Its Friday everyone! Time to plan that weekend of fun in the sun!
Today’s movie involves a gorgeous mansion in Delaware that was built during the period of architecture known as the Beaux Arts period. It is one of my favorite publicly-accessible mansions, and I can’t wait to show it to you! The Beaux Arts style was based on ideas taught at the legendary École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris, and it flourished between 1885 and 1920. The style combined classical Greek and Roman architecture with Renaissance ideas, and during its time it was the favored style for grand public buildings and opulent mansions.
Fine arts decor is easily recognizable by five distinctive traits:
- order
- symmetry
- formal design
- grandiosity
- elaborate ornamentation.
Here’s an example of French Beaux Arts style ~ the Paris Opera House. Isn’t it majestic?!
A style this grand was bound to cross the Atlantic over to America! It was very popular here from 1880 to 1920. The Beaux Arts style introduced planned neighborhoods with large, showy houses, wide boulevards, and vast parks. The style was widely used for public buildings like museums, railway stations, libraries, banks, courthouses, and government buildings.
Now let’s talk about that gorgeous mansion that I promised to show you! It is the magnificent Alfred I. DuPont’s home, Nemours Mansion and Gardens in Wilmington, Delaware. This mansion is one of the most recognizable houses in America from the Beaux Arts period. DuPont commissioned it for his second wife, Alice. It’s a 3,000-acre plot of land in Wilmington, Delaware. DuPont named the estate “Nemours”, after the French town that his great-great-grandfather represented in the French Estates General. It has all the hallmarks of a glittering palace! The home’s gilded rooms are furnished with fine period antiques, rare tapestries and paintings dating to the 15th century. The beautifully landscaped French gardens feature a carillon tower and natural woodlands.
After all that historical information, let’s sit back and watch a movie or two!
Christopher and I had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful estate and gardens. It lives up to the cliché “you have to see it to believe it”. Put this on your “must-see” bucket list whenever visiting Wilmington!!
Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend. And don’t forget to keep cool!
Simone
