Paul and Bunny Mellon: Visual Biographies

Paul and Bunny Mellon: Visual Biographies The Trompe l’Oeil Paintings at Oak Spring, Virginia

Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi with the collaboration of Tony Willis 2020 Oak Spring Garden Foundation Upperville, Virginia

Contents I

6

Acknowledgments

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Preface Sir Peter Crane frs

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Paul Mellon: A Philanthropic Life

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Bunny Mellon: Creating Gardens and a Library Legacy to Inspire and Educate

By Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi

108 An Account of the Battersby and Renard Trompe l’Oeil Paintings at Oak Spring

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Introduction

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Trompe l’Oeil Painting: Vision, Perception, Deception

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The Revival of Trompe l’Oeil Painting in the United States and France, 1800 – 2000

By Tony Willis

129 List of Objects in the First Proposal for the Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring by Fernand Renard 131

List of Surviving Objects

27 “Counterfeit”: The Trompe l’Oeil and Botanical Art 37

A Trompe l’Oeil for the Mellons’ Living Room by Martin Battersby

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The Decoration of the Greenhouse by Fernand Renard

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Other Trompe l’Oeils at Oak Spring

132 Bibliography and Selected Additional Literature 135

Index

Paul and Bunny Mellon at Oak Spring with their dogs, ca. 1952. Photograph by Thomas Neil Darling, courtesy of Howard Allen Photography, LLC, Middleburg, VA.

Acknowledgments I

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This book is both a scholarly elucidation of the Oak Spring trompe l’oeil and a personal tribute to the cultivated aesthetic of Paul and Bunny Mellon. Both of us knew Paul and Bunny Mellon well. Through the opportunities that they provided the Mellons had a profound influence on our individual professional development. This book is dedicated to both of them with gratitude.

We acknowledge with appreciation all those who helped to bring this project to fruition. Lisa Chien skillfully translated the initial draft of the main text from the Italian original and contributed in many other ways to the success of the project. Therese O’Malley at the National Gallery of Art read the entire manuscript and made many helpful suggestions for revisions. Jim Morris at Digital Color Productions, was responsible for most of the high-quality photographs and helped with the reproduction of several other images. Magda Nakassis expertly copyedited the manuscript and the superb design is by Antonio Alcalá and Helen McNiell at Studio A in Alexandria, Virginia. Peter Crane, President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, coordinated every aspect of the book’s production from editing the manuscript to the final proofreading.

We offer special gratitude to Elinor Crane for her research that brought to light many new details and materials relating to the Oak Spring trompe l’oeil. She also helped obtain several important photographs, including that of Fernand Renard.

Several colleagues and distinguished scholars gave valuable advice during the development of the manuscript, including Alessandro Tosi at Università di Pisa; Michelle Fondas, Anne Halpern, and Aaron Wile at the National Gallery of Art; and Alison Parman at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. We owe special thanks to Fabio Garbari, who identified the plants, and to the late Paolo Tongiorgi, who iden-

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tified the insects and shells, that are depicted in the Martin Battersby and Fernand Renard trompe l’oeil paintings.

We extend our sincere gratitude to all the institutions who have granted permission to use images of works in their collections. We are especially indebted to Derry Moore for the photograph of Fernand Renard, Philippe Garner for the photograph of Martin Battersby, Beverly Carter for helping to obtain images of the Brick House, and Joël Cadiou for providing the image of La Déchirure (The Tear).

Thanks go to the many staff of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation who contributed in different ways to the success of this project, including Lori Anderson, Ronnie Caison, Nancy Collins, Kimberley Fisher, Giulia Hines, Jordan Long, Allissa Montgomery, Kathy Olimpi, Angie Ritterpusch, Max Smith, Ricky Willis, Jacquelyn Wong, Gloria Woodson, and Judy Zatsick.

Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to Bunny Mellon for her foresight in establishing the Oak Spring Garden Foundation to help promote scholarship and practice relating to plants, gardens, and landscapes, including especially those areas where the arts, humanities, and sciences come together.

Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi Università di Pisa Tony Willis Oak Spring Garden Foundation

Preface I

There are many treasures tucked away in the private world that Rachel (Bunny) Lambert Mellon created for herself, her husband Paul Mellon, and their family at Oak Spring. Set in the rolling landscape of the rural Virginia Piedmont, only a little more than an hour from the center of the nation’s capital, Oak Spring provided the Mellons with the tranquility to pursue their individual passions and the space to reflect on their shared interests. Oak Spring was where they called home.

Rachel Mellon’s exquisite Oak Spring garden is well-known, as also is her magnificent library, which overflows with rare treatises on plants, gardens, and landscapes. Much less recognized, though one of the true treasures of Oak Spring, is a spectacular work of art, a unique trompe l’oeil mural more than nine feet tall that adorns the vestibule of the formal greenhouse. In this book, Mrs. Mellon’s close friend Professor Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, with help from Mrs. Mellon’s longtime librarian, Tony Willis, brings to life this unique work, exploring its genesis, its symbolism, and its position in the long tradition of still life and trompe l’oeil painting.

The Oak Spring trompe l’oeil is the product of a unique collaboration. It was made possible by the considerable technical skills of the French painter Fernand Renard, but it is infused with Mrs. Mellon’s personality and her unique sense of style. It reflects Mrs. Mellon’s discerning taste and provides a window into a creative life worth celebrating for its intellectual vigor and its multilayered sensibility.

There is also a surprising coda. Hidden behind cupboard doors in the living room of the Mellon home is a smaller trompe l’oeil.

Also a collaborative project, this time between Paul Mellon and the renowned English trompe l’oeil artist Martin Battersby, this painting gives a personal insight into Paul Mellon. It reveals a life not simply centered on horses and field sports, for which he was well-known, but

one that was also highly cultured, intellectually rich, and embraced a love of fine books and exquisite art.

On behalf of the staff at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, I hope that you enjoy this glimpse into the private world of Paul and Bunny Mellon. These two unique works of art illuminate the lives of two of the foremost art collectors and philanthropists of the late twentieth century and exemplify the sophistication of their artistic vision.

Sir Peter Crane frs President Oak Spring Garden Foundation

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Introduction I

We enjoy being deceived as long as we remain aware of the deception. ernst h. gombrich

Meditationen über ein Steckenpferd, 1978

Within the panorama of the protean genre of trompe l’oeil, two as yet unrecognized but noteworthy works deserve a place. They were commissioned around the middle of the last century by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), and by his wife Rachel Lambert Mellon (1910–2014), known to everyone as Bunny—two exceptional figures who, through their example, exerted a great influence on collecting and the arts around the world. It appears that parallel decisions were taken within a relatively short space of time to decorate two favorite corners of the couple’s estate at Oak Spring—a cabinet in the living room and the vestibule of Bunny’s recently completed formal greenhouse—with paintings en trompe-l’oeil. Given the divergent tastes and cultural predilections of Paul and Bunny, two different artists were chosen for the commissions.

For the first project, Paul, a keen Anglophile, fixed on the English artist Martin Battersby (1914–1982), a well-known painter, decorator, and author of various books, including an important history of the trompe l’oeil. For the second, Bunny, with her profound love of French culture, selected Fernand Renard (1912–ca. 1980), a French artist specializing in the genre of the trompe l’oeil. Bound together by their love of art and their shared ideals and objectives, a lighthearted intellectual complicity and close collaboration, both academic and artistic, sprang up between the couple in the course of these two creative endeavors.

Thus, in serendipitous fashion, two “visual biographies” came into being. When read closely, they shed light on the character, interests, and passions of two singular individuals who left a decisive mark on the history of contemporary culture.

This book gives a brief history of trompe l’oeil painting and the centrality of this distinctive genre to Renaissance portrayals of the natural world, before considering the creation of the two trompe l’oeil paintings that grace the Mellons’ home.

Italian cabinet in trompe l’oeil with marbled shelves and books, a nineteenth-century scenery prop, oil on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Trompe l’Oeil Painting: Vision, Perception, Deception I

Reflecting on the relationship between “reality” and “irreality,” and on the illusionism that distinguishes trompe l’oeil painting, the French philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) wrote in 1977: trompe-l’oeil is such a highly ritualized form precisely because it is not derived from painting but from metaphysics; as ritual, certain features become utterly characteristic: the vertical field, the absence of a horizon and of any kind of horizontality (utterly different from the still life), a certain oblique light that is unreal (that light and none other), the absence of depth, a certain type of object (it would be possible to establish a rigorous list of them), a certain type of material, and of course the “realist” hallucination that gave it its name[…]As a strict formal “genre,” as an extremely conventional and metaphysical exercise, as anagram and anamorphosis, it is opposed to painting as the anagram is opposed to literature. The most strikingly distinctive characteristic is the exclusive presence of banal objects.1 There are many possible readings of the trompe l’oeil, which the Italian intellectual Pietro Accolti (1579–1642) aptly described nearly four centuries ago as “a deception of the eyes.” 2 It gained acceptance as a style of European painting from the end of the sixteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century, at the same time as the still life, attracting talented artists who produced highly original works, as many continue to do to the present day.

The problems posed by the ambiguous relationship between reality and the representation of reality that characterize the trompe l’oeil—the striving for verisimilitude, the nature of the duplicate, the

illusion of perspective and concrete materiality—have also interested many scholars over the centuries and have been analyzed from the perspectives of art history, psychology, perception, semiotics, and the communication sciences.

The French locution trompe-l’oeil (“to deceive the eye”) came into use in Europe during the nineteenth century. It refers to a style of painting that—through the virtuoso expedients of mimesis, perspective, and skillful use of light and shade—induces in the viewer the illusion that what are being observed are real, threedimensional objects when in reality they are actually images painted on flat surfaces.

The origins of the genre may be traced back to the civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. Examples of naturalistic painting from the prehistoric period have been found on the walls of caves near Lascaux in southwestern France and Altamira in Cantabria, Spain. Ancient Egyptians often decorated the walls of their tombs with realistic images of everyday objects, but it was during the classical Greek period that artists excelled in the creation of illusionistic effects. In his encyclopedic work Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce) recounts an anecdote that testifies to the early spread of this art form. It is the story of a contest that was held between two well-known artists—Zeuxis and Parrhasius, who lived sometime during the fifth and the fourth centuries bce (but none of whose works, unfortunately, have come down to us)—in order to determine who was the more accomplished painter of visual illusions.

It is worth citing the passage from Pliny and the story that Battersby and Renard may well have known.

Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Libreria, detail, 1725–30, oil on canvas, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, Bologna.

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Workshop of Baccio Pontelli, Private study of Federico da Montefeltros, 1472–76, intarsia, Palazzo Ducale, Urbino.

Parrhasius and Zeuxis entered into competition, Zeuxis exhibiting a picture of some grapes so true to nature that birds flew up to the wall of the stage.

Parrhasius then displayed a picture of a linen curtain realistic to such degree that Zeuxis, elated by the verdict of the birds, cried out that now at last his rival must draw the curtain and show his picture. On discovering his mistake he surrendered the prize to Parrhasius, admitting candidly that he, Zeuxis, had deceived only the birds, while Parrhasius had deceived himself, a painter.3

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The popularity of illusionistic painting in the classical age was followed by a hiatus during the Middle Ages, after which precocious examples of trompe l’oeil painting manifested themselves, above all in Italy. Here, beginning in the fourteenth century, some artists started to employ devices typical of this genre, although in widely divergent contexts. A diverting anecdote about Giotto (ca. 1266–1337) was recorded by the architect and art theoretician Filarete (1400–ca. 1469). During Giotto’s apprenticeship under Cimabue (ca. 1240–before 1302), the young painter painted a fly on one of his master’s works as a prank; it looked so real that Cimabue tried to shoo it away. As a mature artist, Giotto would make use of elements of trompe l’oeil in his Allegories of Virtues and Vices (1303–ca. 1305), which decorate the nave of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.

Another exceptional example is offered by the trompe l’oeil decoration of the private study of Federico da Montefeltro (1422–1482) in his ducal palace in Urbino (1472–76), realized entirely in intarsia—an elaborate form of wood marquetry—by Baccio Pontelli (ca. 1450–after 1492) and his collaborators. The walls of this studiolo are lined with trompe l’oeil cabinets and bookcases (some with their doors ajar in a most convincingly illusionistic manner) containing objects that denote

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the interests of this intellectual, humanist, and civil and military leader: a casket, an hourglass, a lamp, a suit of armor and various weapons, books, writing implements, and scientific and musical instruments.

Many of these would subsequently become recurrent objects in the repertoire of a new genre, that of the still life.4 In the history of European painting, toward the end of the sixteenth century many further examples of “optical deception” may be cited alongside these, if only in the form of passages inserted by artists to demonstrate their technical bravura—from the manuscript with its pages set aflutter by the arrival of the archangel Gabriel in the Annunciation by the Master of Flémalle (fl. ca. 1420–ca. 1440),5 to the clogs cast on the floor and the chandelier with its metallic reflections in the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (ca. 1390–1441).6 Also pertinent in this regard are the paintings of scholarly saints bent over their books in studioli whose appurtenances present veritable microcosms of the humanist’s world.7 Not to be forgotten are the books of hours and, from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the offizioli (manuscripts of prayers for noble laypersons), whose margins were beautifully decorated with trompe l’oeil flowers, leaves, and insects by miniaturists trained in the Bruges-Ghent School.

During the Renaissance, authors engaged in new theories of architecture and perspective wrestled with problems such as the ideal vantage point for a painting and how to create an impression of spatial depth or of a solid, three-dimensional object, thus contributing to the perfection of illusionistic effects that broadened and enriched the scope of the genre.

These early examples would be followed by many others, but it was in the seventeenth century that still life painting and its subcategory, the trompe l’oeil—two pictorial typologies that in the future would

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Niccolò Colantonio, Saint Jerome in His Study, ca. 145, oil on board, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.

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often prove difficult to differentiate—asserted themselves. Paintings of “inanimate objects” gained recognition as a specific and independent typology that was quite the equal of traditional genres such as history painting, figure painting, and portrait painting. Not only were they sought after by refined collectors and aristocratic patrons of the arts, but they also came to be appreciated by a new class of wealthy bourgeoisie.

Beginning in the Low Countries and then spreading to Germany, Spain, and Italy, objects arranged in “formal poses”—books, playing cards, and musical instruments; decorative items and sumptuous drapery; pewter plates and fine glassware; fruit, flowers, and game (wildfowl, hares, etc.)—would come to denote the increasingly popular genre of the still life in Europe. In accordance with the rule that imposed the qualities of “stillness” and “an absence of action,” human figures were rigorously excluded from these compositions, unless in the static form of paintings, prints, drawings, medallions, and cameos scattered among the other objects. Also absent were live animals, apart from the occasional butterfly or other insect. In contrast, flowers were a regular feature due to the growing interest in gardens and in the cultivation of rare and exotic species from distant lands during this period. Some painters began to specialize in the “floral still life,” producing magnificent compositions that were greatly admired by connoisseurs—a subject that has remained popular to the present day.

The technique of oil painting, which was perfected during the second half of the fifteenth century in the Low Countries, and adopted immediately by artists across Europe, was admirably suited to the exacting demands of the genre, allowing artists to capture the smallest details—from the glint of light on a drop of water to the translucent hues of a delicate flower petal—with absolute clarity and precision.8

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Sometimes artists would insert into their compositions objects, known as memento mori, alluding to the fleeting nature of existence—a skull, an hourglass, a flickering candle, or a wilting flower. Paintings that employed this device were referred to as vanitas and even if their symbolic and moral meanings were not always easy to decipher, they found favor among more cultivated collectors. One of the earliest examples was of a skull in a niche by Jan Gossaert (also known as Mabuse, ca. 1472–1532).9 Gossaert was one of the first artists to use the architectural niche as a framing device, an innovation that proved so versatile and visually effective it would be used in paintings “of things” well into the modern era.

In comparison to the still life, the trompe l’oeil was, in general, governed by a more rigid set of canons; the artist had to respect the true dimensions of the objects and convey a sense of their volume and mass. In most cases, objects were shown from a straightforward central perspective and portrayed in a clearly defined space illuminated by a diffuse, even light. Finally, to achieve the desired illusionistic effect, the artist had to master a fluid, invisible brushstroke that demanded great technical skill.10 Although, as Jean Baudrillard observed, while the preferred subjects of trompe l’oeil (and still life) artists were the “banal objects” of everyday life, they sometimes indulged in the portrayal of rare or precious objects arranged in a niche or display cabinet, bathed in warm light, and above all rendered with microscopic precision. In some cases, the artist might paint a subject and then “cut it out,” in this way creating a painted object, as in champtourné fret work or human silhouettes painted in trompe l’oeil on flat boards.

Alongside the trompe l’oeil da cavalletto (easel painting), the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed the spread, as Martin

Battersby noted,11 of “mural decoration” and quadrature (in which the artist decorated a wall or ceiling with architectural elements painted so convincingly that they appear to be a continuation of the existing architecture). There are examples of palatial mansions and country villas decorated with frescoes of imaginary interiors or panoramic vistas, one early and quite spectacular instance being the Sala delle Prospettive (1519) painted by Baldassarre Peruzzi (1481–1536) for the Villa Farnesina in Rome.12 During the Golden Age of Dutch culture, the trompe l’oeil, like the still life, reached a high point in terms of artistic expression,13 as seen in the clever trompe l’oeils and elegant vanitas produced by Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts (active 1659, died 1672)14 and A Cabinet with Objects

by Georg Hainz (1630/31–1670/1700).15 Alongside these, a classic of the genre is the Scarabattolo (Cabinet of Curiosities)16 attributed to Domenico Remps (1620–1699), a Flemish painter who settled in Tuscany during the second half of the seventeenth century. This fascinating composition presents much of the vast armamentarium of the trompe l’oeil, from the handwritten missive stamped with sealing wax to a sheet of paper with its edges starting to curl, and from seashells, corals, and other natural history specimens to cameos and small paintings (“paintings within a painting” of landscapes, marine scenes, and even a floral still life).17 Indeed, it is worth noting that many of the objects depicted in these trompe l’oeils could also be found in the Wunderkammern (cabinets of marvels) of the baroque period in which man-made artifacts (Artificialia) were displayed alongside curiosities (Curiosa) and scientific specimens (Naturalia).18 Some of the stratagems used in the trompe l’oeil to deceive the eye—for example, objects that appear to spill out of the confines to which they were assigned and invade the space between the viewer

Jan Gossert, Skull. Back of the Carondelet diptych, 1517, oil on wood, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Photograph by Jean-Gilles Berizzi.

Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Libreria, detail, 1725–30, oil on canvas, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, Bologna.

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15

Kenneth Davies, The Bookcase, 1951, oil on canvas, Wadworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. Photograph by Allen Phillips.

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and the painting—can generate a sort of visual hallucination, almost convincing the observer that he is looking at real objects. The effect produced by this manner of conveying visual information—based on the impression of verisimilitude (in which the “false” appears to be “more real than reality itself”) and on the ambiguous borderline between the internal space occupied by the trompe l’oeil objects and the external space occupied by the viewer—may provoke a sense of disquiet and disorientation, projecting the viewer into the sphere of the imagination and even the subconscious.19 Furthermore, as in many still lifes, the objects depicted in the trompe l’oeil could contain hidden meanings, allegories, and enigmas alluding to symbolic or moral concepts, or to the personal attributes of the artist or patron. The viewer is thus presented with the challenge of decrypting abstruse allusions or solving veritable rebuses. Sometimes the trompe l’oeil painter might tease the viewer by placing his signature in a wholly unexpected, almost hidden place, unlike his fellow artists, past and present, who would sign their works with a flourish, for example framed in a real or trompe l’oeil cartouche.

Another phenomenon that came to characterize both of these pictorial genres over the course of the eighteenth century was a certain degree of repetitiveness in the subjects portrayed. For example, paintings with books as their theme were highly regarded, as may be seen in Composition aux livres by Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686–1755).20 Such works can be traced back to an older tradition exemplified by The Open Missal (ca. 1570) by the German artist Ludger tom Ring the Younger (1522–1584).21 Books would continue to provide fertile terrain as visual motifs for the trompe l’oeil artist down to the modern age.

Beginning with the single volume lying on a table, eventually entire compositions dedicated to the theme began to appear—shelves

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or bookcases with tomes arranged in piles or neat rows, sometimes with the title and author’s name displayed on the spine. One noteworthy example is a painting completed around 1725–30 by Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665–1747) of Bologna, which depicts a cabinet divided into two compartments of bookshelves containing a series of leather-bound volumes. The works on the subject of music must have been consulted frequently for they are well-worn, and to enliven the composition the artist has added some sheet music, plumes, an inkwell, and other objects that might be found in a cultivated scholar’s study.22 A Still Life with Books by François Foisse (called Brabant, fl. 1740s) dates to about the same period, while a modern variation on the theme—The Bookcase—was painted in 1951 by the American artist Kenneth Davies (b. 1925); both of these can be seen in the collections of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut.23 Other themes persisted in trompe l’oeil paintings, such as figures portrayed in grisaille to imitate sculptures.24 The world of music provided a rich source of motifs, with artists demonstrating their skill in the representation of the curves and varnished wood of a violin or the shiny metal of a brass instrument.25 Also popular were pictures that reproduced collections of flat objects—handwritten letters, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, maps, sheet music, engravings, drawings, and, following their invention, photographs—strung along a line attached to a wooden panel or wall.26

notes 1.

Jean Baudrillard, “The Trompe-l’oeil,” in Calligram: Essays in the New Art History from France, ed. Norman Bryson (Cambridge, 1988), 53–62.

2.

Pietro Accolti, Lo Inganno degl’occhi (Florence, 1625).

3.

Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 35–65.

Citation drawn from Norman Bryson, Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting (London, 1990), 30; on this topic, cf. “The Grapes of Zeuxis,” in Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l’Oeil Painting, ed. Sybille Ebert-Schifferer (Washington, DC, 2002), 109–221.

4.

Alberto Veca, Inganno & Realtà. Trompe l’Oeil in Europa xvi–xviii sec. (Bergamo, 1980), 11–12.

5.

Master of Flémalle (usually identified as Robert Campin, ca. 1375/1379–1444), Annunciation, 1410s, oil on oak wood, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels.

6.

1434, oil on oak, National Gallery, London.

7.

