How is it possible that these two vastly different homes belonged to the same man?!
Top two images: Wyntoon, the summer retreat of William Randolph Hearst, Northern California. The murals are by Willy Pogany, an artist fashionable in the 20s. What I'm most curious about is the "grown-up Hansel and Gretel village" that apparently exists on the same site, according to the book from which these scans were taken. Said village was built by Julia Morgan and commissioned by Hearst after the original Rhenish castle his mother had built burned to the ground. This house is beautiful, but a grown up Hansel and Gretel village??? Seriously??
Bottom image: The famous Hearst Castle, located in San Simeon, California.
Scans from Summer Places by Brendan Gill and Dudley Witney, 1978.
1 comment:
It's like he envisions these fantasy worlds and then he has enough money to make them completely true, whether it's a fairy tale house in the forest or a glitzy faux Greek palace that looks like it belongs to a drug dealer.
I fully expect one of the Hearsts to create an actual, for real, ginger bread house at some point, or possibly a castle with a retainer who is paid to act like Dracula.
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