Gilded Age grandeur in an American Château - "Biltmore House: The Interiors and Collections of George W. Vanderbilt"
- Feb 25
- 6 min read
Dear readers, the arrival of Valentine’s season brings to my mind a holiday movie that I watched in Christmas not long ago: “A Biltmore Christmas”. This romantic film tells the story of an accidental time-travel encounter between a young, beautiful screenwriter from the present day, Lucy (played by actress Bethany Joy Lenz), and a dashing, heart‑throb Hollywood actor, Jack (played by actor Kristoffer Polaha), in the mid‑1940s. The movie enchants not only with its story and leading couple, but also with its nostalgic evocation of golden‑age Hollywood glamour, chivalrous gentlemen, elegant fashion and style, that brought to life against the magnificent backdrop of Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.
Ever since seeing the film, I became fascinated by the Biltmore Estate that felt like it has casted a certain spell on me, and my desire has grown to know more about this extraordinary property, or at least to live with something that reveals more of its beauty. While discovering the new book titled “Biltmore House: The Interiors and Collections of George W. Vanderbilt” barely a month ago, it was like a new year magic that I simply can’t wait to acquire a copy as a personal promise and a keepsake in the making.
The east facade of Biltmore House from the Vista. © William Abranowicz (Art + Commerce)
Published by Rizzoli Electa in February 2026, this volume is written by Darren Poupore, director of curatorial affairs and archives at Biltmore, and Laura C. Jenkins, a London‑based art historian and interiors specialist, with photography by renowned interiors photographer, William Abranowicz. This stunning copy offers an impressive visual tour of the estate and museum, while also granting an intimate glimpse into the life of the late George Washington Vanderbilt II, owner of the house and a prominent member of the Vanderbilt family, revealing his passionate pursuit of refined art and gracious living.
Set amid the tranquil, verdant countryside surrounding Asheville, the estate reflects George Vanderbilt’s discerning eye in choosing a site that feels both secluded and restorative, a private sanctuary in the mountains. Construction of Biltmore House began in 1889 and took approximately six years before its opening in 1895, marking the realization of Vanderbilt’s ambitious vision. To bring this dream home to life, he engaged two of the finest talents of the age: the celebrated American architect, Richard Morris Hunt, who had designed houses for other Vanderbilt family members, to oversee the design of the grand mansion; and the renowned landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, famed for his American urban parks, to shape the estate’s expansive grounds and gardens.
With its “Châteauesque”, French Renaissance–inspired design, Biltmore House stands as one of the grandest private residences in the United States and the country’s largest home, often described as an American “château” that distills historic European beauty into an American setting. The first impression I have about the Biltmore House, is that it somehow recalls my visit at Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley back in 2016, and that resemblance is no accident. The aesthetic of Biltmore House draws on French Renaissance precedents and on-site visits that both George Vanderbilt and Richard Morris Hunt made to numerous castles in France and England, including Château de Blois and Chambord in France and Waddesdon Manor in England. One particularly memorable detail is the dramatic spiral staircase on one side of the façade, a distinctive architectural feature that leaves a lasting impression.
As one of the largest private homes of its time, Biltmore House encompasses an extraordinary array of advanced and luxurious amenities, including 250 rooms — among them 35 bedrooms for family and guests, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces. These rooms are furnished with refined furniture, textiles, and works of art that George Vanderbilt collected during his extensive travels across Europe and beyond, from France and England to India and Asia, commissioning pieces from artisans celebrated in their fields. The result is an interior world that reflects both the Renaissance‑inflected elegance of the architecture, and the aristocratic luxury of America’s Gilded Age.
A Régence giltwood mirror installed above a marble chimneypiece in the Louis XV Room, one of the grandest guest bedrooms at Biltmore House. © William Abranowicz (Art + Commerce)
This remarkable book documents those interiors in sumptuous new photography, some images appearing in print for the first time! Enabling history and interior design connoisseurs to experience each salon and room at close range. Among the highlights is the sumptuous Louis XV guest bedroom, decorated in eighteenth‑century French style with Bordeaux‑red silk cut‑velvet wall textiles woven by French specialists in Lyon, matching with elegant and refined furniture, such as a chaise longue upholstered in rich fabric evocative of European imperial luxury, and a Régence giltwood mirror above a marble chimneypiece combine to transport both the owner and guests into a world of European nobility, right on American soil.
This volume also includes rare archival photographs of George Vanderbilt and his family, capturing their way of life and the sophisticated fashion of their era, alongside documents that testify to the immense resources, effort, and devotion invested in creating and maintaining such an enchanting private house. These materials lend the book an almost intimate, documentary quality, making it especially compelling to readers fascinated by social history and the art of living.
The main ribs of the Gothic-style roof of the Winter Garden gracefully extend down and connect to black and red marble colonettes. The roof appears to be of traditional hammer-beam construction but was built using iron trusses sheathed in oak. © William Abranowicz (Art + Commerce)
The book further serves as a visual guide to some of the estate’s most distinctive spaces, such as the octagonal, sunken Winter Garden, with its Gothic‑inspired roof structure, the space is planted with exotic palms and plants, and a marble and bronze fountain sculpture called “Boy Stealing Geese” at the center, created by Viennese‑born American artist, Karl Bitter.
The Banquet Hall, looking west. In a show of national pride, Vanderbilt hung the expeditionary banner of Christopher Columbus on the chimney breast and American Revolutionary flags of the thirteen colonies around the hall. © William Abranowicz (Art + Commerce)
From there, one can imagine moving on to the Banquet Hall, the largest room in the house, designed in a nineteenth‑century medieval style that blends French and English traditions, the hall’s high ceiling and stone walls are animated by luxurious wall hangings, some tapestries were rediscovered in storage at European châteaux, along with armor displays and American Revolutionary–era flags, all framing a grand oak dining table made by a distinguished London craftsman and surrounded by Baroque‑style dining chairs that heighten the sense of ceremony.
Nearby, the Tapestry Gallery, whose decoration takes inspiration from Château de Pierrefonds in Oise, presents sixteenth‑century Brussels tapestries, bronze sculptures, and candelabra, creating a nostalgic atmosphere that evokes the so‑called “Golden Age” of French architecture.
The Tapestry Gallery, looking southeast, showing sixteenth-century Brussels tapestries on the east wall and bronze sculptures and candelabra by Antoine-Louis Barye on the center table. © William Abranowicz (Art + Commerce)
For a devotee of books, perhaps the most fascinating space is the Library, a two‑storey room that fuses French architectural grandeur with the warmth of an English country house and the cultivated spirit of the Old-World literary salon. Housing approximately 22,000 volumes assembled by George Vanderbilt over his lifetime, the library exudes the air of a refined gentleman’s club in London — serene, urbane, and designed to encourage reading, reflection, and lively exchange among guests. Its sumptuous furnishings and carefully chosen decorative objects underscore Vanderbilt’s passion for literature and knowledge, making this room a sanctuary for the mind as much as for the eye.
The northeast corner of the Library, with windows looking onto the East Terrace. © William Abranowicz (Art + Commerce)
Throughout the book, not only it recounts the history of Biltmore House, George Vanderbilt’s cultivated taste, and his art of living, but also reads as a heartfelt chronicle of the estate team’s ongoing dedication to preserving the property at the level of its heyday. Their work ensures that visitors today can continue to marvel at this historic gem nestled deep in the North Carolina countryside.
If Lucy in “A Biltmore Christmas” can turn the magical hourglass in the library and slip back into the golden glamour of Hollywood at Biltmore House, then this book becomes, in its own way, a similar conduit. It allows one to revisit the American Gilded Age elegance and art of living that defined the Vanderbilts’ world, and to contemplate this magnificent American “château” where aristocratic history and personal memory intertwine in a way that feels both timeless and profoundly worth preserving.
Image courtesy of Rizzoli USA.