Studio: international art (11.1897)

Revival of English Domestic Architecture

because mediaeval builders employed them, still there is clanger in confusing his essential principles
less are they added to walls already strong enough with those which chance to be also aesthetic. No
to impart a " quaint" or " picturesque " effect. Mr. one who sketches from Nature will deny that a
Voysey employs these buttresses to save the cost Voysey cottage is a far more seemly building for the
of thicker walls for the lower story of his buildings. foreground of a fine landscape than is the average
That they chance to afford pleasant-looking shelters suburban villa with "high art," as commerce
for a garden seat, and break up the wall-surface understands it, proclaimed boldly in every detail,
happily, giving the facade a certain architectural Given a few creeping plants, and some time-
pattern of shadows he realises, and is, beyond stains—that last painting which nature slowly but
doubt, delighted by the picturesque qualities which gratuitously adds to every picture, and the houses
happen to result from their use. Although the he has built fall into the scheme of an English
fact is patent enough from study of the architect's landscape as harmoniously as do the thatched
works, it may be as well to re-state it—Mr. Voysey cottages of a past century. That this quality of
would no more dream of adding a superfluous accord with nature is rare in modern architecture
buttress than he would add an unnecessary panel of needs no examples adduced for proof. A view from
cheap ornament. If, after knowledge of his designs, any railway-carriage window will discover a thou-
you still believe he is purposely eccentric, or de- sand discordant objects of the country. Without
liberately strains after unusual effects, it does but quoting any instances in our own land, who canforget
prove how hard it is for any sincere worker to the perky little French villas which do so much to
express himself that all who run may read clearly, vulgarise the exquisite apple-orchards of Normandy
and that those not sympathetic can realise his in- in the spring, when after a mile of pure Corot, or
tentions. Harpignies, the eye is arrested by a little toy

Unless one approaches Mr. Voysey's designs for "maisonette," which in its trim angularity strikes a
houses with some appreciation of his intention, discordant note at once, as if you perched the latest

thing in Paris hats on one of
the seated Graces of the
pr" Parthenon.

Were the good qualities of
Mr. Voysey's building all told
in this statement, and their

i . ..V .

one claim to artistic approval
rested on their relation to
the landscape around, enough
would be proved to warrant
his claim to a very honour-
able place among modern
architects. For of only a
yery few could as much be
said truly—and one doubts
where in any other case such
economy of money or mate-
rial could also be claimed
for the same works.

But there is another side
—and a very important one
it is. If you study the plans
of his small houses, you will
be amazed to find how liberal
|| i*, is the space compared with

« -^#£m— the cost of the building.

: ■• . fc,.....M*' * You will also discover that

he believes in the importance
of one or two large rooms—-

AN ARTIST'S COTTAGE AT BEDFORD PARK C F. A. VOYSEY, ARCHITECT ^ ^ ig fo ^ m prQ_

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