I worked very hard this weekend, and got all of my books onto their shelves (and there isn’t an inch of shelf space to spare!), copied all of my files off of my old desktop computer, and pulled the deskosaurus into place in the study, which made it possible to lay out my Turkish carpet. I did lots of other work too–but this is about the study.
Here is a gratuitous shot of the loveliest books I own, a completely set of the Waverley novels, published in 1903 by Thomas Y. Crowell. You see that they are crumbling–I doubt I could read them. But they’re so very very pretty.
And here is a fragment of the study carpet, as viewed over the edge of the deskosaurus. And in need of vacuuming.
So you see that the study can go several different ways, at this point. No matter what I do, it is going to be a “dippy Colonial dedicates room to books” kind of look. There are different kinds of dippy Colonials, though.
First, I could–if I so chose–be a “country squire” and cover the walls with nature prints, like these by Audubon. I think this look is a little masculine and really… I cannot pretend my house is in the country.
Second, I could pick up the Turkish carpet theme and be a “dippy Colonial scholar come home from world travels” by putting up Jean Leon Gerome’s oriental paintings. I dunno. It reminds me very strongly of the local Mediterranean restaurant. I do have lots of curios that would go well, but… let’s move on.
Third, and you can tell this is my favorite because I’m bothering to post the paintings here, I could go with “Enlightenment Colonial who enjoys nature and expresses it with paintings.” Except, do you know what’s extraordinary? My two favorites from this category, Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt, were both American. Which isn’t really the same as Colonial.
My very favorite naturalist painting of all time, The Autumnal Woods by Thomas Moran:
Another by Thomas Moran:
And one by Bierstadt, just for variety:
Happy thoughts, indeed. I like them. What do you think?
