Villa Noailles

I have just returned from visiting the Villa Noailles in Hyeres. It is a fascinating reminder of the extraordinary lives of the great French patrons, Viscount and Viscountess de Noailles.

One tends to hear more about Marie-Laure de Noailles than about her husband,Charles, but in fact they were both active patrons of a wide range of artistic and musical activities for a very long time. Marie-Laure seems to have carried on with her support right up to her death in 1970.

The house was designed by the modernist architect, Robert Mallet-Stevens, in 1923/4 and first occupied from 1925. Large extensions, involving a gym, a swimming pool, a squash court, and many extra bedrooms (the villa eventually had 15), meant that it was not finally finished until 1933. It is built in an uncompromisingly modern inter-war style and parts of it resemble Wells Coates’ work at 10 Palace Gate in London.

Most of its original contents were dispersed after the death of the Viscountess, when the family sold it to the town. One gets the impression that the Villa was her passion rather than his, certainly in the later years of family ownership.A video was running in one of the rooms of the Viscountess being interviewed towards the end of her life, sitting on the lawn at the front of the house.The Viscount is said to have spent a lot of his time at a house in Grasse (East down the Riviera). There was also a large house in Paris.

I saw no mention of the two daughters, but I know that the family archives are still privately owned as I enquired a while ago about access for the purposes of my Watson research. The staff at the Villa were extremely helpful and quickly produced a charming photograph of Watson up a tree in the amazing garden with the two girls. I imagine there may be other mentions of Watson, as he seems to have stayed there a few times. The names mentioned in the various exhibits in the Villa read like a catalogue of Watson’s French friends: Auric, Sauguet, Poulenc and Markevitch on the musical side and Picasso, Giacometti, Berard , Dali etc on the artistic side.

All in all, this was a fascinating visit and highly recommended for anyone in the area.

Henry Lamb
To the Salisbury Museum to see a good show of Henry Lamb’s work. The Gallery isn’t big enough for a major retrospective, but it was a good effort. The challenge with someone like Lamb is to persuade people to come and see pictures by a painter few can [Read More…]

The Snail that climbed the Eiffel Tower and other work by John Minton
Martin Salisbury has produced a classic and he has been beautifully supported by the Mainstone Press. As an object alone, this book is a delight; knowing nothing about the artist, one could leaf through this production and gorge on its quality. There can be no better way to remind the art world that they diminish artists like Minton at their peril; his paintings were the tip of his iceberg and it is only when they are taken with his other work that his skills and achievements get their proper recognition. He may have had a short life as an artist, but what a marvellous range of achievements.

Sir Denis Mahon
At Westport House in the West of Ireland this week, I saw a portrait of Mahon as a young man. He wears a suit and his OE tie. Turns out that his mother was a Browne, the family name of the Marquess of Sligo, owner of the house [Read More…]

Anthony Fry at the Holburne, Bath
Chris Stephens from Tate Britain took over at the Holburne last year and this exciting show is an example of how he intends to develop aspects of this Bath gallery, which is situated at the end of the extraordinary Great Pulteney Street. It is not easy to see [Read More…]

⋅ Jankel Adler ⋅ Eileen Agar ⋅ John Aldridge ⋅ Adrian Allinson ⋅ Michael Andrews ⋅ Edward Ardizzone ⋅ Arthur Armstrong ⋅ Frank Auerbach ⋅ Michael Ayrton ⋅ Francis Bacon ⋅ Wilhelmina Barns-Graham ⋅ Edward Bawden ⋅ Adrian Berg ⋅ Basil Blackshaw ⋅ David Bomberg ⋅ Louis le Brocquy ⋅ Jean Bullock ⋅ Edward Burra ⋅ George Campbell ⋅ Prunella Clough ⋅ Geoffrey Clarke ⋅ William Coldstream ⋅ Cecil Collins ⋅ Robert Colquhoun ⋅ John Craxton ⋅ Alfred Daniels ⋅ Alan Davie ⋅ Gerard Dillon ⋅ William Gear ⋅ Wilfred Dudeney ⋅ Richard Eurich ⋅ Hans Feibusch ⋅ Lucian Freud ⋅ William Gear ⋅ Mark Gertler ⋅ William Gillies ⋅ Beatrice, Lady Glenavy ⋅ Duncan Grant ⋅ Richard Hamilton ⋅ John Hayward ⋅ Thomas Hennell ⋅ Patrick Hennessy ⋅ Paul Henry ⋅ Barbara Hepworth ⋅ Josef Herman ⋅ Patrick Heron ⋅ Derek Hill ⋅ Tristram Hillier ⋅ Roger Hilton ⋅ Ivon Hitchens ⋅ David Hockney ⋅ Frances Hodgkins ⋅ Robin Ironside ⋅ Augustus John ⋅ David Jones ⋅ Karin Jonzen ⋅ Eric Kennington ⋅ Laura Knight ⋅ Peter Lanyon ⋅ Wyndham Lewis ⋅ Laurence Lowry ⋅ John Luke ⋅ Robert MacBryde ⋅ Sine Mackinnon ⋅ Norah McGuinness ⋅ William McTaggart ⋅ FE McWilliam ⋅ Bernard Meninsky ⋅ Oliver Messel ⋅ Colin Middleton ⋅ John Minton ⋅ Henry Moore ⋅ Cedric Morris ⋅ Rodrigo Moynihan ⋅ John Nash ⋅ Paul Nash ⋅ Christopher Nevinson ⋅ Algernon Newton ⋅ Ben Nicholson ⋅ Sir William Nicholson ⋅ Winifred Nicholson ⋅ Daniel O’Neill ⋅ Eduardo Paolozzi ⋅ Victor Pasmore ⋅ John Piper ⋅ Eric Ravilious ⋅ Alan Reynolds ⋅ Ceri Richards ⋅ William Roberts ⋅ Michael Rothenstein ⋅ Kenneth Rowntree ⋅ William Scott ⋅ Matthew Smith ⋅ Stanley Spencer ⋅ Gilbert Spencer ⋅ Rowland Suddaby ⋅ Graham Sutherland ⋅ Julian Trevelyan ⋅ Fred Uhlman ⋅ Leon Underwood ⋅ Keith Vaughan ⋅ Edward Wadsworth ⋅ Alfred Wallis ⋅ Evan Walters ⋅ John Ward ⋅ Carel Weight ⋅ Gerald Wilde ⋅ Kyffin Williams ⋅ Edward Wolfe ⋅ Bryan Wynter ⋅ Jack Yeats ⋅

20th Century
British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian
Adrian Clark

Villa Noailles

20th Century British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian Adrian Clark

Villa Noailles

20th Century
British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian
Adrian Clark