Dumbarton Oaks in the Spring

Gardens by Edith Wharton's Niece and Pre-Columbian Art

By: Susan Hall - May 05, 2013

The gardens were designed by a pre-eminent American landscape gardener, Beatrix Farrand

Gardens get less formal as they approach a rambling creek at the bottom of the hill.

Andy Cao, a Vietnamese artist with Perrot Studios, designed a Cloud Terrace.

A room designed by Philip Johnson

Jar in the shape of a monkey. Aztec, post classic

John Chyrsostom, the golden-mouthed Saint. Part of the Byzantine collection.

Preparing for the United Nations at Dumbarton Oaks, 1944;

 

In Mid spring, Dumbarton Oaks in the Georgetown section of Washington DC. is particularly lovely. 

Any high school graduate has been exposed to the name in the classroom, in Regents exams, SAT prep and Advanced Placement history exams.  Here the first talks for a new United Nations began. Woodrow Wilson had failed to bring US citizens around to the idea that America should join the world. 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and most politicians of the time knew that the US had to be part of a United Nations organization when the Great War ended. The first meetings to form the UN took place in Dumbarton Oaks in 1944.

The estate was the home of a career diplomat, Robert Bliss and his wife, a patent medicine heiress. 

The gardens first catch one’s attention.  Designed by Beatrix Farrand, terraces step down a steep slope.  The formal designs near the house move into a more natural palette as they approach a creek far below. 

Edith Wharton, Farrand’s aunt, gave her a start in landscape design, introducing her to socially prominent friends.  Farrand designed gardens at the White House and the National Cathedral. J. P. Morgan hired her to design the Morgan Library grounds in New York, where she was a consultant for thirty years. She collaborated with Wharton on the gardens at The Mount. 

On display until the end of the year are Pre-Columbian artworks from museums throughout the world joining the museum’s permanent collection to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Philip Johnson Pavilion.  The art works on display here are each and every one stunning, an exquisite example of its place and period. Few museums hang only the best, and it is a breath-taking experience to look at one masterpiece after another.

Philip Johnson’s extension is a series of hexagons. The ceilings and floors suggest the sun of ancient Indian cultures.

The museum also displays Byzantine art. A large room is used for concerts. 

A jewel in the middle of Washington, beautiful to look at and revealing to behold.