Niccolò Colantonio, Saint Jerome in His Study, ca. 1445, oil on board, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples; Antonello da Messina, Saint Jerome in His Study, 1475, oil on lime, National Gallery, London; Vittore Carpaccio, Saint Augustine in His Study, 1502, oil on panel, Scuola di San Giorgio, Venice.

8.

A number of still life paintings were donated

by Paul and Bunny Mellon to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where they can be seen today, including: Balthasar van

der Ast, Basket of Fruits, ca. 1622, oil on panel; Jan Philip van Thielen (1618–1667), Roses and a Tulip in a Glass Vase, ca. 1650/60; John Frederick Peto, The Blue Envelope, ca.

1890s, oil on wood; Henri Fantin-Latour, Still Life with Mustard Pot, 1860, oil on canvas; Claude Monet, Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine, ca. 1862/63, oil on canvas.

9.

1517, oil on wood, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

10.

Miriam Milman, Trompe l’Oeil Painting: The Illusions of Reality (New York, 1982).

11.

Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil: The Eye Deceived (New York, 1974), 53–74.

12.

Cf. Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 2; Veca, Inganno & Realtà, 21; Annamaria Giusti, ed., Inganni ad arte. Meraviglie del trompe l’oeil dall’antichità al contemporaneo (Florence, 2009), 81–97.

13.

Ingvar Bergström, Dutch Still Life Painting in the Seventeenth Century (New York, 1956).

14.

The Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, has three paintings by Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts: Trompe l’Oeil with Violin, Music Book and Recorder, 1672, oil on canvas; Letters, Papers, etc. on a Board Partition, 1659–75, oil on canvas; Trompe l’Oeil: A Cabinet of Curiosities with an Ivory Tankard, 1670, oil on canvas; and two paintings by Georg Hainz: A Table with Drinking Vessel and Confectionery, 1645–88, oil on canvas; A Cabinet with Objects of Art, 1665–67, oil on canvas.

15.

16.

Ca. 1690, oil on canvas, Museo Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence.

17.

Cf. Ebert-Schifferer, Deceptions and Illusions, 258–59; Giusti, Inganni ad arte, 75–80.

18.

Adalgisa Lugli, Naturalia e Mirabilia. Il collezionismo enciclopedico nelle Wunderkammern d’Europa (Milan, 1983); Joy Kenseth, ed., The Age of the Marvelous (Hanover, NH, 1991).

19. “Trompe-l’oeil,” in L’altro occhio di Polifemo, ed. Giorgio Celli (Bologna, 1978), 189–200; Daniel J. Levitin, ed., Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings (Cambridge, 2002).

20.

Musée des beaux arts, Montpellier.

21.

Ebert-Schifferer, Deceptions and Illusions, 184–85.

22.

Libreria, 1725–30, oil on canvas, Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica, Bologna.

23.

Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 100–103.

24.

Michel Faré and Fabrice Faré, La vie silencieuse en France. La nature morte au xviii siècle (Paris, 1997), 276–84.

25.

Veca, Inganno & Realtà, 128.

26.

Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 122–35.

Ca. 1666, oil on wood, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.

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The Revival of Trompe l’Oeil Painting in the United States and France, 1800–2000 I

The nineteenth century saw the rise of the movement known as realism (in reaction to the emotionalism of the Romantics) and the establishment of academies of fine arts in many cities across Europe.

The popularity of the trompe l’oeil, however, continued unabated among the wealthy bourgeoisie and entrepreneurs, perhaps because of its accessibility in terms of subject matter and style. Nevertheless, art critics were beginning to question its nature and its validity as a form of artistic expression. Reflecting on the concept of imitation, John Ruskin (1819–1900) launched a stinging attack on the genre in his book Modern Painters. In his opinion, the trompe l’oeil artist was guilty of inveigling the viewer into admiring the skillful artifice of the painting and the technical prowess of the artist rather than seeking to present “the truth.” He observed, “The mind derives its pleasure, not from the contemplation of a truth, but from the discovery of the falsehood.”27 Meanwhile, in France at the beginning of the century, the neoclassical painter and art critic Philippe Chéry (1759–1838) dismissed this type of picture as a sleight of hand designed to exploit the credulity of the nouveaux riches.

From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, the typology of the still life underwent a process of transformation and renewal, first at the hands of the impressionists and then by artists involved in subsequent avant-garde movements. In a rush to modernity, the trompe l’oeil was left behind; often considered to be an “optical trick” rather than “real art,” it was left to professional and amateur painters who engaged in respectable exercises in style, producing endless variations on a limited range of themes. One that was extremely popular with the public, for example, was the trompe l’oeil panel of wood to which

were attached many different kinds of objects—from creased sheets of paper, handwritten letters, newspaper cuttings, printed notices, and engravings to cameos, paintbrushes, and other workaday objects—all depicted in realistic detail. Another form of the trompe l’oeil that experienced a revival in this period was the Renaissance practice of decorating walls and ceilings with illusionistic frescoes opening onto spacious landscapes or vast horizons.

While in Europe the once-popular trompe l’oeil was replaced by the revolutionary novelty of avant-garde movements, in the United States it would enjoy ever-increasing success as artists revitalized the genre and produced arresting illusionistic effects,28 reinterpreting the traditional Dutch still life in a wholly original manner. A family of artists—Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) and his sons and daughters—played a central role in this renewal,29 as may be seen in the many still lifes of Raphaelle Peale (1774–1825). One of his most original works was Venus Rising from the Sea—A Deception (After the Bath); 30 perhaps recalling the story of Parrhasius, who managed to deceive his rival Zeuxis with his painting of a curtain, Peale’s canvas is almost completely taken up by an ample white towel modestly concealing Venus, who has just stepped out of her bath. Indeed, in the title to his work the artist alludes explicitly to his “deception,” using the expedient of the optical illusion conceived and realized with exceptional mastery.

In Poor Artist’s Cupboard (ca. 1815), Charles Bird King (1785–1862) applied his skill as a still life painter to convey a moral message in a work of great emotional intensity.31 He himself earned a certain degree of success by dint of hard work and many sacrifices, but the objects arranged in the niche of this trompe l’oeil speak eloquently of the

Charles Bird King, Poor Artist’s Cupboard, detail, ca. 1815, oil on wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund and exchange).

19

20

Raphaelle Peale, Venus Rising from the Sea– A Deception (After the Bath), ca. 1822, oil on canvas, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 34-147.

Photograph courtesy Nelson-Atkins Media Service/Jamison Miller.

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Charles Bird King, Poor Artist’s Cupboard, (with detail), ca. 1815, oil on wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund and exchange).

William Michael Harnett, After the Hunt, 1885, oil on canvas, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, museum purchase 1954, 954-O-120.

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economic and psychological toll that could be taken on less fortunate artists—from the two battered volumes propped up behind the glass of water, Advantages of Poverty and Pleasures of Hope, to the creased notice on the wall announcing the imminent sale of his remaining possessions.

During the second half of the century, William Michael Harnett (1848–1892) produced trompe l’oeil paintings that were striking for their mimetic realism and original subject matter. In the wake of the Civil War, his paintings evoked an economically stable and quietly “virile” world. His most celebrated work was After the Hunt, painted in 1885. Ignoring convention, Harnett did not send the picture to the prestigious Salon de Paris, but instead unveiled it at a public venue in Manhattan. What is more, in order to stimulate debate and generate publicity, he prepared a theatrical backdrop that further accentuated the illusion created by his work. After the Hunt attracted admiring crowds and a flurry of articles by art critics and journalists whose comments ranged from bemusement to lavish praise.32 During the closing years of the century, John Frederick Peto (1854–1907) returned to a more classical style, producing balanced compositions of objects arranged on a table or shelf, or papers, letters, and newspaper cuttings attached to a panel of wood, employing the stratagem of the rebus to puzzle and beguile his viewers. It would not appear to be a coincidence that the term contrefait (to imitate or faithfully copy), which had been used since the Renaissance, was revived and applied to the genre of the trompe l’oeil by art critics and the press in the United States.33 In 1938, the art dealer Julien Levy (1906–1981), promulgator of surrealism, abstract expressionism, and experiments with every form of the visual arts from photography to cinematography, mounted an exhibition in his New York City gallery entitled Old and New

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Trompe l’Oeil: Illusion, Double Image, Perspective. By juxtaposing works by

past masters and contemporary artists, he set before the viewer the question of the intriguing relationship between trompe l’oeil painting and surrealism (one need only recall the disconcerting canvases of René Magritte [1898–1967] and Salvador Dalí [1904–1989]), which shared the objective of rendering real space illusionistically.34 Levy’s provocative hypothesis would be taken up by Jean Baudrillard, who noted in his book De la séduction the sense of “disquieting extraneousness” that the two forms of visual representation evoked.35 In 1949, an exhibition entitled Illusionism and Trompe l’Oeil opened to great éclat at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, showing works by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Giorgio De Chirico (1888–1978), and Dalí that further contributed to the revival of interest in this style of painting.36 The Mellons’ collection included some important still life / trompe l’oeil paintings by American artists, which they donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Among these are Raphaelle Peale’s beautifully composed Strawberries and Cream (1816) and Still Life with Apples, Sherry, and Tea Cake (1822), as well as several evocative trompe l’oeils by John Frederick Peto including Still Life with Cake, Lemon, Strawberries, and Glass (1890) and Still Life with Oranges and Goblet of Wine (1880–90s).

In France as well, a revival of interest in the trompe l’oeil was beginning in the nineteenth century. At the Salon de Paris held in 1800, a canvas by Louis Léopold Boilly (1761–1845) entitled Collection des dessins created something of a sensation.37 This work depicts a sheaf of sketches en trompe-l’oeil that appear to have been wedged into the picture’s frame, which is real, but whose trompe l’oeil glass appears to be broken in the lower right corner, a motif that was used by artists

John Frederick Peto, Still Life with Oranges and Goblet of Wine, 1880–90s, oil on artist’s board, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.

Raphaelle Peale, Still Life with Apples, Sherry, and Tea Cake, 1822, oil on wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.

Henri Cadiou, La Déchirure (The Tear), 1981, oil on canvas.

Photograph courtesy Joël Cadiou.

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in the eighteenth century.38 The trompe l’oeil was so convincing that many visitors put out a finger in amazement to test the jagged edge of the pane. Another painting of white grapes demonstrates the artist’s skill as a still life painter.39 None of the French trompe l’oeil painters who followed Boilly during the nineteenth century, however, could match his technical skill or originality. Artists such as Albert Casaus, J. Maupin, and L. Touillon generally confined themselves to turning out competent works that simulated collages with the standard assemblage of letters, newspaper cuttings, engravings, maps, playing cards, and even banknotes.40 Then, in the twentieth century, the French painter Henri Cadiou (1906–1989) started a movement which he dubbed “Trompe l’Oeil / Réalité.” Its members, known as the trompe-l’oeillistes, promoted a new form of realism. Galvanized by the work of the surrealists, the trompe-l’oeillistes made use of illusionism to express a very modern aesthetic sensibility. One notable example is Cadiou’s trompe l’oeil La Déchirure (The Tear) (1981), in which a sheet of wrapping paper has been roughly torn to allow a coup d’oeil of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa beneath.41 In his Vestiaire d’usine, the humble belongings of a factory worker are displayed in a realistic still life composition.42 Various exhibitions of Cadiou’s work were held in Paris, beginning with Peintres de la Réalité at the Orangerie in 1934, and were followed by successful shows in Belgium, Luxembourg, and North America. Two other artists of note from the first half of the twentieth century are Pierre Gilou (b. 1938) and Jacques Poirier (1928–2002). The work of Poirier is of particular interest because of the complex cultural allusions that he wove into his compositions.43 It should also be noted that from the 1950s to the 1960s sculptors began to experiment with the creation of hyperrealistic figures using

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sophisticated techniques and materials such as resin, fiberglass, and silicone, of which the startlingly lifelike sculptures by Duane Hanson (1925–1996) were among the earliest. This prompted eminent scholars from the philologist and critic Erich Auerbach (1892–1957) to the art historian Charles Sterling (1901–1991), and the art theorist and perceptual psychologist Rudolf Arnheim (1904–2007), to reflect anew on the nature of perception in critical analyses that extended to the still life and the trompe l’oeil.44

notes 27.

John Ruskin, Modern Painters (New York, 1856), 19–20.

28.

Paul Staiti, “Con Artists: Harnett, Haberle, and Their American Accomplices,” in EbertSchifferer, Deceptions and Illusions, 91–102; Mark Mitchell, “Veri maestri: Il trompe l’oeil in America,” in Giusti, Inganni ad arte, 99–108.

29.

30.

31.

Nicolai Cikovsky, ed., Raphaelle Peale: Still Lifes (Washington, DC, 1988).

Ca. 1822, oil on canvas, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. On the theme of cloth in trompe l’oeil paintings, from canvas and bath towels to precious fabrics, cf. also Henri Cadiou and Pierre Gilou, La peinture en trompe-l’oeil (Paris, 1989), 55–58.

Oil on wood, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund and exchange).

32.

Oil on canvas, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; see Alfred Frankenstein, After the Hunt: William Harnett and Other American Still Life Painters, 1870–1900 (Berkeley, 1969).

33.

Staiti, “Con Artists,” 92.

34.

Old and New Trompe l’Oeil: Illusion, Double Image, Perspective (New York, 1938). Mrs. Mellon was particularly struck by The Basket of Bread (1926, oil on wood panel), a trompe l’oeil painting by Salvador Dalí conserved in the Dalí Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida.

35.

Jean Baudrillard, De la séduction (Paris, 1988).

36.

Illusionism and Trompe l’Oeil: An Idea Illustrated by an Exhibition, with essays by Alfred Frankenstein, Jermayne MacAgy, and T. Carr Hower (San Francisco, 1949).

37.

Private collection, Paris.

38.

Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 140–42.

39.

Raisins blancs, oil on canvas, Musée des BeauxArts de Rouen.

40.

Trompe l’oeil anciens et modernes (Paris, January 1985).

41.

Oil on canvas. Cf. Giusti, Inganni ad arte, 116–17.

42.

1970, oil on wood. Cf. Giusti, Inganni ad arte, 153.

43.

Cadiou and Gilou, La Peinture en trompe-l’oeil.

44.

Erich Auerbach, Mimesis. Dargestellte Wirklinchkeit in der abendländischen Literatur (Bern, 1946); Charles Sterling, La nature morte de l’antiquité à nos jours (Paris, 1952); Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception (Berkeley, 1954).

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“Counterfeit”: The Trompe l’Oeil and Botanical Art I

As already noted, the verb “to counterfeit” denotes the production of a replica or copy of an object that is so realistic it could be mistaken for the object itself. Deployed in treatises on the visual arts since the Renaissance, the word was used in different European languages to refer to the realistic portrayal of natural history specimens. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), in whose writings the term can be found, produced many such counterfeits, demonstrating their ability to imitate “fragments” of the natural world dal vivo so perfectly that the viewer was taken in by the illusionistic effect. The subject portrayed had an almost palpable “presence” that caused the viewer to forget the hand of the artist.45 Thus, the accentuated realism and mimetic precision that had characterized still lifes and trompe l’oeils since their origins were also central to the Renaissance practice of representing the world of nature, particularly subjects such as plants and animals, as is also demonstrated by the floral still life. As early as the second half of the sixteenth century, the first treatises on botany and zoology printed in Europe were also accompanied by illustrations based on drawings dal vivo. This ushered in a completely new pictorial typology, that of the scientific illustration. Such works not only made a fundamental contribution to the birth of modern science, but assumed an important place in the panorama of the visual arts in the early modern age.46 Like the trompe l’oeil, this new genre was based on the art of “showing” (ostensio in Latin) in a clear and tangible manner, referring in particular to the practice of observation and experimentation, two pillars of the scientific revolution. The specimen was first studied and

then portrayed with the greatest possible exactitude. In the following centuries, artists gifted with a “scientific eye” produced paintings on subjects from the natural world that bear numerous analogies to the trompe l’oeil, and Bunny Mellon acquired many such examples for her collection at the Oak Spring Garden Library.

One of the finest practitioners of this form of painting to emerge during the Renaissance was Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627); his portrayals in body color (or tempera)47 of plants and animals from the collections of the Medici family (today conserved in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence) are meticulously accurate but are also suffused with a vivid immediacy. Other outstanding naturalistic painters followed, from Nicolas Robert (1614–1685), peintre en miniature to Louis xiv, to the intrepid naturalist and scientific illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717).

In the nineteenth century, Pierre Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) would earn an international reputation as “the Raphael of flowers” for his exquisite paintings, which are still greatly admired today. 48 In the accurate portrayal of natural specimens, as in the trompe l’oeil, greater understanding of the physical phenomenon of vision played a crucial role. With the invention of the microscope a hitherto invisible world was revealed, from the reproductive parts of the flower to the anatomy of the insect. During the course of the seventeenth century, further important advances in the field of optics were made by scientists such as Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton, whose discoveries markedly influenced the visual arts. 49 In fact, optical devices would play an increasing role in the work of artists. Accustomed to using the microscope as a visual aid in their

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Still Life of Variegated Tulips, Roses, a Hyacinth, a Primrose, a Violet, Forget-me-nots, a Columbine, Lily-of-the-valley, a Cyclamen, a Marigold and a Carnation, all in a glass vase, with a Butterfly and a Housefly, detail, 1606, oil on copper, private collection (previously in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon).

27

Attributed to Simon Bening, Madonna and child and Latin text (with detail) with borders of flowers and insects, body color on vellum, from Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis ad Usum Romanum (Bruges, 1524), folio 103v and 104r Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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work, in the eighteenth century artists began to experiment more often with the possibilities offered by the camera obscura, which used a series of lenses to produce images that were almost photographic in their detail and clarity. The challenge faced by both the scientific illustrator and the trompe l’oeil painter was the same—how to capture their subject matter faithfully and in minute detail—even if in the first case the subject was “live” and “natural” and the artist was seeking to mirror or mimic nature, while in the second case the subject was “inanimate” and “artificial” and the artist’s objective was to recreate the apparent reality of a mise-en-scène.

Many works, however, belong contemporaneously to both genres— the naturalistic illustration and the trompe l’oeil—attracting and enchanting the viewer with a realism that is at once scientific and poetic, and that can be admired by turning the pages of the precious manuscripts and contemplating the paintings hanging on the walls of the Oak Spring Garden Library. Among the many outstanding works are several books of hours, of which one in particular stands out. It is attributable to the Flemish artist Simon Bening (ca. 1483–1561), a gifted miniaturist trained in the Bruges-Ghent School. His work contains superb miniatures of religious scenes and margins decorated with trompe l’oeil images of plants and flowers, drawn from the repertoire of Christian symbology—the rose, violet, columbine, strawberry, daisy, carnation, and lily—together with small birds and insects. Although charged with symbolic meaning, these flowers and animals are depicted in such a realistic style that they could have been plucked from a monastery garden and carefully set down on the page. 50 Among the noteworthy botanical paintings in the Oak Spring Garden Library collection are two large canvases by the Tuscan artist Gerolamo Pini (fl. ca. 1614–15), which represent replicas by the artist’s

hand of two of the three paintings conserved in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. These five paintings are the only known works by the artist to have come down to us. One portrays forty-three exotic flowering plants, mostly bulbous species, surrounding an imposing Iris susiana. In the other, seventy-one different species are arranged around a large Fritillaria imperialis. All of the plants are depicted with great fidelity, in most cases with their bulb, while their brightly colored flowers stand out against the dark brown background of the canvas.

In the lower left corner of each painting is a partially unrolled trompe l’oeil scroll that is held in place by two trompe l’oeil pins. On each are listed the names of the plants depicted in the painting, followed by the signature of the artist and, in the painting featuring the iris, the date 1614. In addition, to heighten the impression of verisimilitude, the Tuscan artist has added a humorous detail familiar to us from the tradition of trompe l’oeil painting—a tiny fly that has alighted on the cartouche in the painting with the fritillary, almost inviting the viewer to swat it. 51 Also of great note in Bunny’s collection is a series of seventeen small trompe l’oeil paintings executed in oil on copper plates by the Flemish artist Jan van Kessel the Elder (1626–1679), which depict plants, flowers, fruit, and insects against a light gray background. In one of the paintings, the artist’s name, written in letters formed from worms and insects, appears together with the date 1658. Van Kessel belonged to the Brueghel dynasty and was well-known in his day for his keenly observed, small-scale paintings on vellum or copper, the latter often used to decorate cabinets and other pieces of furniture. The series in the Oak Spring collection constitutes a harmonious whole that was almost certainly intended to provide a frame of naturalistic motifs around a larger panel. The artist’s technique complemented his

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Gerolamo Pini, Flowers with an iris in the center (with detail), 1614, oil on canvas, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Gerolamo Pini, Flowers with a fritillary in the center (with detail), ca.

1614, oil on canvas, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Jan van Kessel the Elder, Study of plants and insects (with detail), 1653–58, oil on copper, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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interest in the natural world, for the sprigs of delicate flowers, plump little cocoons, colorful butterflies, and tiny insects (including a fly) are painted with painstaking realism, helped by the use of a magnifying glass and perhaps also a microscope. 52 We must also note a truly unusual manuscript that was much admired by Bunny: Recueil de Plantes by Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin (1721–1786), which consists of more than 250 drawings and paintings in pen and ink, wash, red chalk, watercolor, and body color, mostly of plants but also some animals (with a scientific description provided in the lower part of each sheet), produced by the artist over a period of almost fifty years. This collection reflects Saint-Aubin’s exploration of a wide range of styles, techniques, and compositional formulas.

Included are a number of original experiments with the technique of the trompe l’oeil. Many plants seem to have been freshly gathered and laid on the page, while others have been depicted alongside trompe l’oeil drawings or engravings, such as the flowering branch of honeysuckle (Lonicera caprifolium) that protrudes from a partially rolled-up engraving in a device recalling the famous Les misères de la guerre (f. 8)

by Jacques Callot (1592–1635).53 A sprig of jasmine (Jasminum officinale) has been wrapped in a watercolor depicting a palazzo with a garden (f. 2), while a yellow giroflée or wallflower (Erysimum cheiri)54 lies on a sheet of music dedicated to an unknown “Mademoiselle de P.” (f. 46).

