Edward Hopper c. 1951 Rooms by the Sea; image courtesy of Artinvest2000We know what we like when we see it, but don’t always know why we like what we like.  In The Architecture of Happiness Alain de Botton ventures a theory to explain this attachment to an object, an artwork, or a building.  He writes, “To describe a building as beautiful…suggests more than a mere aesthetic fondness; it implies an attraction to the particular way of life this structure is promoting through its roof, door handles, window frames, staircase and furnishings. A feeling of beauty is a sign that we have come upon a material articulation of certain of our ideas of a good life.”  I would amend de Botton’s theory only slightly, to suggest that what we recognize as beautiful taps into our reveries of a desired life, both remembered and anticipated.

I have repeatedly found this “material articulation” in paintings, prints, digital montages, and photographs of interiors.  The domestic realm as depicted by Pieter de Hooch and Johannes Vermeer in the 17th century, Vilhelm Hammershoi toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Edward Hopper in the mid-century, and Jeffrey Becton, Alanna Fagan, and Abelardo Morell today capture something universal: the dreamy longing we feel for a home of an idealized past rife with imagined possibilities. It's a life full of enticement, prospect, refuge, even hints of potential peril or mystery -- the same characteristics that define the best residential architecture.

de Hooch and Vermeer’s nostalgic anticipation

Pieter de Hooch c. 1658-1660 A Mother and Child with Its Head in Her Lap (A Mother’s Duty); image courtesy of Lines and ColorsIn “A Mother and Child with Its Head in Her Lap (A Mother’s Duty)” c. 1658-1660 Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch sets a layered stage of everyday home life in which the mother and child are almost incidental to the scene.  They are busy, faces turned, at nearly middle distance, involved in the child’s grooming in the soft, warm light of a tall window off to the right.  Our attention, like that of the dog sitting with its back to us, is drawn past them and the shelter of the built-in bed in the front, tiled room, through the open door and interior side-lite, toward the direct light cast on the floor by the half-open Dutch door washed in daylight, and the transom window above it, to the bucolic realm implied beyond. 

De Hooch invites us to enter a familiar scene, depicting an incidental moment in which a child or an imagined self is cared for, and to pass by, en route to something perhaps more tantalizing and unknown beyond it.  Is this a memory or a dream of what may come?  Or both? 

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If I had backed farther away when capturing this photo, you might more easily recognize this oft-photographed home. But, then the image wouldn’t appear as Hopper-esque. More importantly, cropping closely helps illuminate all that is going right with the fundamentals of this dreamy dwelling.

A simple palette of white on white on white sets the quiet tone. Delicate, attenuated columns appear taller than they probably are, creating a porch that perhaps feels loftier than it is. The end wall likewise appears slender and tall, despite its mere one and one-half story height. The overall effect lends this home poise beyond its modest stature. 

Honest building materials and details -- woven side-wall shingles, red-cedar roof shingles, exposed rafter tails, wooden ovolo-edged porch gutters, square-stock balusters -- perform and delight. Landscape materials of driveway shells, a brick footpath, and a white-cedar deck beyond palpably suggest the use each serves.

Ending the porch roof in a hip brings it to a considered end, much the way a hand-drawn line, ending with weight, communicates an intention. Surrounding the porch with a low balustrade creates a semi-enclosed space better suited to containing a front bench than one without a railing. Keeping the front porch a single step above grade makes it approachable. Subtle design gestures make a difference. So, too, does a plum site…

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

a favorite garden from the Newport Secret Garden Tour years agoRecommended upcoming New England tours

Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill (Boston, MA) Thursday, May 19, 2011 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Concord Museum 21st Annual Garden Tour (Concord, MA) Friday-Saturday June 3-4, 2011 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Gardens by the Sea (Stonington, CT) Friday- Saturday, June 10-11, 2011 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Farmington/Unionville Friends Kitchens and Gardens Tour (Farmington/Unionville, CT) Saturday, June 11, 2011 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Guilford Secret Garden Tour (Guilford, CT) Saturday, June 11, 2011 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Newburyport Annual Garden Tour (Newburyport, MA) Saturday-Sunday, June 11-12, 2011 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

New Castle Village Walk & Garden Tour (New Castle, NH) Sunday, June 12, 2011 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Lyme and Old Lyme Garden Tour (Lyme and Old Lyme, CT) Friday-Saturday, June 17-18, 2011 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Portsmouth Pocket Garden Tour (Portsmouth, NH) Friday, June 17, 2011 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm and Saturday, June 18, 2011 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

South End Garden Tour (Boston, MA) Saturday, June 18, 2011 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Newport Summer Secret Garden Tour (Newport, RI) Friday-Sunday, June 17-19, 2011 10:00 am - 5:00 pm

Hidden Treasures of the Berkshires Garden and House Tour (Richmond and West Stockbridge, MA) Saturday, July 9, 2011 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Willows Garden Stroll (Salem, MA) Saturday, July 9, 2011 10:00 am - 4:00 pm and Sunday, July 10, 2011 noon- 4:00 pm

Provincetown Art Association and Museum Secret Garden Tour (Provincetown, MA) Sunday, July 10, 2011 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

Pittsfield Garden Tour (Pittsfield, MA) Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:00 am – 4:00 pm and Sunday, July 17, 2011 noon – 4:00 pm

Camden Garden Club House and Garden Tour (Camden, ME) Thursday, July 21, 2011 9:30 am - 4:00 pm

Private Gardens of the Kennebunk’s Tour (Kennebunk, ME) Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Nantucket Annual House & Garden Tour Wednesday, August 10, 2011 11:00 am - 4:30 pm

The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

What is the pull of this entry on me? I’ve been photographing it through the seasons. Is it the subtly muted, worn, putty-colored palette with hints of faded reddish brown, grey and ochre? Is it the way the dappled light dances across it, skipping a beat here and there, lingering long enough to cast a dramatic fence-post shadow? Is it the finely wrought detail of the minute dentils on the pediment, the delicate flutes on the pilasters, the pleasing gentle curve of the crown moldings? Is it the no-nonsense aged granite steps bordering the old brick sidewalk? Is it its direct, bold, symmetrical street-side stance? Yes, it’s all those things and more.

Somehow I feel like I belong to this entry and house as well as so many treasured others I find on the streets of New England. We all belong to these houses, not they to us.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast