Overheard

At Longleat, in this very room:

A little girl pleadingly to her mother, Mummy why don't we have things like these?

The mother scornfully to her daughter, Because this is not our taste.



Cow.

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Far from the madding crowd

Clouds Hill


The music room


The book room


The back of the cottage


Nothing in Clouds Hill is to be a care upon the world. While I have it there shall be nothing exquisite or unique in it. Nothing to anchor me. - T. E. Lawrence


T.E. Lawrence, using the name Shaw to avoid publicity, rented Clouds Hill in 1923 as a retreat from nearby Bovington Camp when he rejoined the Air Force. In 1925 Lawrence bought the cottage and it became his earthly paradise. He did not sleep at the cottage but spent evenings there reading, writing and listening to Beethoven and Mozart.

The tiny rooms* of Clouds Hill are as Lawrence left them with simple and austere furnishings, some of which he made himself. The cottage reflects his complex personality and monastic way of life. The crowded book room is lined with shelves from floor to ceiling. It is here that Lawrence found the peace and quiet he needed to work on his Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which was published in 1926.

In 1935 Lawrence was discharged at the age of 46 from the Air Force and returned to Clouds Hill to live out his days. Five days later he was killed in a motorcycle crash when returning to Clouds Hill from Bovington Camp.


Clouds Hill, the rural retreat of T. E. Lawrence, is now a part of Britain's National Trust.


Of further possible interest -

Lawrence of Dorset: From Arabia to Clouds Hill by Rodney Legg

Journal of the T. E. Lawrence Society



*It was one of these tiny rooms, specifically the cork lined bathroom, that inspired the kitchen in W1.

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Lost to a world in which I crave no part

Plan for the Motherwell house.


A bedroom showing the unique floor of inlaid tree sections set in cement.



Robert Motherwell inside his adapted Quonset hut residence in Georgica, 1950 by Hans Namuth.


Internal view of the east facade.


East facade of the Motherwell House, 1985.


Though East Hampton figures briefly in the life of the painter Robert Motherwell, the village played a significant role in shaping his career and his legacy. The youngest, wealthiest, and best educated of the Abstract Expressionists, Motherwell first came to the East End during the summer of 1944 to visit the older Surrealists in exile. A snapshot records the twenty-four-year-old playing chess with Max Ernst outdoors in Amagansett. In the Hamptons, Motherwell met Mark Rothko and other American artists; painted the semi-figurative works The Emperor of China and The Homely Protestant; initiated his most critically acclaimed series, Elegy to the Spanish Republic; and coedited the lone issue of the journal possiblities. Oils featuring linear, somewhat representational forms on ocher-covered surfaces eventually gave way to canvases with larger-scaled, more muscular black and white shapes. After he purchased a four-acre lot at the corner of Georgica and Jericho roads in East Hampton for about $1,200, Motherwell commissioned a house and studio from Pierre Chareau, the French architect who co-designed the Maison de Verre, a Paris landmark of the International Style. Although the architect used two prefabricated Quonset hut kits purchased for $3,000 each, costs mounted when doors, windows, balconies, and flooring had to be made by hand. Motherwell sold the house in 1952. Chareau’s only work in America, it was leveled in 1985. Motherwell later summered in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and spent his last years in Greenwich, Connecticut. In his seventies, he said about his East Hampton period, “I did my best work there.” - written by Phyllis Tuchman for The Parrish Art Museum


Further reading, Robert Motherwell's Life in the Hamptons by Mary Cummings.




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Spirits

Mrs. de Menil's Liquor Closet
Nest, Fall 2001
Article by Edward Albee
Photographs by Langdon Clay


A little place of bewilderment, as it was described by one of the de Menil's children. Its ocher felt lined door, palest of blue painted papered walls, seamless black concrete floor, and mirrored shelves were created by the couturier Charles James.

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Déjà vu

The only real elegance is in the mind; if you've got that, the rest really comes from it.
Diana Vreeland

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Exile by the shore

Truman Capote photographed at his Sagaponack house by Horst in 1965


The saltbox-style, two-story studio was intentionally weathered


Polished blue floors and book-lined walls brought a whimsy to the home’s stark lines


Truman’s writing desk


Upper level study

Hampton Style - August 15, 2008 for the full article.

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On London and beyond

On the corner of Londres and Allende, in Mexico City's Coyoacan neighbourhood, one can find the Casa Azul. It was built in 1907 by Frida Kahlo's father, Guillermo Kahlo. This is where Frida Kahlo grew up, and where she returned to in her final years.

The house was not only home to the Kahlo family, it also served as a refuge for Leon Trotsky when he first arrived in Mexico in 1937.

Casa Azul was converted into a museum in 1958, four years after the death of Frida Kahlo. Decorated with mainly Mexican folk art, it contains the personal belongings from the time she and her husband, Diego Rivera, lived there.