Another painting shows the shells of two marine gastropod sea snails (Scalaria epitonium) resting on a leaf of sea kale (Crambe maritima); the author dates the sheet to 1757 and adds that the shells came from India, where they were much prized for their rarity.

Alongside numerous splendid botanical drawings by the artists Nicolas Robert, Maria Sibylla Merian, and Pierre Joseph Redouté are various botanical paintings which Bunny appreciated not only for

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Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin, Honeysuckle with flowers and a scroll with thieves fleeing an inn, watercolor and body color, from Receuil de Plantes Copiées d’ apres Nature par de Saint-Aubin, Dessinateur du Roy Louis xv (1736–85), folio 8, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Still Life of Variegated Tulips, Roses, a Hyacinth, a Primrose, a Violet, Forgetme-nots, a Columbine, Lily-of-the-valley, a Cyclamen, a Marigold and a Carnation, all in a glass vase, with a Butterfly and a Housefly, 1606, oil on copper, private collection (previously in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon).

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Daniel Seghers, Flowers in a glass vase, not dated, oil on copper, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Jacob van Hulsdonck, Still Life of Plums, Cherries, Strawberries, and a Rose, early to mid-seventeenth century, oil on copper, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

their fidelity to nature but also for their trompe l’oeil effects. One of these is Still Life of Variegated Tulips, Roses, a Hyacinth, a Primrose, a Violet, Forget-me-nots, a Columbine, Lily-of-the-valley, a Cyclamen, a Marigold and a Carnation, all in a glass vase, with a Butterfly and a Housefly by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573–1621), which presents a veritable microcosm of the natural world, including a fly that has settled for a brief moment on the table.55 Other examples worth mentioning are the Still Life with

Flowers sitting on a crumbling stone shelf by Johannes Baptiste Fornenburgh (1595–1648/49), Still Life of Plums, Cherries, Strawberries, and a Rose (early to mid-seventeenth century) by Jacob van Hulsdonck (1582–1647), and two paintings on copper by the Dutch Jesuit artist Daniel Seghers (1590–1661), in which elegant bouquets are arranged in glass vases that throw off iridescent reflections.56 Against this rich background, it is not surprising that Paul and Bunny should choose trompe l’oeil—not once, but twice—to decorate their beloved home.

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notes 45.

Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, “Immagine naturalistica: Tecnica e invenzione,” in Natura-Cultura. L’interpretazione del mondo fisico nei testi e nelle immagini, ed. Giuseppe Olmi, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Attilio Zanca (Florence, 2000), 137–38.

51.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 63–66; Fraser, Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Willis, Redouté to Warhol, 48–49; André Chastel, Musca depicta (Milan, 1984); Giotto’s Fly and the Observation of Nature, in Ebert-Schifferer, Deceptions and Illusions, 163–79.

46.

Giuseppe Olmi, “Natura morta e illustrazione scientifica,” in La Natura morta in Italia, ed.

Federico Zeri and Francesco Porzio (Milan, 1989), 1:69–91; Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, The Master of Nature: Aspects of Art, Science, and Humanism in the Renaissance (Princeton, NJ, 1993).

52.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 104–6; Fraser, Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Willis, Redouté to Warhol, 56–59; Ebert-Schifferer, Deceptions and Illusions, 178–79.

53.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 239–45; Fraser, Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Willis, Redouté to Warhol, 17.

54.

Saint-Aubin mistakenly identified this plant as “Leucoyum luteum.”

55.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 95–98.

This work, along with many other paintings and objects from Mrs. Mellon’s collection, was sold at auction in 2014; Sotheby’s Auction: Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, 21–24 November 2014 (New York, 2014), 1:196–201.

56.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 98–99, 100–103.

47.

Body color refers to the water-based medium (thicker than watercolor but not as dense as oils) used by artists up until the modern age.

Tempera often contained “secret” ingredients added by the artists, which are not always easy to identify.

48.

Susan Fraser, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Tony Willis, eds., Redouté to Warhol: Bunny Mellon’s Botanical Art (New York, 2016).

49.

Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi and Alessandro Tosi, eds., Il cannocchiale e il pennello. Nuova scienza e nuova arte nell’età di Galileo (Florence, 2009).

50.

Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora: Flower Illustration from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Time: A Selection of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon (Upperville, VA, 1997); Fraser, Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Willis, Redouté to Warhol.

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A Trompe l’Oeil for the Mellons’ Living Room by Martin Battersby I

From the end of the 1950s to the beginning of the 1960s, two trompe l’oeils were commissioned by the Mellons for their estate at Oak Spring—the first presumably for Paul and the second definitely for Bunny. Like the genre itself, whose subject matter often contains tantalizing enigmas and obscure references, various points in the stories of these two works remain unclear, even to one such as myself who had the rare privilege of spending considerable time studying the collections in the extraordinary library at Oak Spring and passing many congenial hours in the company of Bunny and her husband. Because the documentation relating to these two episodes is meager, it will be necessary to make a few assumptions and use a touch of imagination in order to retrace how they came into being.

There are a few dates that can serve as guideposts to the history of these commissions, which were completed within the space of about two years. One is a handwritten invoice from Martin Battersby dated April 26, 1958, and addressed to “Mrs. Paul Mellon” that reads “For painting on two panels for doors to television screen”; another is the fact that Fernand Renard signed and dated his work in the pavilion of the greenhouse “Renard 1959–1960.” Battersby’s note also specifies the amount due for “one painting…Tilly Losch…framed,” dedicated to Tilly Losch (1903–1975), an aristocrat born in Vienna who established a name for herself as a classical dancer, actress, and painter, but this work is no longer in the collection at Oak Spring.57 The fact that the invoice was addressed to Bunny suggests that the original idea to decorate the cabinet standing to the right of the entrance to the living room at Oak Spring may have come from her.

This piece of furniture contained the family’s television, and one can well imagine the couple feeling that such a modern device hardly fit with the decor of their living room, where they passed many hours when in residence, either in quiet intimacy or in the company of friends and guests, and always for an aperitif before lunch or dinner, and coffee afterward. It may be supposed that the couple discussed how they might keep the television out of sight when it was not in use and finally decided to commission a work of art for this purpose. The idea of concealing the television behind a painting, and what is more a trompe l’oeil containing allusions to the couple’s many interests— particularly those of Paul—must have seemed a particularly apt solution.

As has already been noted, Paul was an Anglophile with a deep-rooted appreciation of English art, history, and culture, so it is not surprising that the couple’s choice for this commission should have fallen upon George Martin Battersby, an English painter who had already gained a considerable reputation for his eclectic talent, which he applied in areas ranging from the decorative arts to the trompe l’oeil. Both Battersby and his patrons were passionate collectors of art and objets d’art, and what is more, Bunny found in him a kindred spirit who shared her love of French culture and her interest in fashion, which drew her first to the work of the couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895–1972) in the mid-1950s, and then to Hubert de Givenchy (1927–2018), who would become a close friend.

A painter with an interest in the theater, as well as a collector, art historian, and author, Battersby was noteworthy for his exquisite taste, creative energy, and readiness to experiment with new art forms.58 Born

Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail of left lower shelf, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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in London in 1914 to a father who was a jeweler, he left school at an early age in order to dedicate himself to the applied arts. He worked as a draftsman for Gill and Reigate of London, a leading firm of antique dealers and interior decorators who specialized in traditional styles. At the same time, he studied architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic, as he notes in his book The Decorative Twenties. This period was followed by a brief apprenticeship at Liberty—the exclusive London shop for fabrics and fine objects for the home—where he gained valuable experience and knowledge as an interior decorator.

Battersby became enamored of the theater after appearing before the footlights in 1933. He enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art the next year, where he studied set design and perfected his French.

He made good use of both skills, gaining a reputation as a scenery designer and spending time in France studying the decorative arts.

He created the sets for the Old Vic’s 1938 production of Hamlet with Laurence Olivier, and in 1945 designed the scenery for three other plays

by William Shakespeare produced at Stratford-upon-Avon.

As his biographer Philippe Garner perceptively observed, “Battersby’s character was well suited to work in the theatre. He was fascinated by the arts of visual illusion, by masks and by the stylization and artifices of the stage. These passions, combined with his graphic skills…provided a basis for the development of another great talent, as a trompe l’oeil painter.”59

Always prepared to explore new forms of visual expression, in his mid-twenties the artist began to take an interest in wall frescoes, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century trompe l’oeil painting, fashion, and antiques after working for the flamboyant antique dealer David Edge. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, he began to assemble his own eclectic collection, which ranged from eighteenth-century

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trompe l’oeil paintings and French furniture to exquisite art nouveau objects, all of which he arranged with great flair in his London flat, first in Kensington and then in Mayfair.

During this period, Battersby not only collected trompe l’oeil paintings, but started producing his own. He exhibited a virtuosity that added to his growing reputation and led to a series of solo exhibitions, beginning at the Brook Street Gallery in London in 1948. Others followed and he was then invited to show his work in the United States, at the Sagittarius Gallery in New York in 1956 and in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1958. It was probably on one of these occasions that he made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Mellon and other American magnates such as Grace Fairfax-Carey, Nathaniel Hill, and Elinor Ingersoll.

Nathaniel Hill was a stockbroker, while his wife Elinor Ingersoll was a director of the Campbell Soup Company and president of the Preservation Society of Newport County. Mrs. Ingersoll had an immense love of French culture, having lived and studied in Paris, and in 1958 she and her husband commissioned Battersby to decorate the dining room of their Newport home—“Bois Doré”—with eleven trompe l’oeil murals. They chose a theme of famous figures often associated with Versailles, from Madame de Pompadour to Louis xiv, Marie Antoinette, Voltaire, and Molière.60 A reproduction of one of these mural paintings appears in Trompe l’Oeil: The Eye Deceived.61 Battersby’s fame continued to spread during the 1960s. In 1964, an exhibition entitled Art Nouveau: The Collection of Martin Battersby was held at the art museum in Brighton, the city where he finally settled and to which he left a large legacy of artwork.62 In 1969, the artist himself curated an exhibition for the Brighton Art Gallery entitled The Jazz Age, An Entertainment, which was inaugurated by the great Franco-Russian artist and designer Erté (1892–1990).

Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil: The Eye Deceived (New York, 1974), frontispiece and title page.

Martin Battersby with his maquette and mural panel for his “Sphinx” room at the Carlyle Hotel, Madison Avenue, New York, 1960. Photograph by Angus McBean, courtesy of Philippe Garner.

In this seaside town, Battersby dedicated himself to writing a series of books, among them The World of Art Nouveau (1966), The Decorative Twenties (1969), The Decorative Thirties (1971), Art Deco Fashion, and Trompe l’Oeil: The Eye Deceived (1974). This last work, published by St. Martin’s Press in New York, was the most substantial and original of his contributions as an art historian (although it lacks a bibliography). In it, Battersby displays his profound knowledge of the subject, writing with authority on the history of the trompe l’oeil from the classical age to the present day. The genre, whose objective in his view was “primarily to puzzle and to mystify,”63 is analyzed in a series of chapters, each

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dedicated to a specific category: Flowers, Sculptures, Rooms, Niches and Cupboards, Papers and Prints, and so on. The volume is illustrated with numerous examples, some of which are well-known and others less so. He included a few of his own works, among them the panel dedicated to Molière that formed part of the already cited “Bois Doré” series commissioned by Mrs. Ingersoll.

Battersby’s trompe l’oeil at Oak Spring was never published, perhaps out of respect for Paul and Bunny’s wish for privacy. It does not appear that the artist remained in contact with his patrons after the completion of the two panels and the purchase of the painting dedicated to Tilly Losch, which will be discussed in the last section of this book.

A large exhibition dedicated to Martin Battersby’s oeuvre was held at the Ebury Gallery in London from February to March 1982, but the artist was too ill to attend the opening and he died in April of the same year.

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Georg Hainz, A Cabinet with Objects of Art, 1665–67, oil on canvas, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

SMK Photograph/Jacob Schou-Hansen.

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Attributed to Domenico Remps, Scarabattolo (Cabinet of Curiosities), ca. 1690, oil on canvas, Museo Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence.

Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring The trompe l’oeil by Martin Battersby was painted in diluted oils on canvas and attached to the two doors of a cupboard that held the family’s television. This cupboard was in turn concealed inside a cabinet designed by Bunny to harmonize with the closed bookshelves that ran along the length of one wall in the living room. Battersby completed the commission—it is not known whether in England or in loco—probably sometime from 1957 to April of the following year, when he submitted an invoice for 900 dollars.

In the composition of this work, the artist drew on his vast knowledge of trompe l’oeil painting, combining tradition with details suggested by his patrons, primarily—it may be conjectured—Paul. This was a practice congenial to the artist and satisfactory to his clients, as is reflected in the many commissions that he received.64 The two panels of the trompe l’oeil each depict three bookshelves whose insides are painted a dusky rose. The shelves are filled with an array of objects reproduced in their actual dimensions and illuminated by a cool, diffuse light (typical of the artist’s palette) falling from the right.

The layout of the composition can be traced back to the seventeenthcentury tradition of the gabinetti di curiosità, such as the already cited A Cabinet with Objects of Art by Georg Hainz (albeit with open shelves rather than a cupboard with doors) and the Scarabattolo attributed to Domenico Remps, both of which drew inspiration from the coeval Wunderkammern and Kunstkammern and are filled with finely crafted artifacts and rare natural history specimens.

In the congeries of objects depicted by Battersby, books predominate and this was no accident. Paul and Bunny were both avid

bibliophiles and extremely well-read. Here there was a felicitous conjunction between their personal interests and the conventions of the genre because books, as shown above, constituted a recurrent theme in the still life and the trompe l’oeil since their inception. The twentieth-century English artist employed this traditional motif and yet, following many conversations with his patrons, found himself painting not merely a trompe l’oeil but—it will be suggested—a conceptual portrait of Paul as well.

On the shelves, a number of handsomely bound volumes are depicted, many with their titles stamped in gold on their spines. These books range from some of the great classics of Western literature to recently published works of a more popular, often satirical nature (Paul was well-known for his coruscating wit), the latter—somewhat incongruously—presented in equally fine leather bindings. The books were most certainly chosen by the Mellons themselves and one can imagine that the process gave the couple many an hour of shared pleasure during the period in which the trompe l’oeil was being composed.

It is reasonable to assume that the volumes depicted in Battersby’s painting could be found in Paul’s library and served as models for the artist, although they have since been dispersed.

The Books in Battersby’s Trompe l’Oeil On the top left bookshelf is an elegant wooden box dating to the eighteenth century, painted a pale blue-gray and decorated with watercolor sketches of country landscapes. The box contains four books with fine leather bindings, but no indications as to their titles or authors. To the right stands a more imposing volume whose beautiful binding

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has a worn, antique air that belies its contents. Stamped in gold on the spine between raised bands and gold decoration are the words “Cardinal / Pirelli / Firbank,” evidently a reference to the last novel by the idiosyncratic English author Ronald Firbank (1886–1926)—Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli—which was published in 1926 (with a much more modest cover). Ronald Firbank studied at Cambridge University (as later would Paul), and in this, his last novel, recounts with biting satire the “eccentricities” of an imaginary cardinal who, among his many antics, baptizes a dog in his cathedral and dies of a heart attack while chasing—in a state of complete undress—a choirboy around the church aisles. Like many of Firbank’s works, it exposes the vacuity of modern society, where superficial, foolish, and corrupt individuals seem to flourish.

On the middle shelf on the left side, leaning against the back wall, is a tall volume with a leather and marbled-paper cover. In front of it are other books arranged in a pile. At the bottom of the stack is a slender volume bound in leather with some indistinct decoration or writing in gold. On this rests a large tome bound in vellum with its top edge facing the viewer and four clearly visible slips of paper serving as bookmarks. The third book in the pile is a smaller, but equally thick volume bound in white leather whose spine, traversed by five raised bands, carries the words written in brownish-red ink, “Ariosto / Orlando Furioso / Venetia 1630.” This is a copy of the epic poem by the sixteenth-century Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533), published in an exceptional edition with commentary and illustrations in Venice in 1630 by Niccolò Misserini. Next to it lies a fourth book that cannot be identified as its spine is not visible.

Resting on this is an English edition of the masterpiece War and Peace

by Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910); it is opened to its title page, although the author’s name and the publisher’s imprint are hidden by the book in front of it. It is also surprisingly slender, suggesting that this edition may have consisted of more than one volume.

Leaning at an angle against these volumes is a book, elegantly bound in leather with raised bands, gold decoration, and the words “Trompe / l’oeil / by / Martin / Battersby” stamped on its spine. Here the artist has followed a widespread practice among trompe l’oeil artists and wittily camouflaged his signature in the painting.

The back wall of the lowest shelf is almost completely taken up by a large volume bound in brown leather and decorated with an alternating pattern of fleurs-de-lis and the monogram “MB,” once again denoting Battersby’s signature. Three other volumes with fine bindings and decoration occupy the shelf, but none of them carries a title or the author’s name on its spine.

On the top right-hand shelf are two small volumes: the first bears the title “The Young Visitors” [sic] on its spine, while on the second appear the words “Ovid” and below “Venetia / 1632.”

The Young Visiters, or, Mr Salteena’s Plan is a Victorian novella penned by the English writer Daisy Ashford (1881–1972) when she was just nine years of age. Rediscovered by Ashford many years later, it underwent a complicated gestation involving numerous revisions before finally being published in London in 1919, more or less in its original form complete with spelling mistakes, with an introduction by J. M. Barrie (1860–1937), the author of Peter Pan, or, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. Ashford’s novella provides an ingenuous, but inadvertently critical

Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, ca. 1959, cupboard with two doors, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail of right middle shelf, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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“child’s-eye view” of the class system in England, recounting the futile efforts of Alfred Salteena, “an elderly man of 42,” to become a gentleman.

The book was an immediate success, in part because many readers believed that it was actually a brilliant hoax written by J. M. Barrie himself. Its authenticity was, however, confirmed and this interesting piece of juvenilia has come to be regarded as a minor masterpiece of serious satire that confronts the obstacles to social mobility. The story was adapted for the stage in 1920, enjoying successful runs in both London and New York.

The original binding of the first edition of The Young Visiters was a simple affair, and a copy perhaps lay in the living room, where it would have been read and discussed with appreciative laughter by the couple. That the books in the trompe l’oeil bookcase should have included not only Ovid and Ariosto, but the aesthete Firbank’s Cardinal Pirelli and a “society novella” by a child shows that the couple’s approach to reading was open-minded, cultured, and not at all elitist or pedantic.

The second volume depicted is probably Ovid’s Metamorphosis: Englished, mithologiz’d, and represented in figures, a translation by George Sandys (1578–1644) of the famous poem by the Roman poet Ovid (43 bce– 17/18 ce). It is known that Paul possessed a copy of this rare edition that, contrary to what is written on the spine of the trompe l’oeil volume, was printed not in Venice but in Oxford by John Lichfield in 1632. In fact, no editions of the Metamorphoses were published in Venice in 1632 and in any case it is likely that Paul would have preferred to have an English translation of this great work of Latin literature.

On the middle shelf is just one volume—an English edition of Candide, the captivating philosophical novella by Voltaire (1694–1778) to which the Mellons must have felt a particular affinity, having asked

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the artist to feature it prominently in the composition. A thread of intelligent and biting irony runs through the story of Candide, a naive hero whose unlikely adventures unfold in the mid-eighteenth century in settings ranging from Germany, Holland, and Spain to South America and Turkey, yet contain reflections on society and politics that remain pertinent today. The author presents a disenchanted vision of human nature, exposing its hypocrisy and the “léthargie de l’ennui,” but also offers much food for thought and wise suggestions on how to live a positive life.

Candide was an extraordinary success across Europe when it appeared in 1759; an English translation—Candid: Or, All for the Best—was published in London by the printer and bookseller John Nourse in the same year. The volume depicted here is a rare English edition printed in Dublin in the same year by James Hoey Jr. and William Smith Jr. that bears the same title as the English translation by John Nourse, which Battersby has faithfully copied in his trompe l’oeil.

The moral of Voltaire’s tale, as encapsulated by Candide in the closing scene—“Il faut cultiver notre jardin”—was not at all to turn one’s back on the world and think only of oneself. It is rather an invitation to act in a positive manner, in accordance with one’s abilities and the opportunities that offer themselves. This philosophy must have appealed greatly to both of the Mellons, and it can be imagined that Bunny found the celebrated metaphor of the garden especially meaningful, for she dedicated her life to the cultivation not only of her own garden, but also the vaster garden of knowledge and culture.

The bottom shelf on the right is largely taken up by a manuscript, Rays of Genius, collected to enlighten the rising generation (London, 1806), by the celebrated English calligrapher Thomas Tomkins (1743–1816). It is propped open to the first page of a section on the history of painting.

Although this page is partially hidden behind a pearly nautilus shell and a stuffed dove, one can admire the fine calligraphy and decorative flourishes of the author and read, “In Ancient Times, when Painting first began. A Pen, or Chalk, thus imitated Man…Distribution of…Musick to the Ears.” Tomkins kept a writing school in London, and was a friend of the poet, writer, and lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) and of various artists, including Joshua Reynolds (1732–1792), who painted an amiable portrait of him. Among his other achievements, Tomkins designed the title page and dedication page for Robert John Thornton’s (1768–1837) magnificent flower book The Temple of Flora. Bunny acquired several copies of this florilegium, which, with its thirty-one folio-size color plates executed by various artists using techniques from engraving to mezzotint, may be considered one of the most outstanding volumes in the Oak Spring Garden Library.65 To the left of Tomkins’s Rays of Genius stands a tall, slender, leather-bound book bearing the words “Vathek” and “Horace Walpole” on its spine; this was evidently an edition consisting of two novels—Vathek, an Arabian Tale by William Beckford (1760–1844) and The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1717–1797)—both of which were veritable best sellers in their time.66 Vathek is an erotic fantasy set in the Orient and modeled on the works of Voltaire and the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814). Originally written in French, it was translated and published in English in 1787.

The author, William Beckford, was a London-born novelist, traveler, art critic, and collector who inherited a fortune on the death of his father. This allowed him to amass a noteworthy collection of books and works of art and to build the (now lost) Gothic Revival country house Fonthill Abbey. His novel Vathek served as an inspiration to many other writers, including the poet Lord Byron (1788–1824). Scholarly

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Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail of right lower shelf, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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interest in the work was revived by the Bulgarian literary theorist Tzvetan Todorov, and an elegant edition of Vathek was published in Italian by Franco Maria Ricci in 1978 as part of its series La Biblioteca di Babele, edited by Jorge Luis Borges.

