DOI Heft:
No. 313 (April 1919)
DOI Artikel:Wood, T. Martin: The Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21357#0109
The Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town
exquisite shell of old-world masonry. The in-
terior had not had a chance of retaining its own
character, for the old Town House was disre-
garded by the city councillors when it ceased to
be their place of assembly.
The problem before the architect was how to
create suitable accommodation for a collection
of paintings while yet preserving the link with
the past which the exterior architecture of the
building gave. Throughout Mr. Solomon has
tried to obliterate distinction between his own
work and what was left of the interior of the
old building. The original method of pinning
with wooden pegs was adopted in the workman-
ship of doors and panels. Black and white
marble, Dutch brick pavements, old Delft tiles,
fireplaces with blue and white tile skirtings
have been reintroduced. Ceilings of heavy
Indian teak beams now replace the matchboard
which had satisfied the vandals to whom the
house was resigned when the city councillors
ceased to use it. The seventeenth-century fan-
light over the main door, perhaps the work of
Anreith, was retained. New fanlights by local
artist;, challenging comparison with it, have been
put in where necessary. Brass escutcheons are
originals, and Europe has been scoured for old
brass fittings. The idea has been to make the
building entirely reminiscent of the seventeenth-
century Guildhalls of Amsterdam and Haarlem,
yet to allow the imprint of early settlers to show
in the craftwork, in carved fanlights and ebony
and ivory decorations. Old tiles have been relaid
in the lower rooms, and the necessary additional
Dutch tiles were removed from an outdoor
bathroom of a house at Kalk Bay. The brass
lanthorn in the centre entrance hall is copied
from one in a picture by Gerard Dow. At the
top of the stairs, leading to the Hals Room,
the dome is painted with the constellation of
the southern hemisphere in spring, when the
Southern Cross is at its zenith. The front
MICHAELIS GALLERY, CAPE TOWN: THE FRANS HALS ROOM AS DESIGNED BY J. M. SOLOMON, ARCHITECT
93
exquisite shell of old-world masonry. The in-
terior had not had a chance of retaining its own
character, for the old Town House was disre-
garded by the city councillors when it ceased to
be their place of assembly.
The problem before the architect was how to
create suitable accommodation for a collection
of paintings while yet preserving the link with
the past which the exterior architecture of the
building gave. Throughout Mr. Solomon has
tried to obliterate distinction between his own
work and what was left of the interior of the
old building. The original method of pinning
with wooden pegs was adopted in the workman-
ship of doors and panels. Black and white
marble, Dutch brick pavements, old Delft tiles,
fireplaces with blue and white tile skirtings
have been reintroduced. Ceilings of heavy
Indian teak beams now replace the matchboard
which had satisfied the vandals to whom the
house was resigned when the city councillors
ceased to use it. The seventeenth-century fan-
light over the main door, perhaps the work of
Anreith, was retained. New fanlights by local
artist;, challenging comparison with it, have been
put in where necessary. Brass escutcheons are
originals, and Europe has been scoured for old
brass fittings. The idea has been to make the
building entirely reminiscent of the seventeenth-
century Guildhalls of Amsterdam and Haarlem,
yet to allow the imprint of early settlers to show
in the craftwork, in carved fanlights and ebony
and ivory decorations. Old tiles have been relaid
in the lower rooms, and the necessary additional
Dutch tiles were removed from an outdoor
bathroom of a house at Kalk Bay. The brass
lanthorn in the centre entrance hall is copied
from one in a picture by Gerard Dow. At the
top of the stairs, leading to the Hals Room,
the dome is painted with the constellation of
the southern hemisphere in spring, when the
Southern Cross is at its zenith. The front
MICHAELIS GALLERY, CAPE TOWN: THE FRANS HALS ROOM AS DESIGNED BY J. M. SOLOMON, ARCHITECT
93