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Caught in time

New York based photographer Robert Polidori has spent the past twenty-five years chronicling the preservation of Versailles. Preservation against the onslaught of some 3 million yearly visitors.


Versailles, Appartement of Madame Adélaïde, Painting of Marie Clotilde Xavière de France, by François Hubert Drouais



Versailles, 1er Étage, Corps Central, Chambre à Coucher de la Reine, Wall Detail



Versailles, Dorures et Boiseries

Polidori’s pictures are as much an exercise in still life photography as a comment on the notion of restoration. Exquisite and opulent subject matter, photographed in painstaking detail, makes you wonder if restoration is anything more than maquillage of a contemporary culture, rather than the preservation of the past: ‘historical revisionism and present society’s superego’ as Polidori suggests. - Wallpaper*

Robert Polidori is represented by Flowers Gallery.


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Going up the dirty stairs

The Colony Room Club
41 Dean Street
Soho


The Colony Room Club, Soho from the series Society by Bridget Smith



Francis Bacon (one of the founding members of the Colony Room) - On Life, Death, and Gambling.






The Colony Room's taxi service

Founded in 1948 by the formidable Muriel Belcher in London's Soho. Its famous nicotine stained green walls have played host to not only great artists, but also to great characters for 60 years.

It's the club where Kate Moss did a stint as barmaid; Dylan Thomas threw up on the carpet and Princess Margaret popped in for a pink gin.

Today its existence is threatened.

The Colony is a living work of art, it's a tragedy what's happening. From Bacon to Beckett, Rimbaud to Rotten, the Colony must not be forgotten. - Sebastian Horsley

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Finally

The Boys in the Band becomes available on DVD November 11, 2008. Irrespective of all the PC self-loathing, not positive, fair depiction, blah, blah, blah bullshit this is a great film. And, it is staged in what must be the definitive New York apartment.

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Luxe, calme et volupté

Images from Menil House, article by Bruce C . Webb for Texas Architect.


The 1950s modernist house in Houston that Philip Johnson designed for art collectors John and Dominique de Menil was one of the first houses built in the International Style in the United States. Even more intriguing are its atypical interiors done by the couturier Charles James. As a foil to the modernist structure, Mrs. de Menil said at the time, they wanted something more voluptuous.

Restored in 2004 by Stern and Bucek Architects, not simply as Johnson designed it, but as the Menils lived in it.



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The great wall

Not of China, but of André Breton.


Le Mur, Centre Georges Pompidou

Man, that inveterate dreamer, daily more discontent with his destiny, has trouble assessing the objects he has been led to use, objects that his nonchalance has brought his way, or that he has earned through his own efforts, almost always through his own efforts, for he has agreed to work, at least he has not refused to try his luck - or what he calls his luck. - One of the opening lines of the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924.



André Breton, 42 rue Fontaine

Le Mur, which was originally behind Breton's desk, was taken in lieu of death duties by the government and moved to Centre Georges Pompidou. The remainder of Breton's collection, some 5000 plus items, was sold, piecemeal, over ten days in April of 2003.



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The poisoned room

A contemporary account of Longwood House, its interiors, and its furnishings from T.E. Wathen's A Series of Views Illustrative of the Island of St. Helena. Published by Clay, London, 1821.



No. 7. LONGWOOD HOUSE.

The late residence of Napoleon Buonaparte, where he arrived in the letter part of 1815, and at which he died on May the 5th, 1821. The situation, and other particulars concerning Longwood, have already been given at Page 6; and a very brief description of the building is all that remains to be added. The present erection was formed in timber framework at Woolwich, by the Architect for the Ordnance department, to be erected at St. Helena. It is designed in the cottage style, and contains 24 rooms, the general size of which is 25 feet by 18. The length of the house in front is about 120 feet; and it contains 16 windows with an open corridore. The depth of the building is 100 feet, and the back is also ornamented with a corridore. It is two stories in height, and the right hand wing was appropriated to Buonaparte, In the centre stands the Drawing-room, coloured of various shades of green, and arabesque gold panels; with curtains of light silk taboret, of Pomona green, and velvet borders edged with gold coloured silk twist. Above them is a matted gold cornice, to conceal the rings and curtain rod, and the top of the room is finished by a cream coloured ceiling. The carpet is of Brussels texture, of various shades of brown, olive, and amber. The furniture consists of an elegant oak centre table; pier table, inlaid with a slab of Verd Antique Mona marble; splendid pier glass, with a frame of Buhl and ebony; chairs of British oak; two Greek sofas and footstools ornamented with Or Moulu; a piano forte; and chandeliers and candelabri to light the apartment, The Dining-room is next in the suite, the fittings up for which are of a lavender tint, and the curtains of silk, with a black border and gold coloured silk lace fringe. The carpet and walls are of the same lilac hue, as well as the coverings for the chairs. The furniture consists of a fine oaken Dining-table, capable of accommodating from six to fourteen persons; a side-board, peculiarly made for holding the Imperial plate, with the wine coolers constructed of Bronze and rich wood. Adjoining the Dining-room is the Library, which is furnished in the Etruscan style, with several dwarf book-cases; a Library table with desks and drawers, and curtains of a new cotton material, having the appearance of cloth. The Sitting-room is ornamented with an ethereal blue carpet shaded with black, and several ebony cabinets inlaid with brass. In the Bed-room is a high canopy Bedstead, enclosing a silken musquito net, and hung with furniture of lilac persian edged with gold coloured fringe. The Bath is lined with marble, and made to admit hot or cold water. The other wing of Longwood House contained spacious apartments for Buonaparte's suite, with servant's offices and store-rooms in the rear. The Kitchen is a detached building, yet convenient to the Dining-room. The materials for this erection, together with the elegant furniture, table services, dresses, and plate presented to Buonaparte, by the noble munificence of the British government, amounted to 500 tons in weight, and were contained in 400 packages. A number of artists were also sent with them to fit out the Establishment.