The second work in the trompe l’oeil volume is The Castle of Otranto, a novel by Horace Walpole published in 1764 in London. Its formula, which combines medievalism, horror, and romance, was so successful that it gave rise to a new literary genre—the Gothic novel—and indeed the second edition of The Castle of Otranto bore the subtitle “A Gothic Story.” This form of literature spread across Europe from the end of the eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century and remains popular to this day. The author, who was the son of the British statesman Sir Robert Walpole (1676–1745), studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and came into a peerage as the 4th Earl of Orford. He became an expert on the arts and antiquities, compiling what was perhaps the first comprehensive biographical history of the arts in England, Anecdotes of Painting in England. Walpole’s literary reputation rests on his remarkable novel and on his vast correspondence, which has been assembled and published in a scholarly edition of forty-eight volumes by Yale University Press.

Fantastical and brilliantly written, Vathek and The Castle of Otranto both left their mark on English culture between the Enlightenment and the pre-Romantic period, and Paul must have found them greatly to his taste. Perhaps he also felt a certain affinity with their authors— wealthy, well-connected, and among the most cultivated literary men of their age.

The third book on this shelf, which has a bookmark of white cardboard between its pages, carries on its spine the words “Poems” and “Donne.” This is a volume devoted to the poetry of John Donne

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(1572–1631)—poet, essayist, Church of England cleric, and one of the leading thinkers of the post-Elizabethan age. Donne experienced at first hand the difficulties of this period of transition and the religious tensions between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. He drew inspiration for his poems and ideas for his essays from sources ranging from medieval tradition to the scientific revolution and, following a fresh evaluation beginning in the nineteenth century, there has been a revival of interest in his work.

It is not surprising that Paul should have asked Battersby to include in his composition a volume dedicated to John Donne. One need only think of the celebrated line from Meditation xvii in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, “No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the maine,” which Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) used as the epigraph to his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and which chimed so well with Paul’s strong sense of ethics and his generosity as a philanthropist. Among the books in his final donation to the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, was a copy of Donne’s Complete Poetry and Selected Prose published in London in 1929, with a binding quite similar to that in Battersby’s trompe l’oeil, and which may have served as a model for the artist.

Other Objects in Battersby’s Trompe l’Oeil Intermingled with the books on the trompe l’oeil bookshelves is a fascinating collection of objects. While the volumes depicted were almost certainly chosen by Paul, the artist was in all likelihood invited to suggest other elements for his composition. Thus there are

Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail of right upper shelf, ca.

1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail of left middle shelf, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

subjects linked to the traditional iconography of the still life and the trompe l’oeil, which were no doubt identified after ample discussion and brought together to convey moral messages that are not difficult to decipher, even if they are couched in metaphorical language.

On the top right-hand shelf of the bookcase, resting on an ivorycolored napkin decorated with a paisley and floral motif in blue, is a cluster of purple grapes, perhaps a reference to the famous contest between Zeuxis and Parrhasius and the importance of painting pictures that are a faithful reflection of reality. An exotic moth (probably Chrysiridia rhipheus) is posed on one of the berries. Insects constituted a regular feature in still life, floral, and vanitas paintings and were invested with many meanings, among them the notion of the beauty but also the transience of human existence. Next to the moth, the artist has depicted, quite deliberately it may be presumed, the shell of a large green turban sea snail (Turbo marmoratus). Seashells often featured alongside other natural history specimens in the cabinets of collectors in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In addition, they were a favorite subject for artists, who were attracted by the variety, harmony, and elegance of their forms. With their uncompromising materiality, they served as symbols of knowledge and immortality.

Two shells also appear on the lowest shelf to the left—a young green turban snail and the cross section of a Nautilus pompilius revealing the beautiful spiral of its chambers. Once again, the artist contrasts the permanence and solid materiality of these objects with the ephemeral existence of an insect—a small yellow butterfly (perhaps a cloudless sulphur from the Pieridae family), the quintessential symbol of change and metamorphosis, which has alighted on an hourglass, another symbol of the passage of time. Also on the lowest shelf, and to the right, Tomkins’s book is propped open by a second pearly Nautilus pompilius.67

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Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail of left upper shelf, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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A variety of other objects populate this scene. Tucked into the elegant box on the top left-hand shelf (which has already been mentioned and, it may be guessed, belonged to Bunny) is a gleaming blue satin ribbon from which hangs a modern cameo framed in gold and bearing the image of an African woman wearing an earring. Cameos and other artifacts have always been much sought after by collectors, appearing in the paintings of curio cabinets such as those of Hainz and Remps.

In keeping with the tradition of the trompe l’oeil, Battersby inserted into his composition objects that belong to the category of “Papers and Prints,” as he referred to them in his book on the history of the genre—letters, postcards, printed matter, and even, given his interest in collecting, “paintings [or drawings or engravings] within a painting.” Thus, behind the box on the top left shelf, attached with brass thumbtacks to the back wall, is a sheet containing sketches of scrolls. Fixed to the edges of the second shelf on the left by thumbtacks is an engraving on an oblong sheet that, judging from its creases, had originally been folded accordion-style; it depicts an obelisk on a pedestal embellished with four heads shown in profile and framed by leafy branches. The Egyptian obelisk, together with the sphinx, fascinated the English artist and he incorporated them more than once in his trompe l’oeil compositions, which were often inspired by the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean.68 Propped casually against the back wall behind the volume of Candide is a black, gray, and white wash drawing on blue paper of a winged female figure with flowing drapery.

A touch of elegance is provided—perhaps on the suggestion of Bunny—by a footed silver cup holding a beautiful white carnation streaked with magenta. Both she and her husband were particularly

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fond of this flower and she had a large collection of them in her garden at Oak Spring. It is pertinent to note that in the history of painting and the “language of flowers,” the carnation has often been used as a symbol of love and as such was depicted in portraits from the Golden Age of Dutch painting.69 Perhaps the most poignant message in this painting is its appeal for peace. Held in place by the pile of books culminating in the copy of War and Peace are two stalks of wheat, the symbol of prosperity since the time of the ancient Romans.70 One is bent at an angle so that it points directly at the hourglass, which is counterpoised by the white dove standing on a wooden perch on the opposite shelf.71 The message is clear—wisdom and inspiration should be drawn from the great minds of the past and peace, well-being, and tolerance around the world must be defended.

What is quite striking about the trompe l’oeil by Battersby is the contrast it presents between the apparent immediacy of the moment captured—with books left open by their owner, loose drawings tacked to the shelves, butterflies about to take wing—and the quality of perfect stillness that imbues the picture, with each object seemingly frozen in time as the sands of the hourglass slowly run out.

notes 57.

Oak Spring Garden Foundation archives.

The present whereabouts of this painting are unknown.

58.

Philippe Garner, “Martin Battersby: A Biography,” in The Decorative Twenties, by Martin Battersby (London, 1988).

59.

Garner, “Martin Battersby,” 9.

60.

Cf. “Sleight of eye: in seven houses,” Vogue, February 15, 1960, 138.

61.

Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 18.

62.

John Morely, “Martin Battersby,” Journal of Decorative Society 1890–1940, no. 7 (1983): 5–8.

63.

Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 19.

64.

Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 18, 64.

65.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 354–58; Nicholas Barker, Treasures of the British Library (London, 2005), 95.

66.

This volume is probably Vathek / by William Beckford. The Castle of Otranto / by Horace Walpole / The Bravo of Venice… .by M. G. Lewis, published in London by Bentley in 1836.

67.

Seashells were often depicted by artists in still lifes and trompe l’oeils. Among the many examples, see Georg Hainz, A Cabinet with Objects, ca. 1666, oil on wood, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Filippo Napoletano, Due conchiglie, 1619, oil on canvas, Villa di Poggio a Caiano, Florence; Balthasar van der Ast, Still Life with Shells, ca. 1640, oil on panel, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,

Rotterdam; and Adriaen Coorte, Cinq coquillages sur une tranche de pierre and Six coquillages sur une tranche de pierre (two pendant paintings), 1696, oil on paper on wood, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

68.

Mural decoration for Lady Kenmare, Villa La Fiorentina, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, in Garner, “Martin Battersby,” 15.

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Among the many examples, cf. Joos van Cleve, L’Empereur Maximilien tenant un oeillet, 1510, oil on panel, Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris; Hans Memling, Portrait of a Man with Carnation, 1475, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; Rembrandt van Rijn, Portrait of Saskia with a Red Carnation, 1641, oil on oak, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden.

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Stalks of wheat appear in vanitas paintings by Cornelis Norbertus Gysbrechts conserved in the collections of the Musée des beaux arts de Rennes and the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen.

71.

It recalls Pablo Picasso’s famous La Colombe (1949), emblem of the World Congress of Peace Partisans held in Paris in 1949.

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The Decoration of the Greenhouse by Fernand Renard I

Bunny inherited a passion for gardening from her maternal grandfather.

As her own knowledge of gardening and garden history grew, she came to appreciate the activity as a rich and complex cultural phenomenon, a harmonious convergence of nature, botany, horticulture, art, and material culture that was perfectly consonant with her own interests, tastes, and aspirations as a gardener. It was this vision that inspired her, not only in the layout of the grounds for the family’s new home, a gracious mansion of whitewashed stone at Oak Spring, but also in the building of a formal greenhouse to complement the estate’s vast expanse of flower beds, orchards, lawns, and meadows, in which she could carry out horticultural experiments and cultivate seedlings and plants for her garden.

All of Bunny’s gardening projects reflected her refined intuition, but she allowed herself to be influenced by examples from the past, finding ideas that she could apply in a manner that harmonized with her own vision for her garden. Thus, she turned to the French tradition for the design of her formal greenhouse, which was then constructed by the New York architect H. Page Cross (1910–1975). A brief letter from Bunny’s secretary to the architect sent early in 1959 shows how closely she followed the project from beginning to end. After providing Cross with Renard’s address, which he had apparently requested, the letter continues, “Mrs. Mellon also asked me to say…that she is not yet ready to go ahead with the greenhouse. She is sure you understand that she does not want you to go ahead, but she wanted to make certain there would be no misunderstanding as she will want to make some modifications.”72 The formal greenhouse was no mere conservatory, but a carefully designed and functional building consisting of two long wings, each

wide enough to accommodate two rows of plantings—one bed along the inner stone wall and a bench along the length of the outer glass wall. Bunny then devised a pleasing architectural feature to vary the utilitarian aspect of the building—a quadrangular pavilion intended to serve as a vestibule with a hidden workbench, while also providing access to the two wings, each of which ends with its own small pavilion. The vestibule is a beautiful and unusual space, with diffuse light streaming through the glass doors to the right and left, and evocations of eighteenth-century French Orientalism in its architecture and decor.

Perched on the roof of the pavilion is a lead urn in the eighteenthcentury style containing a magnificent floral arrangement beautifully wrought from several kinds of metals. This piece of garden sculpture was conceived by Jean Schlumberger (1907–1987), a French jewelry designer who came to the United States after the Second World War and became one of Tiffany & Co.’s most celebrated collaborators. Bunny admired the sophistication and imagination of the artist’s work, which included a vein of whimsy, particularly in his interpretations of nature.

She and “Johnny” became close friends and in 1959–60 she asked him to propose some ideas for the decoration of her greenhouse. In the archives of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation are eight studies by the artist pertaining to this commission.73 Bunny devoted a great deal of thought to the layout, furnishing, and decoration of her pavilion. She had wooden cupboards built into the walls of the room, drawing inspiration from L’Art du Menuisier (The Art of the Joiner), an exhaustive treatise on woodworking that was published in several volumes from 1769 to 1774 by the celebrated Parisian cabinetmaker André Jacob Roubo (1739–1791) under the

Bunny Mellon in her formal greenhouse at Oak Spring, 1962. Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photography, New York.

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Three architectural plan proposals from Cross & Son Architects: “Central Block of Greenhouse for Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA, Feb. 21, 1958” (above); “Greenhouse for Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA, Made

by C. Handback Jan. 26, 1959,” (left); “Mellon Greenhouse Made by C. Handback, Rec’d 2/4/59” (right), Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Jean Schlumberger, Design sketch and photograph of the finial on the formal greenhouse, a vase with flowers, ca. 1960, Gerard B. Lambert Foundation and Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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André Jacob Roubo, Elévation Géométrale d’un Salon de Treillage Accompagné de Galeries de Deux Differentes Décorations, folded engraving, from L’art du treillageur, ou Menuiserie des jardins (Paris, 1775), plate 365, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Formal greenhouse at Oak Spring, ca. 1960s. Photograph

by Louis Reens.

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auspices of the Académie royale des sciences. The son and grandson of master cabinetmakers, André Jacob Roubo added to his training an apprenticeship under the architect Jean François Blondel (1681–1756). 74 His manual was a true product of the Enlightenment and reflected its ideals, which included a respect for the work of the craftsman and an appreciation of the role played by material culture not only in the economy of the country, but also in its history and culture. It is worth noting that the seventeen volumes of Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie—significantly subtitled Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers—and its eleven volumes of Planches contain many entries on tools and machines complete with illustrations.

Similarly, Roubo’s manual was accompanied by 389 engravings based on drawings by the author, which depict every imaginable type of furnishing that could be made out of wood—from decorative paneling and furniture to carriages and even stages, sets, and machinery for the theater. Of particular interest to Bunny was the section on L’art du treillageur, ou Menuiserie des jardins, which presents garden furnishings (with diagrams, elevations, and enlarged details) ranging from benches and planters to various types of treillages or trellises; indeed, she adopted some of Roubo’s trellis designs for her own garden. Thus, she had the quadrangular vestibule entirely lined with cupboards, providing useful storage space and even a small cubicle to serve as a workbench and potting space concealed behind a pair of folding doors. Such was Bunny’s passion for detail that the cupboard doors are furnished with charming replicas of antique French handles made of iron cast in the form of a hand clutching a rod.

Bunny would go much further, however, and her vision transformed the greenhouse vestibule into a work of art that reflected her personality and interests. She decided to have the room decorated

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en trompe-l’oeil to give the impression that one was entering the studiolo

of a Renaissance scholar and student of the science of nature. Like the study of Federico da Montefeltro, the cupboards lining the vestibule have been disguised by a series of trompe l’oeil shelves and cabinets.

The walls are decorated with a motif of slender lengths of bamboo arranged in geometric patterns against a pale blue-green background, all directly inspired by Roubo and the eclectic vogue for chinoiserie in eighteenth-century France. The trompe l’oeil cabinets at floor level are embellished with the same bamboo latticework against a celadon-green background, with the addition of a sheaf of wheat—the symbol of agriculture for the French Republic—at the center of each pair of trompe l’oeil cabinet doors.75 This use of trompe l’oeil painting to disguise the real furnishings is a pleasing conceit, but what makes the decoration so original is that it consists of trompe l’oeil shelves filled with a vast array of objects both large and small, precious and ordinary, that invite perusal one by one.

In fact, Bunny’s vision of what the room should look like and signify took her well beyond mere embellishment. While the objects depicted are all linked to her beloved garden, the composition is reminiscent of the paintings of cabinets of curiosities executed in the rigorously realistic style of the trompe l’oeil.

The painter chosen for this commission was also French—Fernand Renard, born in Paris in 1912, but of whom little more is known.76 He showed a gift for drawing at an early age and was encouraged to enroll at the École des arts plastiques in Paris, where he studied the decorative arts and fresco painting. After leaving school, he found employment designing commercial advertisements and cinema posters.

A poster with the faces of the comedians Laurel and Hardy, drawn by him for a movie theater, still survives. After collaborating for a short

Fernand Renard, ca. 1970.

Photograph by Derry Moore.

period with the painter Auguste Desiré Parus (dates unknown) as a glass decorator, Renard’s career was abruptly interrupted by the war.

He joined the French army in 1939, was imprisoned by the Germans, and returned to France in 1945.

Settling once again in Paris, he picked up the threads of his life and his career with some difficulty, and began painting still lifes.

Various exhibitions of his work were held, through which he earned a degree of recognition and had the opportunity to meet patrons of the arts from both sides of the Atlantic. While the roots of his style lay in the tradition of the northern European painters of the seventeenth century and in the French school of still life painting, Renard would later declare that his art was inspired by “my desire to evoke the significance and the charm the subject holds for me, and also by my desire to create, in the end, a beautiful object.”77 His pictures had a particular appeal for English and American collectors; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the socialite Anne Ford Johnson (who served on the White House Fine Arts Committee under the Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy administrations and on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) acquired more than one painting by Renard for their collections.78 Several paintings by Renard were also acquired by William Perry (1910–1993), a classmate of Paul’s at Yale and a neighbor of Bunny and Paul, at Oak Spring. Various still lifes and trompe l’oeils by Renard’s hand occasionally resurface at art auctions, primarily in the United States.

It is possible that Bunny’s attention was drawn to the artist by Frederick P. Victoria, who, according to surviving accounts, befriended Renard in the 1950s.79 Victoria was a well-known antique dealer in New York City who also provided decorating services, serving as an intermediary between wealthy clients and fine furniture makers, artisans,

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Note card to Bunny from Fernand Renard (front), Four baskets, three eggs, and two bamboo sticks, 1964, body color drawing, Gerard B. Lambert Foundation.

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Four preliminary pencil drawings, one with body color, of the Oak Spring formal greenhouse, possibly by Fernand Renard, not dated, Gerard B. Lambert Foundation.

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Fernand Renard, Initial maquette proposal for the formal greenhouse, diluted oils on canvas, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

and artists. Alternatively, Bunny could have met Renard through Paul Manno, a friend of Victoria and manager of the New York office of Maison Jansen, a celebrated Parisian firm of interior decorators that would later participate in the redecoration of the White House (1961–63) for First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (1929–1994). It seems that the French painter decorated various pieces of furniture for Maison Jansen.80 There is a wardrobe decorated in trompe l’oeil that Stéphane

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Boudin of Maison Jansen installed for Jacqueline Kennedy in her White House dressing room.81 While perhaps not by Renard, it does reflect the taste of the period for such refined effects.

It can be assumed that the artist began the greenhouse project at Oak Spring in 1959 and completed it the following year. He left his signature and the date—“Renard 1959–1960”—on one of the trompe l’oeil panels on the north wall of the vestibule.

Renard’s Initial Proposals for the Greenhouse Trompe l’Oeil In seeking to meet the expectations of his cultivated and exacting patron, the decoration of the greenhouse must have presented the artist with quite a few compositional challenges. Many discussions were probably held before Bunny approved the final version and the phases in this process can be at least partially retraced in surviving proposals.

A sketch by Renard, painted on canvas and glued to a cardboard backing board, still exists and provides evidence of the design process.82 It depicts a trompe l’oeil cabinet made of yellowish-brown wood decorated with strips of bamboo arranged in a geometric pattern. Closed cupboards form the base, supporting a set of four open shelves on

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which a variety of objects have been arranged, beginning with some splendid pieces of antique porcelain: a large serving bowl; a tureen with a cover imitating an arrangement of vegetables; a plate decorated with a motif of leaves, butterflies, and insects; and porcelain tureens and boxes in the form of a cauliflower, a bundle of white asparagus, and a lemon complete with a leaf. The Mellons owned a fine collection of rare porcelain, which Bunny sometimes used to decorate her table when entertaining guests for lunch or dinner.83 In this composition, the artist is obviously playing with the theme of the difference between reality and artifice. Alternating with the pieces of porcelain are some real fruits and vegetables—a basket of lemons sits on the shelf beneath the ceramic citrus; a small, covered tureen in the form of an artichoke with a bird-shaped handle sits on the top shelf, while a real artichoke of another variety lies on its side on the bottom shelf. Also portrayed in an almost desultory manner are a real pear, persimmon, and bunch of asparagus arranged side by side with other objects: a hanging basket containing three eggs, three feathers in a terra-cotta cup, two small seashells, a glass vase containing two carnations, a matching pair of bird statuettes with two cornflowers lying at the feet of one of them, an airmail envelope addressed to “Madame Paul Mellon,” an hourglass, a large die, and a delicate china cup in the form of a striated tulip that holds some cigarettes. The artist has also inserted a passing reference to the country of his birth (and to Bunny’s love of all things French) in the form of a tricolor ribbon looped around one of the bamboo rods that visually separate the shelves into three compartments.84 In the restrained composition proposed by Renard, a small number of carefully chosen objects, featuring pieces from the Mellons’ collection of porcelain, have been meticulously arranged. Bathed in a

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golden-green light, they seem to be suspended in a world of absolute stillness lying outside of time. In this rarefied atmosphere, even the eggs in their basket appear to float as if in a painting by Magritte. As will be seen, however, Bunny had an entirely different visual idea in mind—an exuberantly chaotic arrangement of everyday objects, each of which was in some way significant to her: the gardening tools that she always had to hand; plant pots, labels, and bits of broken terra-cotta; a variety of baskets; odd objects that she came across and kept just because she liked their shapes; and of course flowers, fruits, and vegetables from her garden. She wanted the objects in her trompe l’oeil to be imbued with an uncompromising corporeality, an effect that was further accentuated by Renard’s chiaroscuro lighting.

Other material in the archives of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation reveals that much work and discussion was necessary before the final design was approved. In particular, there is a small threedimensional paper model in pencil, watercolor, and body color with a proposal for the decoration of the greenhouse vestibule, which now depicts shelves crowded with a variety of objects. Attached to it is a maquette for the ceiling decoration. 85 The color scheme for the cabinets remained the warm, yellowish-brown tone of Renard’s first project, while the domed ceiling (embellished with the same bamboo motif) was tinted a pleasing pale blue-green, the background color that Bunny finally chose for the room. Recently, another eight sketches have come to light in which the artist and patron were clearly working out the grouping of the objects and the sequence of the panels, compositional solutions which, however, were not all incorporated into the final design. They provide a fascinating insight into the creative process and the close collaboration that led to the final result one can see today. 86

Fernand Renard, Later maquette proposal for the formal greenhouse, diluted oils on canvas, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

The decoration of the greenhouse must have constituted a pivotal moment in Renard’s career as an artist. From that time forward, he would concentrate on painting still lifes, mostly arrangements of fruit, but also flowers and shells, many of which recall the objects in the trompe l’oeil at Oak Spring. During the following decade or so, various exhibitions of his work were held, primarily in New York City. In 1961, and therefore just one year after he completed his commission for Bunny, the Carstairs Gallery in New York organized a show of about twenty of his paintings. In the catalog, Renard described himself as a “painter of reality” and stated “the necessity for painting to depict the truth.” The Hammer Galleries in New York presented several exhibitions of his work, first in 1968 and then in 1972, 1973, and 1975. 87

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In the archives of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation are a few letters sent by Renard to his patron. Of particular interest is a letter posted from Viviers on July 15, 1960, in which Renard thanks Bunny for telephoning him during his stay in Paris and mentions some mutual “American friends,” in particular a certain “Johnny” (Schlumberger) and his sister Jacqueline. In a second, more candid letter sent on December 18, 1961, from 10, rue Fargeau in Paris, Renard informs Bunny that his father is in poor health, and then expresses his fear that she was perhaps disappointed with his work, along with his sincere regret that this might be so. However their contact continued until at least 1978, and he was also an acquaintance during the 1960s and 1970s of Bunny’s daughter Eliza Lloyd Moore and her then husband Derry Moore.88

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Fernand Renard, Further set of maquette proposals for the formal greenhouse, body color drawings, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Bunny Mellon in her formal greenhouse, ca. 1960, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

The Completion of the Greenhouse

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A charming photograph (see page 103), probably taken in 1960, shows Bunny in the vestibule of her greenhouse, smiling and holding a basket.89 The trompe l’oeil decoration of the room appears to be complete.

It obviously constituted an extraordinary collaborative undertaking between the artist Fernand Renard and Bunny Mellon, whose role could be likened to that of a Renaissance patron of the arts. She made clear her wishes with regard to every aspect of the commission: the overall composition of the work, the themes linking its various parts, the objects that she wanted to be included and how they should be arranged, and finally the sequence to be followed in assembling the various parts of this complex work. For his part, Renard brought to the enterprise not only his technical skill in the rendition of the physicality of objects, but also suggestions based on his extensive knowledge of the European, and in particular the French, tradition of the genre, which often featured shelves bearing a miscellaneous collection of objects. He could have pointed out many examples, such as the Trompe-l’oeil à la statuette d’Hercule by Jean Valette-Falgores Penot (1710–after 1777). 90 From this joint effort an extremely sophisticated work came into being, in a creative process that granted the two parties the opportunity to interact in a unique fashion. An allusion to this conjunction of two distinctive, intelligent, and cultivated minds may be found on one of the shelves, where Renard painted a vase holding a French flag.

The final work, painted in diluted oils, portrays hundreds of objects in their natural dimensions, some quite large and others very small, in a recreation of Bunny’s world. As was so often the case in still lifes from

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Bunny Mellon in her formal greenhouse, 1982. Photograph by Fred Conrad.

the past, each object was invested with personal meaning or references to the patron’s family and friends. However, unlike the trompe l’oeil painted by Martin Battersby, which contains objects that in large part allude to the ideals and cultural preferences of Paul, the panels painted for the greenhouse did not indulge in any form of veiled symbolism.

This would have been inconsistent with the fundamentally open and extroverted personality of his patron. Bunny usually sought to guard her privacy, but in what was quintessentially “her realm”—the garden at Oak Spring—she was willing to show an important side of herself through a selection of objects that could “tell her story.”

Upon crossing the threshold of the pavilion, one finds oneself in a place like no other. The pronounced three-dimensionality of the trompe l’oeil shelves filled with an array of objects form a veritable continuum that may generate surprise, or even a slight sense of vertigo and claustrophobia, despite the glass doors to the left and right that open onto the two wings of the greenhouse, providing a light-filled vista of long rows of carefully tended plants. The enclosed space of the room is amplified by a multiplicity of perspectives that create, through the optical illusion of this pictorial cycle, the sensation of entering a world of “circular time” (to borrow an expression from Jorge Luis Borges), in which one is forced to return again and again to things already seen, as if standing in a hall of mirrors.

The initial impression of chaotic profusion and horror vacui dissipates, however, as one turns around the room and begins to focus on the objects one by one. It then becomes clear that they have actually been quite carefully chosen and arranged, and the result is an intricate series of still lifes composed—as Baudrillard perceptively observed—of “banal” and heterogeneous objects that have accumulated over time, as such things tend to do. For the most part they belong to the material

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, details from west wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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culture of mid-twentieth-century America and in particular to the activity of gardening, but they were objects to which Bunny assigned a value that was anything but abstract and theoretical.

Banal they may be, captured by the artist and portrayed on the trompe l’oeil shelves of the greenhouse with no ostentatious display of erudition, and yet—divested of their original functions and decontextualized—these objects take on an independent existence, living their own “silent lives,” immobile and passive, in an almost metaphysical dimension. With their invitation to silent contemplation, these objects speak for their owner directly and eloquently, conveying her thoughts and the sources of her inspiration.91 It will not be possible to give here a circumstantial account of every item depicted in the greenhouse trompe l’oeil; however, a summary is provided in the detailed description that accompanies this essay (pages 115–126).

At first glance, the shelves of Bunny’s imaginary Wunderkammer are filled with a seemingly haphazard collection of tools and other materials familiar to every gardener, from pruning shears in different sizes to spades, dibbers, a trowel, a scythe, balls of string, a spool of wire, lengths of raffia and leather straps, stakes with labels on which the names of plants could be written, bamboo poles, a hammer, wooden pegs, even some nails. Half hidden on one shelf is a packet of cornflower seeds, while other seeds seem to have been left forgotten in a fold of paper.

The illusion includes a variety of containers: watering cans, plant pots (including one that has been broken and four others in a nested pile), demijohns, bottles and pitchers, cups, bowls, glasses, mugs, and a large soup tureen in the form of a pumpkin (just one of the many pieces in the Mellons’ collection of antique porcelain). Baskets in different shapes, sizes, and materials (wicker, reed, wood…) sit on

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, details from east wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

shelves or hang from nails; one contains letters, others are filled with fruits or vegetables. These had been collected over the course of many years and were kept in a special “Basket House.” A delicate basket fish trap (perhaps from the Greek islands) was a gift from Jacqueline Kennedy, as is disclosed by a card tied to the object with a red ribbon. 92 In this conglomeration, a few personal effects from which Bunny was rarely separated have been included, such as her beloved ivoryhandled pruning scissors, blue cloth hat, gardening coat, leather gardening gloves, and two band rings designed by Schlumberger (which will be discussed below).

Some of the other items can still be found, more than fifty years later, at Oak Spring. They may have been gifts that had a special meaning for Bunny, from the gold powder compact by Schlumberger to the little glass rabbit that recalls her nickname, a miniature obelisk (perhaps a gift from Battersby, who was fascinated by Egyptian monuments), a small house in glazed porcelain, and a curious wire basket with dangling metal discs.

To accentuate the trompe l’oeil effect, the traditional theme of paper is represented in various forms, from handwritten notes and a basket of letters to engravings tacked to the shelves (perhaps a reference to Charles Bird King’s Poor Artist’s Cupboard). Of particular interest are an architectural drawing of the greenhouse prepared by the firm of H. Page Cross and dated November 19, 1957; one of Schlumberger’s sketches for the floral urn that decorates the roof of the greenhouse pavilion; and a poem written by Paul which will be discussed below.

The greenhouse shelves would not have been complete without books, each of which—like those in the trompe l’oeil bookcase painted

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, details from west (left) and east (right) walls, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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by Battersby for the living room—had a special significance reflecting the interests of the artist’s patron. By the end of the 1950s, Bunny had already assembled a large collection of antique and modern books on gardens, gardening, horticulture, and plants, to which she would continue to add over a lifetime. Realizing that a place was needed to house this collection, with the encouragement of her husband an architect was chosen—Edward Larrabee Barnes (1915–2004)—and commissioned to design and construct a library on the estate. The project was completed in 1981, extended a decade later, and the result is a truly extraordinary place for research and study nestled in the rolling hills of Virginia.

The titles of many of the books in the trompe l’oeil are clearly legible and represent works to which Bunny was greatly attached. On one of the shelves appear the three volumes, bound in leather and marbled paper, of Le jardin fruitier, a treatise on the cultivation of fruit trees and fruiting plants published in 1821 by the eminent botanist and gardener Louis Claude Noisette (1772–1849). This was one of the first gardening books acquired by the young Rachel and she turned to it time and time again, finding “Noisette” an inexhaustible font of ideas and practical advice.93 Le jardin fruitier is illustrated with beautiful

engravings, and Bunny chose two of them—one depicting gardening tools and the other grafting techniques—for inclusion in her trompe l’oeil. Renard reproduces them faithfully on a cupboard door in the east wall, attached to the back of one of the shelves by drawing pins; one sheet is creased and the lower edge of the other curls upward, adding to the impression of depth and tactility.

Also identifiable is a copy of the magnificent and extremely rare two-volume folio publication on the grape, Le raisin, ses espèces et variétés, dessinées et colorées d’après nature by the German botanist Johann Simon

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Kerner (1755–1830), published in Stuttgart from 1779 to 1810 with illustrations colored by hand. (The copy at Oak Spring is bound in red and green leather with gold tooling, with the title “Les Raisins par Kerner” and the volume numbers “i–vi Livr” and “vii–xi Livr” on the spines.)94 Also included are Les beaux fruits de France (1947) by the nurseryman and expert on roses and fruit trees Georges Delbard (1906–1999), with its elegant cover facing the viewer, as well as “Stirpium imagines lxxv quas ex horto patavino delineavit…” (1776), a superb manuscript consisting of seventy-five watercolors by the Italian botanical artist Baldassare Cattrani (fl. 1776–1810) that has never been published.95 There is even a copy of the March–April 1958 issue of the New York Botanical Garden’s periodical The Garden Journal. Finally, Bunny did not forget to ask the artist to include a volume from her delightful collection of illustrated children’s books—Kate Greenaway’s Birthday Book for Children, published in London in 1880, a first edition that shows some signs of wear.

Unlike the books from Paul’s collection featured in Martin Battersby’s trompe l’oeil painting, whose present whereabouts are unknown, all of the books that appear on the shelves of the greenhouse trompe l’oeil can be found in the library at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

Portrayed with scrupulous fidelity, skillfully intermingled with the other objects on display are various flowers, fruits, and vegetables, a reminder of this exceptional collector’s love of floral and botanica painting.

A purple and blue striated tulip with its bulb hangs upside down from one of the uppermost shelves, a reminder of tulipomania, the speculation in tulip bulbs that gripped the Dutch Republic in the 1630s. Bunny studied this phenomenon, perhaps the earliest example of a speculative bubble in Europe, long before it became the subject

Abraham Munting, “Arbutus humilis virginiana” (possibly a chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia), hand-colored engraving, from Phytographia curiosa (Amsterdam, 1713), figure 23, folio 125, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

of general interest, and assembled a considerable collection of rare tracts and illustrated manuscripts from the period.96

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Some leafy stems of Pelargonium zonale, an African geranium, are arranged in a glass; two aster blossoms and an elegant white Narcissus poeticus with a yellow and orange corona spring on long, delicate stems from a mug; and a slender, pyramid-shaped bottle holds two blue cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus). A dried branch of fennel has been placed in a redware pitcher together with a small French flag, while an artichoke balances against the rim of a small black pitcher, its top-heavy inflorescence supported by the large terra-cotta pot standing nearby.

A tall redware pitcher contains an arrangement of foxtail grasses with a feather and two fading red poppies. One papery petal has fallen and rests on the shelf next to Bunny’s gardening hat.

Painted on the inside of one of the cupboards is a framed sketch of a red carnation. In another cupboard, Renard reproduces a page from Phytographia curiosa, exhibens arborum, fruticum, herbarum & florum icones, an important botanical text by the Dutch physician Abraham Munting (1626–1683) that was published in Amsterdam in 1713. It is illustrated with 245 botanical engravings to which Munting added embellishments such as landscape backgrounds and trompe l’oeil elements. In 1957, Bunny acquired a copy of this work in which each of the plates was colored by hand, with somewhat more imagination than scientific accuracy. For the greenhouse trompe l’oeil, she asked Renard to reproduce the plate of the “Arbutus” (figure 23) (possibly a chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia) and he did so with meticulous precision, even copying the original artist’s error of coloring the flowers blue. At the foot of the plant appear a spade and a scroll, but Renard replaced the words inscribed on the scroll, “Arbutus humilis virginiana” (Arbutus unedo), with “Ex Libris Bunny Mellon 1960.”97

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In addition to the flowers, which add a touch of color and animation to the composition, the viewer’s eye is attracted by the fascinating array of fruits and vegetables. Sometimes a single specimen is shown sitting on a shelf; here and there one may glimpse a pear, an orange, a peach, a walnut, a few tiny berries… Tied together and suspended on a string are some branches laden with plums, while a pyramid of golden apples and two pears has been arranged on another shelf.

There are baskets of strawberries, peaches, and yellow and purple plums, an oblong box with a handle filled with cherries, and even a seashell (Hippopopus hippopopus or bear paw clam) containing some red and black raspberries. Not lacking is one of the traditional subjects of the still life—a bowl of purple and green grapes, with light reflecting off the round berries.

Among the vegetables are a variety of cabbages, one of which has been cut open to expose the pattern of its closely packed leaves.

There are two bundles of asparagus, another of leeks, and white and pink radishes tied in a bouquet. Four large artichokes are arranged in a wooden basket, while hanging from the shelves are various bundles of root vegetables—onions, garlic, and small white turnips.

On various shelves are a curved head of celery, another of rhubarb, a small lobed eggplant, a cucumber, the cut half of an artichoke, various tomatoes and squashes, some mushrooms, and dried beans in a white porcelain bowl. Scattered here and there are small seeds, nuts, and burrs.

Within this vast assortment of inanimate objects, “living” things are absent with the exception of two tiny insects on the walls and two European butterflies (Papilio machaon and Aglais io), which seem so motionless that they could have just been taken out of an entomologist’s box. Standing equally still is a somewhat incongruous statuette

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of a bird, perhaps made of papier-mâché, one of many that could be found in different corners of the Mellons’ home.98 On one painted shelf is a varied collection of shells, among which are identifiable Conus marmoreus (marbled cone), Nautilus macromphalus, Terebra guttata, Turbo sarmaticus, Conus ebraeus, Conus betulinus, Clanculus pharaonius, and what might be a Pomacea canaliculata (golden apple snail).

In the foreground are a purple starfish and a tiny white cowrie shell and at the back a piece of branching red coral. Bunny was fascinated by the beauty and variety of seashells and her library included one of the most exceptional early texts on malacology, Les délices des yeux et de l’esprit, ou, Collection générale des différentes espèces de coquillages, written by Georg Wolfgang Knorr (active 1760–75) and published in Nuremberg from 1760 to 1773. This splendid six-volume edition with hand-colored illustrations was sold at auction by Sotheby’s after Bunny’s death, but another copy (whose plates have not been retouched with color) is in the Oak Spring Garden Library.99 While every object depicted on the walls of her greenhouse was certainly chosen personally by Bunny, it fell to the artist Fernand Renard to provide a suitable context by weaving into his composition references to past trompe l’oeils and still lifes, although it can be imagined that the pair discussed each of his decisions before he took up his brush. In fact, the close ties between the pictorial tradition in Europe and the decoration of the greenhouse is evinced by the many fruits and vegetables portrayed. These were a recurrent topos of the still life over the course of the centuries, beginning with the succulent displays of fruit piled high in baskets and platters in the Fruit Seller by Vincenzo Campi (ca. 1530–1591), one of the first Italian painters to be influenced by the Dutch style of genre painting,100 and the superb Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio (1571–1610).101 Many artists

Eliot Hodgkin, Robert Sielle’s Files, 1967, from Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil: The Eye Deceived (New York, 1974), 97.

depicted containers overflowing with the products of nature, such as the French artist Louise Moillon (ca. 1610–ca. 1696), who in her time was considered to be one of the best still life painters in Paris, and the great master Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699–1779). Renard’s cherries and strawberries evoke the luxuriant body color paintings of Giovanna Garzoni (1600–1670) and the “kitchen” still lifes by Jacopo da Empoli (ca. 1554–1640).102 The portrayal of solitary fruits may remind

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us of the painting of two citrons by Filippo Napoletano (ca. 1587–ca.

1629),103 and the works of some of the great botanical artists of the twentieth century, such as Eliot Hodgkin (1905–1987), from whom Renard may have borrowed the feather motif, and Rory McEwen (1932–1982), an artist who was greatly admired by Bunny and whose work she collected. 104 Renard may also have drawn inspiration from the celebrated work by Juan Sánchez Cotán (d. 1627), Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber.105 The Spanish artist rendered the tactile quality of his objects with masterly technique and devised the expedient of suspending the glowing quince and rough cabbage, each by a single thread, so that they seem to float against the dark background of the painting. Perhaps Renard’s device of tying together branches of fruit or bunches of vegetables with string and hanging them from the shelves can be traced back to this work.

Another recurrent motif of the still life is the asparagus, a vegetable depicted by various artists over the centuries, beginning with Adriaen Coorte (1659/1664–1707 or after), who made a bundle of asparagus the focal point in several of his compositions. One such composition by Coorte may be found in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Among the series of small still lifes produced late in the career of Edouard Manet (1832–1883) are two dedicated to the asparagus, one a bunch of

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Balthasar van der Ast, Basket of Fruits, ca. 1622, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.

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white asparagus lying on a bed of greens, and the other a single stalk, which he gave as a gift to the collector who bought the first painting, with a note: “There was one missing from your bunch.” 106 On opening some of the cupboard doors, one discovers that they have been decorated on the inside as well. These panels kindle both interest and curiosity, as virtuoso examples of trompe l’oeil painting and for the glimpse they provide of Bunny’s workaday world as a gardener.

In a bravura passage of mimetic painting, Fernand Renard has depicted, as if hanging from hooks on the inside of two of the cupboard doors, a white linen towel with its border decorated in blue, a gardener’s apron, and the Burberry raincoat that Bunny wore when working in the garden in inclement weather. He has skillfully captured the folds and tactile qualities of the different materials from gabardine to linen and cotton. The French artist must have had in mind various works from the past when painting these particular subjects, from the Personal Effects in the Cupboard by the Dutch artist Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–1678)107 to Raphaelle Peale’s Venus Rising from the Sea and Henri Cadiou’s Vestiaire d’usine, already mentioned above, in which lengths of cloth are draped over tables or convincingly suspended on hooks or clotheslines.

Among the few costly objects depicted in this trompe l’oeil are two gold and enamel band rings designed by Johnny Schlumberger that Bunny very often wore.108 Their inclusion is reminiscent of the device employed by many artists—beginning with Georg Hainz and his cabinets of curiosities—of inserting precious objects into their still life and trompe l’oeil paintings, although Renard depicts the rings hanging from a loop of twine attached to the edge of one of the shelves by a drawing pin, where they almost disappear against the backdrop of larger objects.

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Since the two artists, Martin Battersby and Fernand Renard, had both studied the works of the great masters of the past, certain conventional subjects appear in their work at Oak Spring. In addition to the theme of the book, there are variations on the motif of the flower in a vase—the carnation in a silver cup in one of the panels for the living room, and many passages in the greenhouse trompe l’oeil, from the dahlia in a glass and the earthenware pitcher of foxtail grasses to the red geranium in a mug, so brilliantly realized it seems to be actually sitting on the shelf that is fixed to the adjacent wall. Butterflies, which enlivened so many Dutch still life paintings from the Golden Age and are depicted more than once in the seventeen paintings on copper by Jan van Kessel conserved in the Oak Spring Garden Library, have also come to rest on the shelves of both trompe l’oeils.

The seashell is another traditional motif, although it was treated differently by our two artists. Battersby gave prominence to three large shells, each sitting on its own—two pearly nautiluses and a green turban, whereas Renard depicted an assorted collection in different sizes, shapes, and colors crowded together on a single shelf, reminiscent of the compositions of Balthasar van der Ast (1593/94– 1657) and Adriaen Coorte,109 and perhaps also of the French artist Alexandre-Isidore Leroy de Barde (1777–1828). Leroy de Barde, who was appointed premier peintre d’histoire naturelle by Louis xviii, held an exhibition in Paris entitled “Cabinet des Curiosités” in which he presented a series of trompe l’oeil display cases of natural history specimens, including one with a collection of shells, all executed with astonishing realism.110

Aesop Pops His Head into the Greenhouse Fernand Renard must have received the commission from Bunny to decorate the vestibule of her greenhouse not long after Battersby completed his panels for the cabinet in the living room, and it seems that Paul found the contrast between the two projects quite stimulating and diverting. It certainly provided the occasion for many lively conversations as well as some teasing between the couple, who had in all likelihood already worked together with Battersby on the composition of his trompe l’oeil bookshelves.

It was a delightful surprise to discover that Paul dedicated a short poem to his wife on the subject of her greenhouse trompe l’oeil. With his classical education and refined taste, he often amused himself by composing such divertissements (in fact he describes himself as a “poet amateur” in his autobiography), and it is understandable that Bunny should have wished to leave a permanent record of this charming homage and gesture of affection (which she saved, together with the original envelope). Renard therefore reproduced the sheet bearing the poem, hanging from a nail to the left of the entrance door to the vestibule. On it one can read: Oak Spring Upperville, Virginia PAesop’s FABLES (The Fox & The Rabbit) A Bunny and a Reynard Went painting in a glass garden:

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They painted all the walls Then they painted all the floors They painted all the ceilings Then they painted all the doors.

When they painted all the doors, They couldn’t get through – So they ran around in circles Of red, white, and blue.

They ran around in circles Terrified, and wretched ’Til Reynard painted (with his brush) EMERGENCY EXIT! In his poem, Paul assumes the guise of Aesop, the Greek author of moralizing tales who may have lived during the seventh and the sixth centuries bce. His fables told through animals exhibit an exceptional understanding of human nature and are still read today by adults and, in popularized form, by children.

