AA-2026-7A9E03
On the image
A manicured garden pond in the American South displays the kind of horticultural ambition that occupied the leisure class during the interwar and postwar decades—a body of water transformed into a stage for white water lilies and deliberately massed azaleas and rhododendrons in purple and pink, all arranged with the fastidiousness of someone who believed that nature improved dramatically when given a grid. The tall pines and mixed hardwoods beyond suggest a property owner who cleared enough of the native forest to prove he could afford the upkeep, then left enough standing to suggest he hadn't cleared too much. This is the garden of someone comfortable enough to maintain it, patient enough to wait for the blooms, and convinced that a photograph proving its current peak would be taken and preserved. The composition, the Kodachrome saturation, and the density of cultivated specimen plantings point to a private estate garden during the era when such displays were photographed for garden magazines and visiting lists, before the word 'invasive' entered the vocabulary.
Visually related — by likeness
Ornamental Pond with Water Lilies and Flowering Shrubs, circa 1950. 1950–1955. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-7A9E03. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/ornamental-pond-with-water-lilies-and-flowering-shrubs-circa-1950.
@misc{aaAA20267A9E03,
title = {Ornamental Pond with Water Lilies and Flowering Shrubs, circa 1950},
year = {1950–1955},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-7A9E03},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/ornamental-pond-with-water-lilies-and-flowering-shrubs-circa-1950}
}TY - ART TI - Ornamental Pond with Water Lilies and Flowering Shrubs, circa 1950 PY - 1950–1955 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-7A9E03 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/ornamental-pond-with-water-lilies-and-flowering-shrubs-circa-1950 ER -
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