a charming room? It is very feminine with all those pastel colours and flowers – even the chairs are delicate. I also love that you step down into the room – different levels always make a house so much more interesting. Caught up as I am in the books of Angela Thirkell right now, this seems like just the kind of room where so many of her characters could spend their days.
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We have a (now elderly) friend who, many years ago, had (with her husband) a lovely house in Sussex in which you stepped down – as in your painting today – into the drawing room. I say “drawing” room as the house, although it had only two downstairs reception rooms, was really more ‘drawing’ room in its formality than a sitting room. It was a large room with windows on three sides (with views of the Sussex Downs and our friends’ garden) and, as in your painting above, the fireplace was on the same wall as the steps down into the room. These steps made the room higher than the rest of the downstairs, thereby making it appear more spacious.
One of my memories of this room is not only sitting with our friends listening to music (they didn’t have a television in this, their country house, only in their London flat) was of the curtains. They were stunning -shell pink glazed chintz but with panels inserted so that when the curtains were drawn there were ‘straight’, ungathered, sections which were paintings in material of birds and flowers. Another memory is how our friends didn’t feel the need to fill the relatively large space with lots of ‘things’. There were comfortable chairs and tables placed close by, a small chiffonier (used as a drinks’ cabinet – nothihg as common as a ‘bar’ for them!) and a writing desk. The room exuded a calm that an otherwise, over-filled room could never achieve.
Oh, you’re absolutely right! Very Angela Thirkell! I would love to spend time in this room…and I would hope to find all the books you’re currently reading on the little white bookshelf when I did!
Audrey
The moment I set eyes on this painting, I had the same reaction. Lovely.
This is indeed a beautiful painting, thanks for sharing!
Yes it is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing here.