Catalogue entry
- Landscape
: - Sites, USA
:
The studio which Theodore Pitcairn had built for Philippe Smit was part of an architectural complex comprising farm buildings and further away the studio (fig. 1) near the Pitcairn house "Dientjehaeme" (fig. 2). The architectural firm Meller, Meggs & Howe was freely inspired by the rural French style for the farm (fig. 3) and by the Roman style for the studio, while still respecting the traditional appearance of Pennsylvania barns. Some period architectural elements acquired in Europe by Theodore Pitcairn were integrated into the building. Today the studio serves as a chapel for the Lord’s New Church.
Despite the generous intentions of his benefactor, Philippe Smit never felt at ease in Bryn Athyn. Already in 1928, he wrote to his friend René Massé : "[…] Nous sommes deja deux mois en Amerique/ et je souffre d’une nostalgie je ne/ pourrais pas vivre ici oh oh comme/ je manque la nature ici avec ça [sa]/ poetique ambiance, ce pays est dure/ sans tradition, un réveur ici c’est/ un fou [...]" [sic] (... We have been in America already for two months, I am suffering from nostalgia, I could not live here, oh how I miss nature with its poetic ambiance, this country is hard, without tradition, a dreamer here is a fool ...) (Philippe Smit 1928e).