Temporarily becoming “PAesop” (P + Aesop), Paul composed this cautionary tale about the dangers of being carried away by excessive enthusiasm. No doubt he found it impossible to resist the invitation to make use of the imagery evoked by the names “Bunny” and “Renard” (which means “fox” in French). However, contained in these simple verses are deeper meanings and an acute judgment regarding the trompe l’oeil paintings themselves. It did not escape Paul’s cultivated sensibility that crowding the vestibule space with images might create a sense of disorientation in visitors, amplified by the fact that they

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, detail of poem from east wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Poem written by Paul Mellon, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

had to turn around in a circle to follow the sequence of panels. The two little animals responsible for this scheme were beside themselves with excitement, but they too eventually found themselves desperately turning around the room without knowing how to get out, until the Renard came up with the “Alice in Wonderland” solution of painting an “emergency exit” for himself and his confederate.

The original manuscript in Paul’s hand is conserved in an envelope on which he wrote “All my love to Bun,” a testimony to the enthusiasm that united the couple in the realization of the two trompe l’oeils at Oak Spring. Although Paul and Bunny were two highly independent individuals with different personalities and interests, the projects for the two trompe l’oeils at Oak Spring provided the occasion for a true convergence of minds in their discussions of art, culture, and ethical issues.

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notes 74

72.

Letter written by Mrs. Mellon’s secretary to Mr. H. Page Cross, dated February 7, 1959, Oak Spring Garden Foundation archives.

73.

Schlumberger’s drawing of the floral arrangement measures 11 3/4 by 9 1/8 inches and the finished piece is approximately five feet tall. Bunny most certainly would have suggested to Schlumberger that he study the floral bouquets in André Jacob Roubo, L’art du treillageur, ou Menuiserie des jardins (Paris, 1775), plate 374.

74.

Among the many larger commissions received by the master artisan-artist Roubo, worth noting is the monumental staircase which he designed for the Paris residence of the Marquis de Marbeuf.

75.

Cf. Roubo, L’art du treillageur, plates 347, 360, 363.

76.

Fernand Renard was active in the United States after the end of the Second World War and he was better known to collectors there than in France. In the 1980s, he had an apartment in Ménilmontant, Paris, and also a house in Lot. The exact date of his death is not known, but his last communication with Bunny was in 1978 and he likely died in France around 1980.

77.

78.

Victor T. Hammer, Fernand Renard: Recent Paintings (New York, April 16–27, 1968).

Calvin Tomkins, “Love for Sale,” The Art World, New Yorker, August 11, 1997, 64.

79.

80.

Cf. the same communication from Tony Victoria.

the wall: 6 by 8 1/8 inches; and four sketches of various sections of the trompe l’oeil decoration in which one can see the definitive result gradually taking shape. Two of the four sketches measure 8 3/4 by 16 5/8 inches; the other two measure 9 1/4 by 17 inches.

87.

See Hammer, Fernand Renard (April 16–27, 1968); Victor T. Hammer, Fernand Renard: Recent Paintings (New York, February 29– March 11, 1972); Victor T. Hammer, Fernand Renard: Recent Paintings (New York, April 29– May 10, 1975), with introductions by Victor T. Hammer.

88.

Derry Moore, email to Nancy Collins, May 8, 2019.

81. “Master Dressing Room,” White House Museum, accessed November 8, 2019, http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/floor2/ master-dressing-room.htm.

82.

This drawing is conserved in the archives of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation; it consists of two sections whose combined dimensions are 24 ½ by 82 ½ inches.

89.

Oak Spring Garden Foundation archives.

83.

Sotheby’s Auction, 3:207–46.

90.

84.

Some of these objects were sold at auction

by Sotheby’s. Cf. Sotheby’s Auction, 3:sessions 1 and 2, lot numbers 446, 467, 491, 493.

Musée des beaux arts de Rennes, in Trompe l’Oeil anciens et modernes, 40.

91.

Cf. Alain Corbin, Histoire du silence (Paris, 2016).

92.

On the card is written: “This one is a fish trap – you catch a little fish, then you put it in this and leave it in the water tying it to some reeds, so the fish will be in the water till you are ready to take him home! ox Jackie”

93.

Sandra Raphael, An Oak Spring Pomona: A Selection of Rare Books on Fruit in the Oak Spring Garden Library (Upperville, VA, 1990), 112–19.

94.

Raphael, An Oak Spring Pomona, 247–50.

85.

Maquette of the greenhouse vestibule— walls: 5 ½ inches (height) by 15 5/8 inches (circumference); ceiling: 5 ½ by 13 inches; door opening: 2 ¼ inches (width) by 3 7/8 inches (height).

86.

These sketches include a penciled grid of 9 3/8 by 9 inches; a section of the ceiling with the proposed lattice motif in pale green-blue: 5 5/8 by 8 1/2 inches; a sketch showing a pair

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of cupboard doors opened wide to expose a preliminary version of the small potting room that Bunny wished to have built into

Tony Victoria, email to Nancy Collins, December 14, 2017. Tony Victoria (the grandson of Frederick P. Victoria) mentions that his grandfather received some small sketches in the form of greeting cards from Renard, which his father saved and kept in his art collection. More photographs of Fernand Renard, plus additional biographical details, were discovered by Elinor Crane.

95.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 217–19.

96.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 267–91.

97.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 172–75.

98.

Cf. Sotheby’s Auction, 3:140.

106. Edouard Manet, Bunch of Asparagus, oil on canvas, 1880, Wallraf-RichartzMuseum, Cologne.

99.

Sotheby’s Auction, 3:sessions 3–5, lot number 1076.

107. 1655, oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna.

100. 1578–81, oil on canvas, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

101. Ca. 1597–1600, oil on canvas, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan.

102. On Moillon and Chardin, cf. Faré and Faré, La vie silencieuse en France; on Garzoni, cf. Gerardo Casale, Giovanna Garzoni “insigne miniatrice” 1600–1670 (Milan, 1991). See Jacopo da Empoli, Cucina con frutta e verdura, 1625, Collezione Francesco Molinari Pradelli Marano, Bologna; and Dispensa, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

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105. Ca. 1602, oil on canvas, San Diego Museum of Art.

108. Many pieces from her collection of jewelry and other objects designed and realized

by Schlumberger were donated by Mrs. Mellon to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.

109. As was mentioned earlier, Coorte also painted still lifes featuring bunches of asparagus or fruit (such as a bowl of strawberries).

110. Choix de coquillages, gouache and watercolor, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

103. Filippo Napoletano (see n. 67), Due cedri, 1618, Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze, Sezione Botanica.

104. Tony Willis, “Rachel Lambert Mellon: Her Library and Outstanding Collection of Botanical Art,” in Arte botanica del terzo millennio / Botanical Art into the Third Millennium, ed. Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi and Alessandro Tosi (Pisa, 2013), 47. On Hodgkin, cf. Eliot Hodgkin, 1905–1987: Painter & Collector, with an introduction by Sir Brinsley Ford (London, 1990).

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Other Trompe l’Oeils at Oak Spring I

Many trompe l’oeil paintings in different styles and of varying historical importance and artistic quality were acquired by the Mellons for their collections, particularly from the 1950s onward. While some works have since been dispersed, others still form part of the unique legacy that Paul and Bunny left behind. Among these are further paintings

by Martin Battersby and Fernand Renard.

In the invoice sent in April 1958 to Bunny, Battersby included, as mentioned above, the amount due for “one painting…Tilly Losch… framed.” This work is no longer at Oak Spring, but a reproduction in a 1960 issue of Vogue gives us an idea of what it must have looked like.111

A well-known personage in the beau monde on both sides of the Atlantic, Tilly Losch was the stage name of the actress, ballet dancer, choreographer, and painter Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine, who led a tempestuous life that included marriage for a period to Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon (1898–1987). Born in 1903 in Vienna to an aristocratic family, she spent the greater part of her life in the United States, where she appeared in various notable stage, ballet, and film productions during the 1940s and 1950s before dedicating herself with some success to painting. She died in New York in 1975.

Martin Battersby composed a trompe l’oeil painting in Tilly Losch’s honor consisting of reproductions of photographs, portraits of the actress, and playbills of her performances attached with trompe l’oeil drawing pins and strips of wood to a panel. A butterfly is poised at the top of the painting, a symbol of this beautiful and captivating woman. It seems that the Mellons knew her, for in 1979 when the English literary agent Billy Hamilton was working on a biography of Mrs. Losch, he wrote to inform Bunny that the actress and artist

had kept a diary in which “your name frequently appears, especially during the Sixties” and to ask for confirmation that there were “two of Tilli’s pictures in your husband’s collection in Washington.”112 A body color painting by the British artist, designer, and illustrator Reginald John “Rex” Whistler (1905–1944)—presently hanging in the Oak Spring Garden Library—portrays Tilly Losch dressed as Joséphine de Beauharnais for a performance of Streamline—The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Palace Theatre in London on September 24, 1934.113 In addition to the greenhouse trompe l’oeil, various small paintings

by Fernand Renard are in the collection at Oak Spring. In the archives are some cards with messages and charming sketches in tempera that were sent by the artist to Bunny from 1960 to 1978.114 Toward the end of the year 1960, by which time the decoration of the greenhouse had been completed, Fernand Renard sent Bunny a small still life painting in which various objects depicted in the greenhouse trompe l’oeil reappear. Three baskets sit on a table, one of which is filled with eggs and some stalks of wheat, and from another the handle of an implement protrudes, while strands of raffia dangle from a third basket placed somewhat in the background. Also on the table are a solitary egg, a small piece of fruit, a ball of string, and the pyramid-shaped glass bottle from the greenhouse trompe l’oeil, this time containing a few blue flowers. A creased sheet of paper bears the handwritten words “Bonne Année 1960,” while Renard’s signature is inscribed on the edge of the table. This work was undoubtedly sent by the artist as a gesture of esteem, but it has no direct connection to the commission on which he was working.115

Jacob van Hulsdonck, Still Life of Plums, Cherries, Strawberries and a Rose, detail, early to mid-seventeenth century, oil on copper, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Christmas cards by Fernand Renard to Paul and Bunny Mellon, Shells on a table and White hyacinth in a blue and white pot, body color drawings, Gerard B. Lambert Foundation.

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There is another small body color painting by Renard (not dated) that portrays Bunny’s daughter, Eliza Lloyd Moore, as an aspiring young artist, viewed from behind as she sits at her easel, palette and paintbrushes in hand. On the back of the painting are the words “Meilleurs voeux pour Nöel et la nouvelle année, chère Bunny, et affectueux souvenirs. F. Renard.”116 A trompe l’oeil of notable quality by the same painter, which had been given as a gift by Bunny to one of her employees, has recently been rediscovered. It is signed in the lower right-hand corner and testifies to the artist’s technical mastery of the genre. Standing out against a dark background is a large open-weave basket and a terra-cotta pot that contains two plant stakes. Lying haphazardly on a table, as if they had just been brought in from the garden and deposited there, are four artichokes, a hazelnut, and the bract of an artichoke. In the background, the artist has added a loaf of bread and a glass of wine—two elements drawn from the traditional repertoire of Christian symbols. The loaf, which seems so real it could have just been taken out of the oven, and the fleshy leaves of the artichokes are reminiscent of the subject matter and style of the Spanish still life painter Luis Meléndez (1716–1780), whose works Renard could have seen in museums in the United States, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.117 The trompe l’oeil was not of course limited to the works of consummate artists—paintings that have found their way into museums or wall decorations commissioned by wealthy and cultivated clients.

There is a rustic stool conserved in the Oak Spring Garden Library whose seat has been decorated en trompe-l’oeil with an envelope from which a light blue card has been half drawn out. Attached to the card is a sheet of white paper with a penciled sketch of a leaping rabbit.

Bunny may have been attached to this modest piece of decorative work,

having loved books and illustrations featuring bunnies, such as The

Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1866–1943), ever since she was a child due to the nickname she had received from her nurse.

Still hanging today in the living room at Oak Spring are two small, beautifully framed oil paintings on wood of playing cards: Ace of Hearts Pierced by a Pink Carnation and Ace of Clubs Pierced by a White Tulip. Four quite similar trompe l’oeil paintings of a red rose with an ace of spades, a white and pink ranunculus with an ace of diamonds, a pink carnation with an ace of hearts, and a yellow tulip with an ace of clubs were sold at auction by Sotheby’s.118 All six works bear the signature—“Dabos”—of the French artist Laurent Dabos (1761–1835) in the lower left corner. Dabos was born in Toulouse and studied at the local Académie des beaux arts. He became a successful portrait painter during the Napoleonic era and was even awarded the Légion d’honneur. But with the Bourbon Restoration, social conditions changed, his former clientele melted away, and he switched to the painting of genre scenes and trompe l’oeils. The works acquired by the Mellons in 1955 probably date to this period in his career.119 Three unpretentious works on the theme of the “letter rack,” all of which appear to be by the same hand, were sold at auction by Sotheby’s. One painting is signed with the monogram of the artist George Oakes (1927–2017) and carries the date 1958 on its back. Each depicts a variety of papers (letters, cards, notices such as a playbill from the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden, etc.) and other small items (a feather, a key, pencils, a small notebook, a magnifying glass, a pair of spectacles) en trompe-l’oeil, with real strips of fabric extending across the width of the painting, apparently holding them in place.120 On display in the family villa on the Caribbean island of Antigua were two imposing trompe l’oeil paintings entitled Fruits exotiques,121

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Laurent Dabos, Ace of Hearts Pierced by a Pink Carnation, not dated, oil on panel, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA. Laurent Dabos, Ace of Clubs Pierced by a White Tulip, not dated, oil on panel, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

which had almost certainly been acquired by Bunny and whose layout and subject matter recall the trompe l’oeil decoration of her greenhouse at Oak Spring. These were sold together with the property in 2016, but can be identified in photographs. The two paintings are very similar and indeed may have been conceived as pendant works. They previously belonged to a French collector (indicated by the initial “H.” on the back); both are dated 1746 and signed by Edme-Jean-Baptiste Douet (active 1745–73).122 In the first painting, a large number of exotic fruits are arranged on the shelves of a display case—bananas, grapefruits, mangoes, avocados, cashews, cacao fruits, and so forth, some of which have been cut open to display their internal structure, while leaves and twigs seem to jut out of the picture. The inflorescence of a pineapple surrounded by its long lanceolate bracts dominates the composition; a hole has been drilled in the shelf to hold the stem. Another pineapple that has been cut in half sits on the shelf below. Two trompe l’oeil cartouches at the base of the painting provide a list of the fruits depicted.

The second painting presents a more chaotic display, with cascades of bananas and other exotic fruits spilling off the shelves. Once again, a single item holds center stage in the composition—a Heliconia sp. with its showy inflorescence—and a hole has been made in the shelf for the plant’s stem. In the lower right-hand corner is a cartouche with a list of the names of the fruits and plants represented.

In the cartouche on the left in the first painting is inscribed: “Fruits des Indes occidentales peints sur les lieux, d’après nature, pour le Cabinet de Sa Majesté le Roy de Pologne, Electeur de Saxe,123 par le siuer Douet, Peintre élève de l’Academie Royale de Peinture de Paris 1746.” This statement makes it clear that the artist himself undertook the hazardous voyage to the American tropics to study its flora, and

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Edme-Jean-Baptiste Douet, Still Life of Exotic Fruits, 1746, oil on canvas (two paintings), private collection.

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Italian cabinet in trompe l’oeil with marbled shelves and books, a nineteenthcentury scenery prop, oil on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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that these two works were painted in situ. Possibly influenced by the great flower painter Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636–1699), who was also a professor at the Académie royale de peinture,124 Douet moved to Lyon in 1745 to work as a designer of floral patterns for the city’s textile ateliers. Two of his paintings were accepted for display at the 1773 Salon, one of animals and another of flowers, while the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon has a painting of a vase of tulips by Douet in its permanent collection.

Bunny must have admired the way in which Douet managed to exercise his talent and originality in these works while conforming to the canons of botanical painting, documenting the exotic flora of the American Tropics with scientific accuracy and at the same time reveling in their varied forms, unexpected colors, and marked tactile qualities. It is known that she was interested in tropical plants, above all fruit plants, and kept a garden on the island of Antigua in which various unusual species were cultivated.

Many objects other than paintings that nonetheless pertain to this pictorial genre are also conserved at Oak Spring. Most of them bear a connection with the world of books, a theme that runs through the collections of Paul and Bunny, as well as through the entire history of the trompe l’oeil.

On the first floor of the library annex is a magnificent eighteenthcentury bookcase of Italian manufacture that has been completely decorated en trompe-l’oeil, down to the veining of the wood. It is divided into five sections with a trompe l’oeil collection of books painted on panels behind which the real bookshelves lie. Each section is devoted to a different type of literature, as one can read on the plaques above each set of shelves: Ascetici, Istorici, Poeti, Miscellanea, and Proibiti.

The volumes are arranged by size and by the style of their bindings,

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Jan Baker, Bookmark, 1995, various multi-folio texts hanging by strings from a stick, mounted on burlap, with a large nail in the middle, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

and some of the spines bear labels that are still legible—for example, Il vitto pitagorico…discorso di Antonio Cocchi and Newtonismo per le Dame di Francesco Algarotti. Among the “prohibited” books is a volume of poetry by the abbot Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni of Genoa (1692–1768), whose works were banned not only because of their licentious content, but also because Frugoni was involved with the Freemasons. This piece of furniture, which originally belonged to the Lambert family and stood in Paul and Bunny’s home in Washington, DC, clearly harks back to the optical illusion of Libreria by the Bolognese artist Giuseppe Maria Crespi, cited above. Its trompe l’oeil fits admirably with the decor of the Oak Spring Garden Library, whose walls are lined with real shelves containing real books.

Bookmark by the American artist Jan Baker (1950–2018), given to Bunny by her daughter Eliza, is a modern work whose inspiration lies in the tradition of the trompe l’oeil and the world of the bibliophile.

After earning a degree in printmaking and aesthetic studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Baker joined the faculty of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, where she taught courses on the book arts, letterpress, papermaking, bookbinding, and visual poetry in the Graphic Design department. She was also nominated as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow of the RISD Museum in the Costume and Textile department. An indefatigable and endlessly curious traveler, she explored the arts in countries as far-flung as India, Vietnam, and Qatar.

In Italy, she was captivated by the work of the great typographer and printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813) of Parma. Bookmark, which was created in 1995, reflects Baker’s multidisciplinary approach to her art. She collected innumerable scraps of paper with brief phrases or passages of text either printed or written by hand in various languages using different scripts, both Eastern and Western, and bound them

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Piero Fornasetti, Trompe l’oeil trumeau (secretary), ca. 1955–70, architectural lithographs printed onto wood fiberboard and mounted to laminate and solid wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Piero Fornasetti, Trompe l’oeil trumeau (secretary), detail ca. 1955–70, architectural lithographs printed onto wood fiberboard and mounted to laminate and solid wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

up in small, bulky packets tied with intricately knotted strings, which she then hung in a riotous jumble from a branch of wood.

With her intimate knowledge of the creative experience connected with the contiguous worlds of paper and the book, the trompe l’oeils of artists past and present who drew on similar devices to create their optical illusions would not have escaped Jan Baker’s attentive eye. She must have been familiar with Documents on the Wall (1656) by Cornelis Brizé (ca. 1622–ca. 1670)125 and Trompe l’Oeil Panel with Shipping Documents

(1764) by the little-known Dutch artist Jacobus Plasschaert (d. 1765), in which official documents and an almanac hang from a wooden panel.126 A more recent work evokes her own, in two dimensions rather than three—Robert Sielle’s Files (1967) by the English artist Eliot Hodgkin, who has already been mentioned above. In this somewhat tongue-incheek but unsettling picture, the entire canvas is taken up by a large, unwieldy bundle of papers that Hodgkin depicts with startling realism hanging from a wall by a piece of twine. Battersby found this to be such a striking work that he reproduced it in his book on the trompe l’oeil.127 A unique artifact of great psychological as well as visual impact is a rare “piece” that only recently entered the collections of the Oak Spring Garden Library, left as a legacy to Bunny by the event planner Robert Isabell (1952–2009). In great demand among those moving in the rarefied circles of New York’s high society, Isabell organized parties, weddings, and openings, as well as more solemn events such as the ceremony in 1994 for the funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

He was a brilliantly creative artist, and Bunny was perhaps one of his closest friends during the last decade of his life.

This trompe l’oeil trumeau (secretary) of wood, glass, and metal varnish is decorated with reproductions of woodcuts ingeniously arranged to create a series of optical illusions. The upper part consists

of a cupboard with a niche and the lower part of two drawers, with a drop front in the middle section. The first version was designed and realized in 1951 by Gio Ponti (1891–1979) in collaboration with Piero Fornasetti (1913–1988). Gio Ponti was a Milanese architect, designer, and essayist who deserves much of the credit for reviving Italian design after the war. In the original prototype, which Ponti called “Architettura” and which may be seen today in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the upper portion of the cabinet featured concave modulations in the otherwise rigorously linear design of the piece.

Fornasetti subsequently produced variations on the original with a flat top, different niches, the addition of a third drawer, glass shelving, and so forth. In 1953, forty of these cabinets were produced and then, after a long pause, another ten examples in 1980, one of which was acquired by Robert Isabell.

Piero Fornasetti, like Gio Ponti, was born in Milan and was a genuinely protean artist—painter, sculptor, interior decorator, printer of lithographs and fine art books, designer of theater sets and costumes, and the creator of literally thousands of objects. With his tireless energy and his interest in all that was new in the arts, he organized many international exhibitions. Irrepressible even in his youth, he was expelled from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera for defiance of authority and completed his studies at the Scuola Superiore di Arti Applicate all’Industria. Fornasetti met Gio Ponti in 1940 at the vii Triennale di Milano and from this chance encounter a long and rewarding collaboration was born.

In 1942, Fornasetti received a commission to paint a series of frescoes for the Palazzo Bo, the seat of the Università di Padova. The next year, however, after completing this project, he went into exile.

He spent the remainder of the war in Switzerland, where he ran a

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Joseph Decker, Grapes, ca. 1890/95, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon.

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small printing works producing lithograph posters, and also organized cultural events. Fornasetti returned to Italy in 1946 and began a successful career as an artist and designer. Among his most significant commissions was the furnishing and decoration of the transatlantic ocean liner Andrea Doria, which unfortunately sank in 1956.

