I am so excited to share the Biltmore house with you. It is a gorgeous mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt in Asheville, North Carolina 1895.
This post will be about the house and then I will do another for the gardens.
We went on a girls trip to Asheville, North Carolina. Our first stop was the Biltmore.
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The house is huge according to Wikipedia it "is the largest privately owned house in the United States, at 178,926 sq ft (16,622.8 m2) of floor space and 135,280 sq ft (12,568 m2) of living area." Compare that to my cute little townhouse at 1,400 sq ft and the house I am living in now at 2,176 sq ft,
Here is a look at the house through my eyes.
Atrium
This was the first stop on the tour. It is a gorgeous atrium room. It really is quite breathtaking.
Billiard Room
Everyone needs a billiard room in their house right? I guess if you are up in the mountains of North Carolina you need a place to entertain your guests at your house. Also, look at that ceiling.
Banquet Hall.
This room was impressive. It is really hard to imagine how much money Vanderbilt had to build this home. The fire place was enormous!
I was quite enthralled by the tapestries on the wall. They were made in the 1500s and I was taking an art history class at the time and learning about how people would use the tapestries for art and to keep the house warmer. It was cool to see some 1500 tapestries in person.
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Breakfast room
Two of the paintings on the wall are by Pierre Auguste Renoir. Young Algerian Girl and Child with an Orange.
Monet
These painting by Claude Monet were hanging in the sitting room. Amazing. Vanderbilt collected a lot of great art from the 1800s.
Music room
My favorite part of the music room was the amazing ceiling!
Tapestry Gallery
This was a space for entertaining. It has some wonderful art, including more tapestries and paintings by John Singer Sargent and Giovanni Boldini.
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The Library
The library is stunning. Another amazing ceiling.
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Second floor living hall
This hall has the portraits of the architect, Richard Morris Hunt, one the left and Fredrick Law Olmsted on the right. I got a close up of Olmstead cause it was painted by John Singer Sargent and I am quite fascinated by Sargent. Olmstead is interesting too. He was the premier landscape architect at the time. He designed Central Park in New York City in 1857-1876.
The Waltz by Anders Zorn (1893) is also in the living hall. I first saw a Zorn painting in the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. He did her portrait and an autobus scene. I really like his work.
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Mr. Vanderbilt's Chamber
If he was going for dark and moody he did a good job. Especially when you compare it to his wife's room down the hall.
Mrs. Vanderbilt's Chamber
The old sitting room
This sitting room/ office area connected his and her rooms.
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There was great art all over the house. Here is a piece by Whistler and a great portrait of the Vanderbilt's daughter, Cornelia.
Spiral Staircase
Beautiful!
Etchings
In addition to the great paintings, there were etchings all over the house. It was especially fun to see the etching of the Nigh watch by Rembrandt.
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Guest room
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Then we went downstairs and under the house.
Stone Corridor
Bowling alley and swimming pool.
The pool was empty. It was interesting to imagine people using it 200 years ago. The tour guide said the ropes on the side were for those that didn't know how to swim and still wanted to get in the pool.
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It really was an amazing house. The tickets are expensive. I feel it was worth the money. I really like historic houses and art so I was excited to see it. The tours lasted just over an hour and we walked .48 miles.
Next time the Biltmore Gardens!
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