My Poolboy

Green and Gold,1920

oil on canvas (28,6x43,2 cm)

High Glamour in the Garden of an LA Designer

Kelly Wearstler’s interiors, posted yesterday, are bold and refreshing and reflect a strong Hollywood vibe with a modern-day sensibility that’s perhaps over-the-top by most standards. But the grounds? A perfect take on the very best of the Hollywood-Regency look of yesteryear! I’ve never even considered the idea that Hollywood had a unique landscaping style. Until now. Close your eyes slightly to a soft focus and it’s easy to imagine Joan Crawford swimming her laps in this pool or Rock Hudson entertaining in the pool house beyond! It’s all really, really chic, but not too cool for school. Wearstler did a great job on this home for her young family, but it’s the gardens and pool that take my breath away. In fact, I think I need to take a dip just to cool off!

Image 4 of 8

This famous image, entitled “Poolside Gossip”, was taken in 1970 by the society photographer, Slim Aarons. The setting here is a landmark desert house in Palm Springs, CA, designed by Richard Neutra, who was a champion of the modernism school of architecture. Created in 1946 to be a west coast retreat for the wildly-successful Pittsburgh department store founder Edgar Kaufmann, the house is now considered to be a masterpiece of its genre.

In his careful framing of the house, Aarons clearly understands he is shooting a work of art here and succeeds in capturing it’s inhabitants in such a way that his photo (which went viral in a 1970’s sort of way) likewise became worthy of the “work-of-art” moniker. While he was truly talented, Aarons was as self-promoting as any modern-day rapper, and made a name for himself by what he frequently referred to as, “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places."  Indeed.