Lululaund

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Lululaund around 1900
British Legion hall, 2009.

Lululaund in Bushey , Hertfordshire , was the villa of German-born British artist Hubert von Herkomer . It was designed and built around 1886 and was inhabited from around 1894. Nevertheless, Herkomer noted in his autobiography in 1911:

“It's not finished, and I wouldn't wish that the final touch was done either. The house should always have the opportunity to continue to grow, otherwise the expectation dried up, and with it the greatest charm of life. "

At least two generations earlier, the Herkomer family had dreamed of building a house that would be both an apartment and a memorial to the family. It was only Hubert who was financially able to implement this dream. His father and two of his three uncles took part in this project, which the painter, in addition to his autobiography and family history, also paid tribute to in the triptych The Makers of my House : Uncle John, cabinet maker and wood sculptor like Hubert's father Lorenz , gave up his successful operation in America to manage the construction, and Uncle Anton, a weaver who had settled on Long Island , contributed the hand-woven velvet brocade fabrics based on the nephew's designs.

1882–83 and 1885–86 Herkomer had stayed in the USA twice for several months to give lectures and to paint portraits that had already been ordered. Early in 1886 he portrayed the renowned American architect Henry Hobson Richardson , and as a fee he asked for a design for a house whose floor plan he had already given. Shortly before his death on April 27th of this year, Richardson gave the picture of a four-story castle in the neo - Romanesque style he had popularized and expressly allowed Herkomer to change it at will.

Based on this design, Herkomer commissioned the house, which he named after his second wife, Lulu, who died in 1885. It became Richardson's only building in Europe. The interior was partly furnished in the neo-Gothic style , which the father and uncle particularly liked throughout their lives, but also with elements that echo Art Nouveau . The villa was of a very high technical standard, such as cold and warm water in all bedrooms or electricity from the in-house generator, and offered space for a gallery area, Herkomer's private studio and work rooms. An art school as well as stage and film studios were integrated; the productions of this theater also influenced the later stage appearances of Edward Gordon Craig .

  • Lululaund ~ 1900

  • Electric (and illuminated) doorbell.

  • Lobby.

  • Human sympathy (frieze in the dining room).

  • Dancers . Oil and silk voile.

  • The builders of my house.

The house was often called Bavarian castle by the residents of Bushey , but during Herkomer's lifetime they were very satisfied with the artist's presence: the painting school he founded in 1883 contributed significantly to the economic boom in the previously sleepy rural town Close to London contributed.

In 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War , the mood was different. Officially because of unreasonable operating costs, but also because of the general anti-German mood in the country, most of the structure was demolished. Only part of the portal and entrance area remained and is now part of a meeting hall of the British Legion . It has been a listed building Grade II * since 1978 .

References and comments

  1. ↑ The tower over the entrance was not completed according to Richardson's design because it would have robbed the studio of too much light.
  2. ↑ Herkomer, Lit. The Herkomers Vol. 2, p.231.
  3. ↑ The Herkomers Vol. 2
  4. ^ Lee MacCormick Edwards: Herkomer. A Victorian Artist , Ashgate, Aldershot 1999, ISBN 1-840-14686-9 (p. 119ff)

literature

  • The Herkomers, Neues Stadtmuseum, Landsberg 1999, 192 pp.

Web links

Commons : Lululaund  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 38 ′ 38.6 "  N , 0 ° 21 ′ 32.5"  W.