After Ponti died in 1979, Fornasetti moved to London and opened Tema e Variazioni, a shop promoting Italian design that earned him international fame. With his scintillating imagination, he produced prints, furniture, and a great variety of decorative objects that were veined with sly humor but nevertheless rooted in the classical tradition of the visual arts, from the frescoes of Pompeii to those of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, from the architects of the Renaissance to the nineteenth-century avant-garde.

Ponti and Fornasetti’s trumeau was a striking and wholly modern expression of the optical illusions to be found in the works of past artists and architects. They conceived the novel idea of covering every inch of the cabinet with woodcuts designed by Fornasetti based on illustrations from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century treatises on architecture and on actual historical buildings such as the Palazzo Alessi in Genoa and the Palazzo Marino in Milan. With their refined sense of aesthetics and maniacal attention to detail, they designed the cabinet so that in whatever combination its various parts were opened or shut, a different and intriguing perspective would be presented to the viewer—of arcades, staircases, receding lines of sculpted columns, and concave and convex surfaces—deliberately creating visual confusion and posing the half-ironic question as to what purpose this piece of furniture was actually intended to serve.

A cabinet very similar to the one at Oak Spring was displayed in the exhibition Art and Illusions: Masterpieces of Trompe-l’oeil from Antiquity

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to the Present Day at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence in 2009, while other exemplars have recently been sold at international auctions. 128 In another important exhibition on the trompe l’oeil—Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l’Oeil Painting (2002–3, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC)—the first section, which was significantly entitled “The Grapes of Zeuxis,” included a simple but evocative trompe l’oeil painting of two clusters of purple grapes hanging from a vine. Grapes, together with its pendant Green Plums, was painted circa 1885 by the American artist Joseph Decker (1853–1924). It was acquired by the Mellons in 1984–86 and donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1994, just part of the generous legacy that the couple left to the museum founded by Paul’s father, Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937). 129 It is fitting that this presentation of the trompe l’oeil paintings commissioned or acquired by Paul and Bunny, which began with an account of the contest in antiquity between Zeuxis and Parrhasius, should conclude with a picture of grapes, a subject that appears in the works of so many of the artists who over the centuries dedicated themselves to this genre. The trompe l’oeil, with its combination of realism and symbolism, technical virtuosity and erudition, by turns charming, witty, and profound, managed to enchant and draw into its intriguing web two of the most refined and cultivated art collectors of the twentieth century.

notes 111. “Sleight of eye,” Vogue, 140.

124. Tongiorgi Tomasi, An Oak Spring Flora, 175–77.

112. Oak Spring Garden Foundation archives.

125. This work is conserved in the City Hall of Amsterdam. Cf. Gerhard Langemeyer and Hans-Albert Peters, eds., Stilleben in Europa (Münster, 1979), 228.

113. This sketch by Whistler forms part of a group of pencil drawings and watercolors of costumes and sets for the production of Streamline conserved in the collections of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

114. The cards from Renard with small trompe l’oeil paintings are dated 1964, 1976, and 1978.

Two other cards with sketches in body color, one of a vase containing crocuses and the other of a squash and a sprig of parsley in a glass, are not dated.

115. The painting’s dimensions are 3 13/16 by 5 3/8 inches.

116. The painting’s dimensions are 5 3/8 by 3 1/4 inches.

117. Gretchen Hirschauer and Catherine A. Metzger, eds., Luis Meléndez: Master of the Spanish Still Life (Washington, DC, 2009).

118. Sotheby’s Auction, 3:sessions 3–5, lot number 1245.

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126. Giusti, Inganni ad arte, 26.

127. Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil, 97. Cf. also Eliot Hodgkin, 35.

128. Giusti, Inganni ad arte, 156; Rossana Bossaglia, “Fornasetti: Between Art Deco and Neo-Deco,” Apollo 336, no. 131 (February 1990): 92–95; Patrick Mauriès, Fornasetti: Designer of Dreams (London, 1991); Mariuccia Casadio, Fornasetti.

L’artista alchimista. La bottega fantastica (Milan, 2009), 357; Mariuccia Casadio, Barnaba Fornasetti, and Andrea Banzi, “Furnishing: Fantasies and Furniture between Reality and Illusion,” in Fornasetti: The Complete Universe (Milan, 2010), 345–49.

129. Cf. the catalog entry by Franklin Kelly in Ebert-Schifferer, Deceptions and Illusions, 120–21.

119. Oak Spring Garden Foundation archives.

120. Sotheby’s Auction, 3:sessions 3–5, lot numbers 1376–78.

121. Each painting measures 4 feet 5 inches by 7 feet 6 inches.

122. Faré and Faré, La vie silencieuse en France, 352–53.

123. Stanisław II August Poniatowski (1732–1798).

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Paul Mellon: A Philanthropic Life I

There is no intellectual or emotional substitute for the authentic, the original, the unique masterpiece Paul Mellon

Paul Mellon, renowned art collector, horse breeder, sportsman, and conservationist, hailed from one of the most affluent families of the twentieth century. He followed his personal hopes and ambitions, which helped to create a world of philanthropy like no other. Many continue to benefit from his generosity, and many have been influenced by this private man’s benevolent spirit. His contributions to the world of art, along with his efforts to preserve picturesque landscapes and seascapes, have given gifts of beauty, enjoyment, and tranquility to millions of people.

Paul Mellon was born on June 11, 1907, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Andrew William Mellon (1855–1937) and Nora Mary McMullen (1879–1973). He had one sibling, an older sister, Ailsa Mellon Bruce (1901–1969). His father was a successful banker and industrialist who served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1921 to 1932 through three successive presidential administrations: Warren G. Harding (1865–1923), Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933), and Herbert Hoover (1874–1964). Hoover appointed him ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1932, and in 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) extended that appointment.

Paul’s paternal grandfather, Thomas Alexander Mellon (1813–1908), emigrated from Ireland to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1818.

He attended the University of Pittsburgh in 1834. After graduation in 1837, he began a successful law firm, eventually becoming a judge in 1859. In 1843, Thomas married Sarah Jane Negley (1817–1909) and of

their eight children, only five survived to adulthood. Thomas invested his earnings wisely, and in 1872 opened his first bank, T. Mellon and Sons. Thomas laid the foundation for the Mellon family’s prosperity, but it was mainly through the activities of Andrew William Mellon and his brothers Thomas Alexander Mellon II (1844–1899), James Ross Mellon (1846–1934), and Richard Beatty Mellon (1858–1933) that the family fortune was built. The Mellon family developed a formidable range of business ventures and in the early 1900s, the Mellons were among the wealthiest and most prominent bankers and industrialists in the United States.

In 1912, when Paul was quite young, his parents divorced. He grew up mainly in Pittsburgh where he attended Shady Side Academy, an exclusive private elementary school. During summer breaks, he spent time with his mother in Hertfordshire, where he became enamored with the English countryside. He especially enjoyed horseback riding with his mother, and later in life, the rolling hills and lush meadows of England heavily influenced his collecting of British art.

At the age of 13, Paul began his studies at the elite Choate Preparatory School in Wallingford, Connecticut. It was at this time that Paul developed a genuine fondness for writing. Before graduating in 1925, he wrote the school’s hymn and he contributed regularly to its literary publication, The Choate Literary Magazine. His poem, “Beauty Came,” was just one of many that displays his clever and artful ability to verbalize his thoughts.

Paul Mellon leaning against a haystack, Oak Spring, ca. 1952. Photograph by Thomas Neil Darling, courtesy of Howard Allen Photography, LLC, Middleburg, VA.

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Beauty Came—

Out of a musty, Gloomy room, Into a garden Rich in bloom.

As in the springtime, After rain, Sun in the wet leaves Shines again.

Out of a raging, Wild typhoon, Into a sunny, Blue lagoon.

Night in the summer, With the sky Bright with the north lights Sweeping by.

As when the embers Leap to flame— So to this dull mould Beauty Came.

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Paul continued his studies at Yale University, where he especially enjoyed classes in English literature, history, and art. He wrote for the Yale Daily News and the Yale Literary Magazine. His studies contributed to him becoming an enthusiastic Anglophile and he graduated with honors in 1929.

In 1931, Paul decided to continue his studies at Clare College, University of Cambridge, to further explore English culture. During this time, he also developed two lifelong passions: thoroughbred racing and foxhunting. In particular, the thrill of racing fueled a newfound aspiration to engage seriously with horse breeding and horse racing.

Paul purchased his first racehorse, Drinmore Lad, a steeplechaser, in 1933.

After Cambridge, following his father’s wishes, Paul returned to Pittsburgh and took a clerical position at Mellon Bank; he also worked temporarily at other family enterprises. However, Paul knew all along that he never wanted a career in any of his family’s businesses.

His primary interests from early in life were always horse racing and developing a collection of exceptional art.

In 1935, Paul married Mary Elizabeth Conover Brown (1904–1946), and soon after their wedding they moved to Rokeby Farm, a fourhundred-acre estate originally acquired by Andrew Mellon, where Paul began his horse breeding and horse racing ventures. The young couple, Paul and Mary, had a large neo-Georgian mansion designed and built on the property by the architect William Adams Delano (1874–1960) of Delano & Aldrich. The Mellons’ new home, which they called the Brick House, was completed in 1941. Paul and Mary had two children—a daughter, Cathy (Catherine Mellon Conover), born in 1936, and a son, Tim (Timothy Mellon), born in 1942.

Mary was the daughter of a doctor from Kansas City, Kansas, but she studied in the East and graduated from Vassar College with a degree

in French. She also studied French for a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, as well as a further year at Columbia University in New York. In his autobiography, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, Paul Mellon described her as “vivacious and impulsively enthusiastic, easy to talk to, and interested in all kinds of things…but her main interest was music. She sang and played the piano with gusto.”1 By 1936, the Mellons were turning Rokeby into a working horse farm, and they began to purchase additional land that bordered their estate.

Around the same time, Paul began to collect rare books, extraordinary British art, as well as all manner of sporting art. One of his first and favorite purchases was an oil painting by George Stubbs (1724–1806), Pumpkin with a Stable-lad (1774). Paul went on to buy numerous other works by Stubbs, along with other eighteenth-century English masters such as Henry Alken (1785–1851), William Blake (1757–1827), John Constable (1776–1837), Benjamin Marshall (1767–1835), Thomas Rowlandson (1756/57–1827), James Seymour (1702–1752), and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851).

In 1937, Andrew Mellon passed away, and Paul inherited both riches and new responsibilities. Now he had to help oversee the fortunes resulting from the business acumen of his shrewd father.

It also fell to Paul to complete his father’s plans to create what is now the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It had been Andrew’s wish not only that his personal art collection be given to the nation for the enjoyment of all Americans, but also that it be housed in a new national art gallery. Paul writes in his autobiography, “In the course of the final years of Father’s life he was closely involved in the planning stages of the National Gallery building. During his last months he had been shown outline plans by his architect, John Russell Pope, but illness and old age denied him the pleasure

of watching his grand scheme come to fruition. In all meaningful discussions about the Gallery Father consulted David Finley, who was to become the Gallery’s first Director.” 2 Paul continues, “After Father’s death it was left to me, together with my co-trustees in the A. W. Mellon Education and Charitable Trust…and David Bruce (my brother-in-law, who had been appointed a trustee in 1934) to see the plan through.” 3 Construction of the National Gallery of Art began in June of 1937 and was completed in 1941. At the dedication ceremony on March 17, 1941, Paul Mellon hoped “that the Gallery would become a joint enterprise on the part of the Government, on the one hand, and of magnanimous citizens on the other, and that it would not become a static but a living institution, growing in usefulness and importance to artists, scholars and the general public.”4 Andrew bequeathed 115 stunning works of art to the new gallery, and Paul went on to serve on its board for forty years.

After Andrew’s passing, Paul and Mary traveled to Europe and spent six months in Switzerland with the pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961). Together the couple discussed Mary’s bouts with asthma and Paul’s mixed feelings about how best to move forward in his life since his father’s death. Overall, these efforts were productive and therapeutic. They were cut short, unfortunately, when it became clear that Adolf Hitler’s (1889–1945) malevolent regime was preparing to incite war in Europe.

After the war, Paul and Mary established the Bollingen Foundation, named for Bollingen Tower, Jung’s home in Bollingen, Switzerland.

The Bollingen Foundation was initially dedicated to Jung’s lifelong work and research, and during the twentieth century, it published scholarly publications about art, history, and psychology. In the late

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1960s, the publications of the Bollingen Foundation were taken over

by Princeton University Press.

In the summer of 1941, Paul joined the army and having requested a position in the cavalry, was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas. There, he became an instructor, attended Officers’ Candidate School, and in 1942, was commissioned a second lieutenant. In 1944, he secured a transfer to the Office of Strategic Services (oss, the forerunner of the cia) and served during the Second World War in England, Belgium, and France. He was promoted to major in 1945.

On his discharge from the army in 1945, Paul Mellon returned to his country farm, Rokeby, where he passionately pursued his interests in foxhunting, horse breeding, racing, and trail riding. He also began, once again, to acquire rare books and works of art for his personal collections. Tragically, though, Mary Mellon died in 1946 from a severe asthma attack, leaving the young widower to raise two small children on his own.

In May 1948, Paul married Rachel Lambert Lloyd (1910–2014), also known as “Bunny.” Her family had founded Lambert Pharmacal Company, inventors of the mouthwash Listerine. In 1952, Paul and Bunny’s combined families, the Mellons and the Lloyds, moved out of the Brick House and into a smaller, less formal residence—Oak Spring—which had been designed and built by the architect H. Page Cross (1910–1975) under Bunny’s discerning eye. They also acquired further land, increasing the Rokeby estate to four thousand acres, and purchased homes in Antigua, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, DC. Together, Paul and Bunny developed and improved the Rokeby Farm estate, building fourteen greenhouses, a dairy, storage for apples, and a stunning library to house Bunny’s horticultural and botanical books.

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Paul also built several state-of-the-art stables and barns for his horses and cattle, and a private landing strip for the couple’s personal plane.

“Shortly after we were married in 1948,” recalled Paul in his autobiography, “Bunny and I started visiting art dealers in New York and Paris. Bunny had always been interested in French history and in French 19th-century paintings, partly inspired by her lifetime love of gardens and landscape gardening. It is impossible to describe the influence of visual objects in relation to my habits of collecting without saying how much Bunny’s imagination and visual acuity have influenced me.”5 Of all their homes, Paul and Bunny favored Oak Spring at Rokeby.

They enjoyed seeing the stallions, mares, and foals frolicking in the fields with the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. Bunny’s gardens, regardless of the season, always stood out as horticultural works of art that blended beautifully with the Virginia countryside. It was here, too, that Paul found a landscape reminiscent of his beloved England.

The newly built home at Oak Spring was also just a short walk from the Brick House, which was soon converted to a museum to accommodate Paul’s sporting art collection. His library included many enchanting manuscripts and rare books, particularly Americana and Virginiana, as well as historic maps and important atlases. Paul purchased the book collections of Major John Roland Abbey (1894–1969) and John Locke (1632–1704), wax sculptures by Edgar Degas (1834–1917), and sculptures by Herbert Haseltine (1877–1962) and John Skeaping (1901–1980). The museum was appointed with beautiful furniture and decorative objects, including all the trophies and silver that came from the success of Paul’s thoroughbreds and racehorses.

With the help of two advisers and friends, Basil Taylor (1922–1975) and John Baskett (b. 1931), Paul acquired a vast amount of British art. In 1963, a seminal exhibition containing 324 paintings and 127 drawings

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Paul Mellon’s book collection with sculptures

by Herbert Haseltine and John Skeaping, Abbey Room, Brick House, ca. 1970s. Photograph by Steven Tucker, New York.

Paul Mellon’s Americana collection, Pine Library, Brick House, ca. 1970s.

Photograph by Steven Tucker, New York.

View of Edgar Degas’s Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (1878–81, wax), in the Edgar Degas Room, from the second-floor hallway of Brick House, ca. 1970s.

Photograph by Steven Tucker, New York.

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from his collection was shown at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The exhibition was a huge success and renewed interest in British art as an important genre, with appeal to both American and European scholars. The exhibition was also shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and brought back to the United States for its final venue at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.

In 1985, Paul and Bunny helped to build a new wing at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, doubling its size. They bequeathed more than 1,800 works of art to the museum, which transformed its collection of English, French, and American paintings and sculpture. Paul served as a trustee of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for forty-six years.

Throughout the 1960s, Paul devoted considerable time and funds to help establish the Yale Center for British Art. He consulted with and recruited noted architect Louis Isidore Kahn (1901–1974) to design a building that could display all of the paintings and other objects he had personally collected. Kahn’s iconic building was completed and opened to the public in 1977. Today, the art collection at the Yale Center for British Art is one of the largest outside of Great Britain.

With steadfast support from Paul Mellon and his estate, as well as help from other donors, the collection now contains over 135,000 objects.

In 1967, Paul and his sister, Ailsa, donated funds for the construction of the new East Building of the National Gallery of Art. The new wing’s location was on an adjacent site that had been set aside by Congress in 1937, when the National Gallery of Art was first established. Right at the outset, Andrew Mellon had felt there should be space for expansion. I. M. Pei (1917–2019), already known to Paul, was selected to design the new building in a modernist style. Construction began in 1971 and the East Building was completed in 1978. During the 1980s and 1990s, Paul and Bunny contributed an additional 1,100 works to

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the National Gallery of Art, many by well-known French, English, and American artists.

In 1969, Paul and Ailsa established a nonprofit foundation in honor of their father, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, formed by the consolidation of the Avalon Foundation (created by Ailsa) and the Old Dominion Foundation (created by Paul). Today, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation continues its significant support of scholarship and education with a particular focus in the arts and humanities.

During the next two decades, Paul’s horse breeding operation at Rokeby produced several very successful thoroughbred racehorses, including: Arts and Letters, a beautiful chestnut thoroughbred that had several important victories in 1969 and 1970. Arts and Letters was “Horse of the Year” in 1969 and was inducted into the United States National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1994.

Fort Marcy was a bay thoroughbred that racked up major wins from 1967 to 1969. He was named “Horse of the Year” in 1970 and voted into the United States National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

Mill Reef was one of Paul Mellon’s most successful champion bay thoroughbreds.

Bred at Rokeby, Mill Reef was trained exclusively in England, where he won several important European races from 1970 to 1972. He was voted “European Horse of the Year” in 1971.

Quadrangle, a bay thoroughbred, achieved several major victories in 1963, and also won the Belmont Stakes in 1964.

In 1970, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art was founded in London by a grant from Paul himself. Presently housing a collection of roughly twenty-six thousand volumes on British architecture and art, the Centre works closely with the Yale Center for British Art. Together, the two entities work with Yale University Press to publish scholarly works, as well as hosting workshops and conferences relating to the arts of Great Britain.

From 1959 to 1979, Paul enjoyed competing in the 100 Mile Trail Ride in Hot Springs, Virginia. He participated seventeen times, winning on five occasions. The last three years—1977, 1978, and 1979—he won with a beautiful gray and white retired steeplechaser named Christmas Goose.

In addition to his love of art, Paul Mellon was an avid conservationist. Through some of the foundations that he and his family established, Paul saved from destructive development large areas of ocean frontage at Cape Hatteras, Cape Cod, and Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia. A grant from one of Paul Mellon’s charitable foundations was also responsible for the renovation of Lafayette Square in Washington, DC, which is directly across the street from the White House. With the help of the National Park Service, several buildings near the park were also refurbished, sidewalks were repaved in brick, new landscaping was introduced, and two fountains were constructed.

In 1975, Paul acquired more than 1,100 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Paris, Virginia, again preventing development from overtaking some of the region’s most bucolic views. This land, given to the Commonwealth of Virginia, ultimately became Sky Meadows State Park. Sixteen years later, Paul purchased another 248 acres for the park and placed his beloved Rokeby in permanent land easements

with the help of the Virginia Outdoors Foundation. He encouraged many friends and neighbors to do the same, thereby helping conserve crucial open space in this exceptional part of the Virginia Piedmont.

Today, Fauquier County has well-developed protections in place against excessive development, and this conservation practice has been applied in other counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

“Of all my philanthropic endeavors during my lifetime,” Paul wrote in his memoir, “I think I can safely say that the saving of these beautiful natural areas has given me the profoundest pleasure and the most heart-warming satisfaction.”6 From 1978 to 1981, Paul Mellon commissioned four discursive catalogs about his sporting paintings, drawings, prints, and books.

They were published by the Tate Gallery in London for the Yale Center for British Art. During the 1980s, Paul also began to think about writing his personal memoir, and with the help of his close friend and adviser John Baskett, he published his autobiography, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, in 1992.

During the final years of his life, Paul continued to collect British art, but he decided to step down from several of his museum affiliations. Nevertheless, he remained in contact with those museums with which he was most closely associated: the Yale Center for British Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. He also began to downsize his horse racing and breeding ventures—but in 1993, his bay thoroughbred Sea Hero won the Kentucky Derby, a wonderful high point in Paul’s life.

In February of 1999, Paul died at his home in Oak Spring. In his memoir, he described himself this way: “I have been an amateur in every phase of my life; an amateur poet, an amateur scholar, an amateur horseman…an amateur museum executive. The root of the word

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notes 96

‘amateur’ is the Latin word for love, and I can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the roles I played.”7

1.

Paul Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon: A Memoir (New York, 1992), 144–45.

To all who knew this humble and highly sophisticated man, he was far from being an amateur. Throughout his long life, Paul Mellon received several honorary degrees and awards for his dedication and philanthropic support to many important causes. These gifts live on as a legacy that inspires others to pursue their own scholarship, interests, and talents, thereby expanding sapientia et doctrina, wisdom and knowledge.

2.

Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, 298.

3.

Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, 299.

4.

Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, 299.

5.

Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, 270.

6.

Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, 375.

7.

Mellon, Reflections in a Silver Spoon, 391–92.

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Bunny Mellon, Herb tree in a pot, 1969, watercolor on paper. This thank you note reads: “Darling Paul—This is the original sketch from which all the other cards were taken—Thank you for such a pretty farm & letting me have my garden party.

All my love— Bunny.” Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

Paul and Bunny Mellon at the Thanksgiving Day Hunt, Oak Spring, ca. 1988, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Bunny Mellon: Creating Gardens and a Library Legacy to Inspire and Educate I Gardening is a way of life. As long as I remember I have never been without a plant or something growing. Seeds were a wonderment.

