Drawing, Design for a Garden with Geometric Parterres

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Object Timeline

1912	Work on this object began.
1919	Work on this object ended.
1991	We acquired this object.
2012	We photographed this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2018	We photographed this object.
2021	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Drawing, Design for a Garden with Geometric Parterres

This is a Drawing. It was designed by André Vera and Paul Vera and drafted by André Vera and Paul Vera. It is dated 1912–19 and we acquired it in 1991. Its medium is brush and watercolor, white gouache, black crayon on cream tracing paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

It is credited Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program Fund.

A bird's-eye view of a formal garden, in dark ink on yellowed paper. Above the design reads 'Berseaux couvers de charmier.' A high rectangular wall of trimmed hedges encloses an interior hedge. For the shape of the inner hedge, imagine an X, then trace around it, curving the line at the intersection and ends of the X. The hedges are pierced with arched tunnels to allow two paths, one horizontal and one vertical, to meet in a fountain court in the center of the garden. The fountain is encircled with eight arched arbors sheltering benches; curving beds of plants and potted topiaries lead out to smaller fountains that sit inside the ends of the X. Below the design, at left, 'D. Marot fec:'. At right, 'avec Privilegie. 11'. At the top of the page is a detail of another garden design with curving plant beds and potted topiaries. The plants are depicted with delicate detail, and squiggling lines suggest the texture of the hedges.

Print, Design for a Garden Parterre of Cut Grass and Colored Gravel, from...
etching on cream laid paper.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
1988-4-17

Print, Title Page, from Nouveaux Livre de Parterres (New Book of Garden Beds)

Print, Title Page, from Nouveaux Livre de Parterres (New Book of Garden Beds)
etching and engraving on white laid paper.
Museum purchase from General Acquisitions Endowment Fund.
1988-4-19

Its dimensions are

18 × 31.7 cm (7 1/16 × 12 1/2 in.) Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18 in.)

It is inscribed

Inscribed in black crayon, upper center: décor de long / treillage

Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for a Garden with Geometric Parterres; Designed by André Vera (French, active Paris, 1881–1971), Paul Vera (French, active Paris, 1882–1957); France; brush and watercolor, white gouache, black crayon on cream tracing paper; 18 × 31.7 cm (7 1/16 × 12 1/2 in.) Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18 in.); Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program Fund; 1991-58-24

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Modernist French Garden: Design by the Vera Brothers.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2Dw2p/
Accession Number 1991-58-24
Object ID 18636641