Longwood House as it is today.


A wallpaper fragment from Longwood House showing a single star, the principal of which is green and brown. It is possible that the brown had originally been gold. Gold and green were the Imperial colours.

One of the theories surrounding Napoleon's death was that he had been poisoned by his wallpaper. The wallpaper at Longwood House was painted with Scheele's green, an arsenic compound called copper arsenide. When attacked by certain molds, possibly present in the damp environment of St. Helena, arsenic would have been released into the air. Giving further credence to this scenario, in the late 1950s Clare Boothe Luce, the then American ambassador to Italy, was diagnosed with arsenic poisoning caused by paint chips falling from the stucco roses on her bedroom ceiling.

The original, but less romantic, cause of death has been confirmed by the use of modern technology.

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Rainy Sunday cinema

Visconti's Gruppo di famiglia in un interno, or as it was originally released in English, Conversation Piece. The sets are stunning. And, it also shows the Fendi sisters at their very best.

That which we call a Rose...

Rose Cumming. A name and a style to conjure with.

En route to England in 1917, where she was to be married, she found herself stranded in New York due to travel restrictions precipitated by the Great War. In need of something to do and possibly an income, she sought advice from her friend Frank Crowninshield, the editor of Vanity Fair, who asked if she wanted to be a decorator. Perhaps I would, but first tell me what it is, she replied.

Twelve years later, she would not only know what a decorator was, she would be the personification of the very word.

...It requires primarily that one be an expert in color, design, period, and the placement of furniture. Most of us have added some knowledge of architecture to our equipment as decorators, so that being conversant with the laws of proportion, line, et cetera, we can intelligently interpret the original design of the architect. A decorator should, in addition, be blessed with a sixth sense -- a kind of artistic alchemy which endows the articles of furniture with that elusive quality of livableness which transforms houses...No amount of training or schooling, I believe, can teach you this. Either you have flair or you don't...
A Door Always Open by Rose Cumming,
The Finest Rooms by America's Great Decorators

Rose Cumming's ugly room, her reaction against the preconception of prettiness in decorating. Absolutely perfect.



Seventeenth-century Corsican rugs help to balance the room. The painting over the mantle is by Jean Baptiste Oudry, from his black period. Which I suspect is in fact a romanticisation of a particularly dark painting that may have been just in need of a good clean.



John Audubon's seldom seen prints from the Quadruped Edition (1845-1848) hang above the sofa.

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The Immortal Dropout

The flyer reads, This is HUGO VICKERS’S first play. It was staged at Cumberland Lodge in the 2007 Windsor Festival, to considerable acclaim. Hugo Vickers is well known as the biographer of Cecil Beaton and other 20th Century figures.
He knew Stephen Tennant in the last six years of his life, and frequently visited him at Wilsford Manor.
The play is set in STEPHEN TENNANT’S bedroom at Wilsford Manor, in Wiltshire. The year is 1970 and Stephen is in his mid-sixties. Once a family home, filled with chatter and laughter, Wilsford is now the retreat of its lonely owner, who muses over the people he has known and his literary endeavours and enjoyments.
CHARLES DUFF is an international actor, director, author and lecturer. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and was a full-time actor for a decade, playing in every medium, until he began to teach in the major London drama schools, while still maintaining his professional work. He has also directed opera in this country and in Europe. His book, The Lost Summer, was a best seller both in Britain and America.

Jermyn Street Theatre
Monday 28th July to Saturday 2nd August
Nightly at 7.30pm Saturday matinee 3.30pm
Tickets £16.00 £13.00 concessions

What a charming way to spend an evening. The use of language was captivating. So captivating in fact one could almost smell the camomile lawn.

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