architecture

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Filoli Ballroom

The ballroom at Filoli was one which I instantly recognized, do you? It's the home gym of Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait! The space was restored for the movie along with other parts of the house and impresses everyone who enters it, as it should!The flowers, seen best in the picture at top, were probably the most beautiful in the house. Not an easy feat as each room has a gorgeous bouquet fresh from the garden. The mixture of bright colors in the pale green room with gilded accents was really striking. Forget the Bagues chandeliers modeled on the ones from the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, everyone on the tour noticed the flowers first.The murals are the core of the room. They were completed in 1921 by Ernest Peixotto for the original owner Mr. Bourn after he suffered from a stroke and was unable to leave the house. The murals depict his daughter's beloved castle in Ireland he had gifted to her (Muckross, seen below) which he was unable to visit during his illness.
The maguette or model seen below of the Ballroom was gifted to Filoli after the artist's nephew saw the movie Heaven Can Wait and recognized his family's dollhouse! This scale model of the room was created so that Peixotto could work from his studio in the city and plan out the large scale canvases.
I hope you are looking forward to more of Filoli! Read more about the ballroom's murals on their website; click on 'ballroom' towards the bottom of the page.

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