Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers (Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture)

Back in 1983 I had the privilege of visiting Vizcaya in Miami ,Fla . I honestly felt like I was in a 16thc palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice ! This book captures that same magical quality ,beautifully written an illustrated - I love knowing the full history of it’s origins . In wonderful condition for a wonderful price it arrived safely & quickly ! Thank you ,I am truly delighted & grateful !

This book by two architects that is the story of Vizcaya, the James Deering Estate built in the early twentieth century in Miami as the lavish and sumptuous expression of the great wealth of its tractor-manufacturer owner, is an exceptionally first-class literary production from every point of view that could have a bearing on its subject. Written in the technically precise phraseologies appropriate to architecture and interior decoration, its prose is free of and stands above the contamination that abounds in the otherwise usual debasement of modern literature, and it is illustrated with a landslide of stunningly magnificent photography in both color and black-and-white. But something else with which it is illustrated is what recommended this book to me. I am neither an architect nor an interior decorator, nor has the stuff of those callings ever engaged much of my attention, but as soon as my eye fell on the watercolors painted of Vizcaya by John Singer Sargent when he was a guest of Deering's there in 1917, while I turned the leaves of a friend's copy of the book, I knew immediately as one with a profound attachment to watercolor painting that I must own this book for myself. For although I have held perhaps a hundred Sargent watercolors in my hands in the Metropolitan, Brooklyn and Boston Museums, and seen many more besides in other books, I had never before seen these, as they have lain quietly in private collections without ever being published to my knowledge until now, and they are among the finest examples of Sargent's amazing wizardry in this medium, which defies belief that a human being could have painted them. And the rest of the book is a plus even for one not particularly attracted to matters of residential design or interior décor, for it is a record of an era of refinement, gentility and taste, a belle époque in American history that is gone.

Arrived in wonderful condition and quickly delivered. Thank you!

Highly recommended if you’ve visited or want to visit Vizcaya.

great tHE WHOLE COMPLEX OF VISCANA IS A REAL TREASURE

Most times, I hate studies. All studies, on anything. Scholars are always trying to analyze things, and to determine the hows, whys and whats. Its in the doing, that things get done.

Item was delivered quickly and function as described.

Wonderful history of a wonderful mansion built in the days before condos. A perfect companion to the book on Old Florida.