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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
8
It
is
unprofitable
to
follow
on
into
the
grandeurs
of
Louis
XIV,
if
one
hopes
to
find
an
advance
there
in
truth-telling
architecture.
At
the
end
of
that
splendid
official
success
the
squalor
of
Versailles
was
unspeakable,
its
stenches
unbearable.
In
spite
of
its
size
the
Palace
was
known
as
the
most
comfortless
house
in
Europe.
After
the
death
of
its
owner
society,
in
a
fit
of
madness,
plunged
into
the
rocaille.
When
the
restlessness
of
Louis
XV
could
no
longer
find
moorings
in
this
brilliancy,
there
came
into
being
little
houses
called
folies,
garden
hermitages
for
the
privileged.
Here
we
find
Madame
de
Pompadour
in
calicoes,
in
a
wild
garden,
bare-foot,
playing
as
a
milkmaid,
or
seated
in
a
little
gray-white
interior
with
painted
wooden
furniture,
having
her
supper
on
an
earthen-ware
service
that
has
replaced
old
silver
and
gold.
Amorous
alcoves
lost
their
painted
Loves
and
took
on
gray
and
white
decorations.
The
casinos
of
little
comédiennes
did
not
glitter
any
more.
English
sentiment
began
to
bedim
Gallic
eyes,
and
so
what
we
know
as
the
Louis
XVI
style
was
born.
And
so,
at
that
moment,
the
idea
of
the
modern
house
came
into
its
own,
and
it
could
advance--as
an
idea--hardly
any
further.
For
with
all
the
intrepidity
and
passion
of
the
later
Eighteenth
Century
in
its
search
for
beauty,
for
all
the
magic-making
of
convenience
and
ingenuity
of
the
Nineteenth
Century,
the
fundamentals
have
changed
but
little.
And
now
we
of
the
Twentieth
Century
can
only
add
material
comforts
and
an
expression
of
our
personality.
We
raise
the
house
beyond
the
reach
of
squalor,
we
give
it
measured
heat,
we
give
it
water
in
abundance
and
perfect
sanitation
and
light
everywhere,
we
give
it
ventilation
less
successfully
than
we
might,
and
finally
we
give
it
the
human
quality
that
is
so
modern.
There
are
no
dungeons
in
the
good
modern
house,
no
disgraceful
lairs
for
servants,
no
horrors
of
humidity.
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