A watercolor study for four garden designs drawn in perspective. All four designs are concentric squares featuring two large X’s bound by a square at their center. Top left: An outer edge of light green grass surrounds low square hedges alternating in light and dark green. The hedges total five on each side for a total of sixteen. Inside the hedges is another border of grass surrounding two yellow X’s with red fill and a black diamond at center. A walkway surrounds the garden and is bordered by a tall hedge in the background. Top right: Alternating small red and green rectangular plant beds surround the outer edge. A light green hedge of greater height than the surrounding beds pops up inside. The hedges are divided at each center point. At the same height two wooden X’s are bound by a wood square then red square. The X’s are filled with black and a red diamond at center. Bottom left: Alternating red and black rectangles surround the outer edge. Inside a gray walkway cut through with a red line at the center of each side. Each red line connects to a red box at the center that surrounds two white X’s filled with black. Bottom right: A narrow square of grass with equidistantly planted sphere-shaped hedges form the outer border. A gray border and two large gray X’s are at the center of the garden filled with light green grass.

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See more objects with the tag perspective, preparatory, vegetation, gardens, squares, geometric, garden design.

Object Timeline

1912	Work on this object began.
1919	Work on this object ended.
1991	We acquired this object.
2013	We photographed this object.
2015	We photographed this object.
2018	We photographed this object.
2021	We exhibited this object.
2024	You found it!

Drawing, Four Studies of Garden Parterres

This is a Drawing. It was designed by André Vera and Paul Vera. It is dated 1912–19 and we acquired it in 1991. Its medium is brush and watercolor, black chalk, graphite on off-white laid 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

Its dimensions are

23.6 × 31.6 cm (9 5/16 × 12 7/16 in.) Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18 in.)

It is inscribed

In graphite, center and right center: number sequence counted off in 10s; inscription in French, Ne placer la nouvel parterre/une feuillage tis --[illeg.]/par example

Cite this object as

Drawing, Four Studies of Garden Parterres; Designed by André Vera (French, active Paris, 1881–1971), Paul Vera (French, active Paris, 1882–1957); France; brush and watercolor, black chalk, graphite on off-white laid paper; 23.6 × 31.6 cm (9 5/16 × 12 7/16 in.) Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18 in.); Museum purchase from Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program Fund; 1991-58-27

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/2Dw2v/
Accession Number 1991-58-27
Object ID 18636647