Sculpture and Kees Verkade

Ssshhhh!

The lovers are meeting.

Again.

Can you see them?

photography by Jacques Dirand

Where?
On the right. Up the stairs. In the trees.
Over there.

All photography by Jacques Dirand

The September Veranda magazine features a French country estate, "Chateau du Tertre." It's in the Bordeaux area.  Of course the focus is on the house, but the gardens and sculpture by Kees Verkade are what you should see.

The work is lovely. The siting of the work is brilliant.
It's wildly romantic as the context of the lovers will change with every season.

Mr. Verkade's intimate pair of lovers, "Invitation" is a short distance from the house, within sight but slightly removed, sited in a formally pruned grove of trees. Shown here in the height of spring/early summer.

Close your eyes and see them in the fall with the trees loosing their leaves. Now see them clearly, unsheltered, in the winter. The art is inspired, gentle and understated but formal setting lets nature and the garden do the heavy lifting. You can't see the art without also understanding the context of them meeting in "the woods". The mood of the art changes with each change of light and weather.

Another sculpture, a bathing figure, unattributed but possible by Verkade, is framed by a simple box hedge and anchors a long reflecting pool near the house.

Most of us do not have a chateau in France, but we can use good ideas in our own small gardens when siting sculpture.