The
concept of the ideal home was one of the platforms of our society and the American Dream. But in the beginning a home was a just a shelter from the harsh
weather found in nature “Nature was not considered a gentle, inspiring force to
be courted…the wall of the house was decidedly a barrier to the outside.” (Wright, 12) This blockade from the outside
world was the ideal home at one time. But from this understanding a home became
many interpretations, as seen throughout neighborhoods and cities. There are Mac-Mansions,
apartments, condos, or just a simple town home. “A man’s house is his art-at
least a house is the nearest to art that most men will ever come.” (Winton, 1) With this the home is specialized and characterized by those who live in it and by those
who see it as what it is a work of art.
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| "Make a Wish Cottage" by Thomas Kinkade |
Thomas Kinkade shows his views of homes, placed in rural secluded areas, surrounded
by surreal aspects of the space around the home. His homes
show a Disney-like sense of bliss with warm colors and perfect landscape. In
this piece entitled “Make a Wish Cottage”, he shows a rustic old cottage
nestled in the woods with flowered bushes and a warm light glow from within.
You can almost see the happiness pouring from the home and the comfort found
within this ideal home. In this portrayal you are in a safe haven from the
outside within a perfect setting.
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| "A Hometown Morning" by Thomas Kinkade |
“A
Hometown Morning” by Thomas Kincaid’s is similar style and feel but this time in
a more crowded dimension where the hues and colors are the same warm blissful feeling. The homes still offer this yellow glow but now we see a whole
neighborhood with a family walking down the street. Depicted is a lively
neighborhood close to a church and even a few pets running through yards with
white picket fences. This is the superb suburb where neighbors are friendly and
welcoming, church is nearby, and everyone knows everyone type of home. "Concepts of the home as a private refuge, a place of peace and inspiration, became something more that abstract images."(Wright, 107)
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"Three Windows" and "House 9" by Charles Ritchie |
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| "Snow" by Charles Ritchie |
In contrast, we have Charles Ritchie, who portrays the home and
neighborhoods in a night setting, where homes show an almost eerie bit of light
that’s not warm or comforting. There is more of a
mysterious sense offered in his paintings. Such as this work entitled “Three
Windows” and "House 9" the homes are barely illuminated with cold dark tones. The houses don’t
give off a haven like feel from the outside but a more cut off from the world
shut in neighborhood.
In "Snow" by Ritchie we see someone looking upon his neighbors from the inside of a home as a barrier from the outside with reflections of what's inside along the window pane. This one lacks any lights on inside homes just light from a street lamp illuminating the few leaf-less trees. Ritchie’s works
relate back to the puritan concepts where “Surveillance of one another was
necessary.”(Wright, 12) His homes show the outside as dark and ominous almost like a warning to leave your sanctuary.
In Hayden, from Kathleen Ann Mackie in speaking of the ideal
home: “home distinguishes “familiarity from strangeness, security from
insecurity, certainty from doubt, order from chaos, comfort from adventure,
settlement from wandering, here from away.” (Hayden,
145) We see in comparison of Kinkade and Ritchie that ideal homes give
security, familiarity, order, comfort, and settlement. We see more comfort from
our perspective from Kinkade’s works but Ritchie shows that his views on the
home are a more dreary approach to some but to him they are representations of
the houses he sees and how he perceives them. His works show more of a fear to the outside and the unknown even within your own neighborhood. Is his home ideal? To some who have a fear of the unknown this is an accurate depiction of their home, secluded, separate, and safe.
Works Cited
Hayden, Dolores. Redesigning the American Dream: The Future
of Housing, Work, and Family Life. New York: W.W. Norton, 1984.
Griffith Winton, A. "'A Man's House Is His Art': The
Walker Art Center's Idea House Project and the Marketing of Domestic Design
1941-1947." Journal of Design History 17.4 (2004): 377-96.
Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of
Housing in America. New York: Pantheon, 1981.
Digital Media
1 comment:
Hello,
Ideal Home is the title of a British home decorating magazine, published monthly by IPC Media, a Time Warner subsidiary.
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