Bunny Mellon

Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon was a talented garden designer and horticulturist. She was also a lifelong bibliophile who assembled an extraordinary collection of rare books, manuscripts, and works of art.

Her passion in both areas profoundly influenced many in the worlds of horticulture and the fine arts. She also thought deeply about both pursuits. Bunny would often say, “The quality of a garden does not depend on size. Gardens are personal reflections of the tastes, hopes, and desires of each garden maker.”1 Bunny Mellon was born in New York City on August 9, 1910, at 777 Madison Avenue (today 45 East Sixty-Sixth Street) in a beautiful apartment building that was built only two years before her birth. A nurse who cared for her as a baby gave her the nickname “Bunny” and she was known by that name for the rest of her life. She was the eldest of the three children of Gerard Barnes Lambert (1886–1967) and Rachel Parkhill Lowe (1889–1978). On her father’s side, her family was prominent in business and she spent her early adolescent years at the family estate, Albemarle, in Princeton, New Jersey. Bunny attended the prestigious Miss Fine’s School (now Princeton Day School) with her brother, Gerard Barnes Lambert Jr. (1912–1947), and younger sister, Lily Lambert (1914–2006).

Bunny’s paternal grandfather, Jordan Wheat Lambert (1851–1889), attended Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, where he studied chemistry and business. He established the successful Lambert Pharmacal Company in Saint Louis, Missouri, and in 1879, with the help of Dr. Joseph Joshua Lawrence (1836–1909), formulated a mouthwash with antiseptic properties called Listerine. The product was named

after Sir Joseph Lister (1827–1912), the discoverer and promulgator of the practice of antiseptic surgery. Jordan left his flourishing company to his sons, Albert Bond Lambert (1875–1946), Jordan Wheat Lambert Jr. (1878–1917), Marion Liscome Jarvis Lambert (1881–1923), Gerard Barnes Lambert, and John David Wooster Lambert (1889–1976).

Upon graduation from Princeton University and Columbia University, Bunny’s father Gerard served in the First World War. After his military service, he went to work in the family company and became the driving force behind the advertising agency Lambert and Feasley, which was also located in Saint Louis, Missouri. Gerard promoted Listerine with great success as a cure for halitosis, and the Lambert family made a fortune from his canny style of advertising. Prior to the stock market crash of 1929, Lambert presciently sold most of his shares in the company. Subsequently he became president of the Gillette Safety Razor Company. His contributions included the development of the Gillette Blue Blade razor, which greatly increased the company’s profits.

Bunny’s father had many interests outside of his work. He was an erudite collector and amassed a large collection of fine art and books.

Bunny described her father’s library at Albemarle: “There were books in Daddy’s library—big, huge books of gardens, of architecture, of archaeology… Everything fascinated me—and there was no one who talked to me about them so they were absorbed and made a great vault in my mind to think about.”2 Gerard was also an accomplished yachtsman who owned and raced famous yachts, including the Atlantic, the Vanitie, and the Yankee.

Bunny Mellon leaning against a haystack, Oak Spring, ca. 1952. Photograph by Thomas Neil Darling, courtesy of Howard Allen Photography, LLC, Middleburg, VA.

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Competing in the Kaiser’s Cup, a transatlantic yacht race from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, to the Lizard in southwest England, the Atlantic set a record for the fastest crossing under sail. It held for one hundred years, from 1905 to 2005. Gerard had acquired the Atlantic from Cornelius Vanderbilt iii (1873–1942) in the autumn of 1927. In addition, Gerard was a musician and a gifted writer. He wrote three books: All Out of Step (1956), Murder in Newport (1938), and Yankee in England (1937; reprinted in 1938).

The appreciation and importance of books influenced Gerard’s children. Many famous classics for young people by authors and illustrators such as Louis Maurice Boutet de Monvel (1851–1913), Edmund Dulac (1882–1953), Kate Greenaway (1846–1901), Henriette Willebeek le Mair (1889–1966), and Arthur Rackham (1867–1939) could be found on the Lambert family’s bookshelves. Reading these tales, Bunny was inspired to learn about gardens and to create her own, beginning with a box of sand, glue, paint, and small twigs, before progressing to larger wooden boxes and seed trays. Bunny’s father encouraged this interest, and he set aside a space near the formal garden at Albemarle for her early horticultural undertakings.

Bunny’s maternal grandfather, Arthur Houghton Lowe (1853–1932), also helped instill a profound appreciation for plants and nature. Lowe was a successful businessman who established several textile mills in Massachusetts and Alabama. He introduced his young granddaughter to transcendentalism, and taught her to admire and respect nature, including through activities such as searching for wild mushrooms and other plants. He gave her a pocket-size book, Flower Guide: Wild Flowers East of the Rockies by Chester A. Reed (1876–1912), and Bunny memorized all of the plants by heart. Reed’s Flower Guide became her constant friend and traveling companion.

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The positive influence and encouragement of her father and maternal grandfather, combined with her innate talent and artistic sensibilities, helped Bunny to establish her own sense of style. She began collecting books, growing plants in her room, and turning her designs into reality with vigor and confidence. Her first important rare book purchase was The Flower-Garden Display’d (1734) by Robert Furber (1674–1756), a British horticulturist who maintained a nursery near London. An early version of a nurseryman’s catalog, The Flower-Garden Display’d contains twelve magnificent colored engravings illustrating about four hundred different flowers, all grouped by the month in which they come into bloom.

Gerard Lambert wrote in his memoir, All Out of Step, about his daughter’s first gardening endeavors: “She designed and had built a small playhouse in the woods near our house in Princeton. She stood over the workmen every minute; directing them. It was of concrete blocks with a thatched roof of straw. It had a Dutch door that opened in two sections and was painted blue. There was a square walled garden in front with tiny boxwood bushes forming intricate patterns, and rare shrubs and vines. Inside, it was completely furnished. Everything there was in the scale of the house. From this first effort came many beautiful gardens, some done as professional jobs. She has this same talent in decorating and, like her father, she loves to do things over.

Nothing is ever finished.”3 As she planned and tended her new garden, twelve-year-old Bunny was able to watch the Olmsted Brothers of Boston, who were then refurbishing the grounds at the family estate. Of this period in her life, Bunny Mellon later remarked, “I feel I was born at the right time, this country was younger and people from all walks of life were working hard for a better future. There was a sense of pride and unity, and I had

my books, drawing pads, supplies, and gardening paraphernalia.

This gave me a sense of stability which in turn helped me throughout my life.”4 Bunny’s lifelong interest in rare books and manuscripts derived in part from her constant search for reference materials about plants and gardening. She took some of these books with her to Foxcroft Boarding School in Middleburg, Virginia, in the early 1920s. There she designed a small garden for Miss Charlotte Haxall Noland (1883–1969), the founder and president of the school. In any project in which she was engaged, Bunny found inspiration and guidance from her private library. “My beginning,” she would often say, “started with rare books on plants and garden plans, mostly French or Italian. They were like my bibles, a great need to satisfy my desires and queries that I had at the time. A library is built during a lifetime, it doesn’t happen overnight.”

Bunny began by designing gardens for her family. When she was eighteen, she helped her father to lay out the grounds and gardens of his new estate, Carter Hall, in Millwood, Virginia. One of Bunny’s first real commissions was to create a garden in New Jersey in 1933 for Hattie Carnegie (1886–1956), a well-known fashion designer based in New York City. During a visit to Hattie’s dress salon, the two ladies worked out an unusual arrangement—a garden in exchange for a haute couture dress and coat.

In 1932, Bunny married Stacy Barcroft Lloyd Jr. (1908–1994). He belonged to a prominent Philadelphia family, graduated from Princeton University, and had become a businessman and landowner in Clarke County, Virginia. The couple settled there and as a newlywed Bunny oversaw the construction of their new home, Apple Hill at Carter Hall, complete with a charming garden and greenhouse. In 1935, Bunny and

Stacy purchased the Clarke Courier, a local newspaper based in Berryville,

Virginia. Stacy was the editor and Bunny wrote the gardening column.

Prior to their divorce in 1948, they had two children, Stacy Barcroft Lloyd iii (1936–2017) and Eliza Lloyd Moore (1942–2008).

On May 1, 1948, Bunny married Paul Mellon (1907–1999), the son of Andrew William Mellon (1855–1937), the wealthy Pittsburgh banker and industrialist. Paul was a widower, his first wife having died in 1946, and he had two children, Catherine (born in 1936) and Timothy (born in 1942).

Paul and Bunny shared a passion for art, and together they assembled one of the world’s paramount private collections. They surrounded themselves with beautiful works of art and donated many remarkable paintings and other objects to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond; and the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. As a collector, Paul Mellon focused on English painting and sporting art, while Bunny’s taste inclined her toward French art, in particular impressionism and postimpressionism, due to her interest in gardening and botanical art. Bunny was also open to modern art and collected works by Diego Giacometti (1902–1985), Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993), Mark Rothko (1903–1970), and others. With her appreciation for beauty in every form, she gravitated to and befriended creative designers such as the couturiers Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895–1972) and Hubert de Givenchy (1927–2018); one of Tiffany’s most celebrated jewelers, Jean “Johnny” Schlumberger (1907–1987); and the inspired event planner Robert Isabell (1952–2009).

Paul and Bunny built a modest country home on Paul’s farm, Rokeby, for their combined families, known as Oak Spring. They led very private lives, spending time in their beautiful residences in Antigua,

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Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, DC. Rokeby, however, was considered “home.” Bunny planted beautiful gardens and created an English-style park. A building was erected to store the apples from the estate’s orchards and a dairy provided fresh milk, butter, and cheeses for the family. Eventually there were fourteen greenhouses on their estate. Bunny’s combined enthusiasm for art and gardening led her to have the entrance to one of the greenhouses decorated with trompe l’oeil paintings by the French artist Fernand Renard (1912–ca. 1980).

Bunny Mellon won several prizes from the Horticultural Society of New York and at the New York International Flower Show for the varieties of cyclamens, gloxinias, and primulas that she cultivated in her greenhouses.

After Paul Mellon’s death in 1999, Bunny had two drying-out barns built on the estate in order to house logs from felled red and white oaks that she saved for future building projects. She was able to use the wood planks for another building constructed in 2010, called the Memory House. Now the Oak Spring Gallery, this multipurpose building is used for entertaining guests and introducing them to Bunny Mellon’s legacy. It also has rooms for archives, exhibition spaces, a digital lab, and work spaces for fellows, scholars, and artists.

While convalescing from a pulmonary illness, Bunny began to grow and sculpt woody perennials into miniature herb trees. She planted myrtle, thyme, rosemary, and santolina in clay pots, shaped or pruned them into artistic forms, and used them in her various homes as centerpieces. Others adopted her idea and now these same small herb topiaries can be found in many florists’ shops.

Bunny’s most famous projects were the redesigns of the Rose Garden and the East Garden of the White House in Washington, DC. In 1961, during a visit to her home at Cape Cod, Bunny was asked by

pau l a nd b u nny mel lon: visual biograph i e s

President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) to redesign the Rose Garden on the west side of the White House, close to the Oval Office. The Rose Garden was first constructed in 1913 during the administration of Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924). After much encouragement and enthusiastic support from President Kennedy’s wife and Bunny’s dearest friend, Jackie (First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, 1929–1994), the Rose Garden was revitalized as a space of beauty and functionality.

Today, the White House Rose Garden is familiar to millions around the world as the backdrop to important presidential ceremonies. Bunny Mellon also began designing the East Garden, but work was not completed until the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973).

Lady Bird Johnson (1912–2007) then named it the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden in honor of the former president’s widow. Both gardens are used frequently for White House events.

In an article that appeared in Vogue in 1965, Bunny Mellon wrote, “Too much should not be explained about a garden. Its greatest reality is not reality, for a garden, hovering always in a state of becoming, sums its own past and its future. A garden, like a library, is a whole made up of separate interests and mysteries.”5 After President Kennedy’s assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy asked Bunny if she could assist in the design of the president’s grave site in Arlington National Cemetery. In collaboration with the architect John Carl Warnecke (1919–2010) and the landscape architect Perry Hunt Wheeler (1913–1989), a very simple but dignified memorial was created.

Bunny was instrumental in selecting not only the plants, which included dogwoods and magnolias, but also the West Falmouth granite that paves the grassy site and the millstone on which the eternal flame stands.

Later, Bunny would work with the famous architect I. M. Pei (1917– 2019) on the design of the grounds surrounding the John F. Kennedy

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Bunny Mellon in the formal greenhouse at Oak Spring, ca. 1961. Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA. Photograph by Toni Frisell.

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Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Of their collaboration, Pei remarked: “Mrs. Mellon has the combination of sensitivity and imagery with technical knowledge that you only find among the best professionals.”6 She also collaborated with the landscape architect Dan Kiley (1912–2004) on the layout of the grounds surrounding the East and West Buildings of the National Gallery of Art. During her lifetime, Bunny found joy and fulfillment in designing gardens for her family and personal friends. These included gardens for her daughter Eliza Lloyd Moore in Little Compton, Rhode Island; for “Johnny” Schlumberger’s town house in New York City; for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s summerhouse on Martha’s Vineyard; for the home of the museum director and university professor Charles Ryskamp (1928–2010) in Princeton, New Jersey; and for Château du Jonchet, Hubert de Givenchy’s splendid residence south of Paris.

Every garden, whether large or small, was planned down to the last detail in order to create a place of natural beauty that was distinctive and uniquely suited to the person for whom it was designed.

Bunny always made a point of looking for native species suitable for planting. Another feature that characterized all her gardens was the placement of beautifully pruned trees to create striking focal points.

She would often say, “Give each garden its own atmosphere. Among the many things that make each garden unique, and perhaps the most important are the tastes, needs, and ability of the people involved.” 7 In the early 1970s, at a social function in Pittsburgh, Bunny Mellon was asked about her library. She answered that she didn’t have a library or a special place for her books, and they were unfortunately scattered and kept in many locations. On overhearing this conversation, Paul Mellon was determined to help Bunny rectify this situation. With his encouragement, in the spring of 1976 Bunny Mellon hired the New

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York City–based architect Edward Larrabee Barnes (1915–2004), and together they designed a beautiful yet functional building nestled in the pastoral setting of Oak Spring. The Oak Spring Garden Library was completed in the spring of 1981 and Bunny Mellon’s unique collection of books—mainly on horticulture, botany, and natural history—finally had a permanent home. Two decades later, the library expanded with the help of a local architect, Thomas Beach from Earth Design Associates, and the new wing was completed in the winter of 1997.

Today, the Oak Spring Garden Library is a thriving research center housing nineteen thousand objects—from manuscripts and books to drawings, prints, and sculpture—all of which are at the disposal of scholars engaged in research and other studies. The collection includes books on horticulture, landscape design, botany (including specialized books on trees, flowers, fruits, and fruit trees), natural history, voyages of exploration and travel accounts, architecture, the decorative arts, and classical literature. There are valuable manuscripts of all kinds, from books of hours and herbals to antique treatises with hand-colored engravings. Four descriptive catalogs of the library’s collections have been published: An Oak Spring Sylva (1989), An Oak Spring Pomona (1990), An Oak Spring Flora (1997), and An Oak Spring Herbaria (2009).

The library stands apart from the house. It comes into view from a gravel path overarched by an exquisitely tended arbor of Mary Potter crab apple trees that is underplanted with displays of seasonal perennials and annuals. The path leads to the display greenhouse with its magnificent trompe l’oeil mural. Bunny Mellon’s garden combines the features of a medieval walled garden with those of an English kitchen garden. Dwarf fruit tree cordons and espaliers intermingle with herbs, vegetables, and some of Bunny’s favorite flowers such as

The Old Wing, Oak Spring Garden Library, 2019, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

The New Wing, Oak Spring Garden Library, 2019, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Bunny Mellon’s gardening hats and jacket with pruning shears, 1982, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA. Photograph

by Fred Conrad.

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forget-me-nots, French poppies, sunflowers, and purple cornflowers.

Every tree, plant, and flower, every piece of sculpture and every building, from the greenhouses to the toolsheds, is perfectly placed, creating magical vignettes wherever one wanders among the flower beds and landscaped grounds. Plantings are never allowed to grow very tall, so as to allow unhampered views of the beautiful Virginia countryside.

Bunny Mellon’s close friend Hubert de Givenchy wrote: “Bunny Mellon…is a perfectionist. Her gardens are enchanting and her houses refined…I have learned much from her, and I am infinitely grateful.” 8 This homage was sincere, for in the 1990s, Givenchy sought Mrs. Mellon’s advice on restoring Le Potager du Roi, the vegetable garden planted by Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie (1626–1688) for Louis xiv at Versailles. During this four-year project, Mrs. Mellon’s personal library proved to be an invaluable resource. By studying her numerous editions of Instruction pour les jardins fruitiers et potagers by La Quintinie, Mrs. Mellon and Hubert de Givenchy were able to help restore the garden to its original glory. For her dedication and achievement, in 1995 Mrs. Mellon was awarded the medal Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

Together with her close friend Robert Isabell, Bunny designed a “Walled-In Espaliered Garden” for the 2002 Chicago Flower and Garden Show. Robert Isabell was a brilliantly creative designer and together he and Bunny built a miniature version of Oak Spring, complete with gardening sheds, a slate tile path, faux stone walls, live espaliered fruit trees, dwarf trees in pots, and flower beds filled with jonquils, daffodils, tulips, and pansies. This was one of Bunny’s last garden design projects.

Bunny Mellon passed away at Oak Spring in March 2014 during a quiet winter snowfall. With her passing, an era came to an end. Nevertheless, her remarkable achievements live on through the Oak Spring

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notes Garden Foundation, which stewards the landscape and garden she created and the art collections she assembled. Her home and collections provide inspiration to students and scholars as they pursue their research. To quote her own words: “I am not an educated botanist, horticulturalist or landscape gardener. However, without formal training I have learned and enjoyed in a self-taught fashion all its pleasures and satisfaction. That is why for all of you who want to open this door it is there for the taking.”9

1.

Rachel Mellon, personal journal, Oak Spring Garden Library.

2.

Rachel Mellon, personal journal, Oak Spring Garden Library.

3.

Gerald B. Lambert, All Out of Step: A Personal Chronicle (Garden City, NY, 1956), 130.

4.

Rachel Mellon to Tony Willis, personal communication.

5.

Rachel Mellon, “Green Flowers and Herb Trees,” Vogue, December 1965, 208–11.

6.

Paula Deitz, Of Gardens: Selected Essays (Philadelphia, 2011), 29.

7.

Rachel Mellon, personal journal, Oak Spring Garden Library.

8.

Françoise Mohrt, The Givenchy Style (Paris, 1998), 9.

9.

Rachel Mellon, personal journal, Oak Spring Garden Library.

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An Account of the Battersby and Renard Trompe lˇOeil Paintings at Oak Spring I Martin Battersby (English, 1914–1982) Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring Fernand Renard (French, 1912–ca. 1980) Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring

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The living room at Oak Spring looking northwest; the Martin Battersby trompe l’oeil is inside the cabinet to the right of the bookcase, 1992, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA. Photograph by Michael Dunne.

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The formal greenhouse at Oak Spring; the north wall of Fernand Renard’s trompe l’oeil is shown with cupboard door opened, 2019, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail of left lower shelf, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Cupboard with two doors each 37 3/8 × 15 1/8 in.

(94.9 × 38.4 cm) Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Left Door upper shelf Most of the space is taken up by an elegant box made of wood and decorated with landscape scenes sketched in black watercolor against a pale blue-gray background. The box is propped open by four books in fine leather bindings with stamped gold decoration, but with no indications as to their titles or authors. A blue satin ribbon tied in a bow dangles from the side of the box; suspended from it is a modern cameo, in a gold-colored setting, carved with the profile of an African woman wearing an earring. A sketch in ink of scrolls and other motifs is pinned to the wall behind the box by roundheaded, brass-colored thumbtacks (three along the top edge of the drawing are visible).

Propped against the right wall is a book in an antique-looking leather binding with the words “Cardinal / Pirelli / Firbank” stamped in gold on its spine. This is a copy of the satirical novel Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli by Ronald Firbank (1886–1926).

middle shelf Eight books in fine leather, vellum, or cloth bindings are arranged on the shelf. Four are stacked on top of each other, but only one can be identified. The second book from the bottom contains four slips of white cardboard serving as bookmarks, while the fourth volume lies on its side with its spine turned toward the viewer and the words “Ariosto / Orlando Furioso / Venetia 1630” clearly visible; this is a copy of the famous epic romance by Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533). A tall narrow volume with a green leather and marbled paper binding rests against the back wall. Leaning against it are two books—one is propped open to its title page, War and Peace, the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910), while the other is a volume in an antique-looking leather binding with gold decoration and the words “Trompe / l’oeil / by / Martin / Battersby” stamped in gold on its spine. The top part of a small book bound in black leather can be glimpsed behind an engraving of an obelisk that is fixed to the top and bottom edges of the shelf by roundheaded, brass-colored drawing pins. The long, narrow engraving had evidently been kept folded, accordion-style, and its top left corner is also slightly bent. The obelisk stands on a sculpted base and is embellished with four medallions bearing the portrait heads of four men, shown in profile and framed by wreaths.

Two stems of wheat, one of which is broken, dangle over the edge of the shelf.

lower shelf To the left is a book with a green binding and stamped gold decoration. Leaning against the back wall is a large book bound in brown leather and decorated in gold with a pattern of fleurs-de-lis and the monogram “mb” (the initials of Martin Battersby). In the foreground are a pearly nautilus shell (Nautilus pompilius), an hourglass with a small yellow butterfly resting on it (perhaps a cloudless sulphur, Phoebis sennae), and the shell of a small green turban sea snail (Turbo marmoratus). On the right are two tall, slender volumes, one bound in red leather, and the other in brown leather, both with raised bands and gold decoration.

Right Door upper shelf Resting on a napkin with a paisley and floral pattern in blue are a cluster of large purple grapes (Vitis vinifera) with a Madagascan sunset moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus) and an imposing marbled green turban shell (Turbo marmoratus). Leaning against the right side of the shelf are two books. The first, bound in dark brown leather, bears the title “The Young Visitors” [sic] stamped in gold capital letters on its spine; this was a novella published by Daisy Ashford (1881–1972) in 1919. The second volume is bound in white leather, possibly vellum, with four raised bands and the words “Ovid / Venetia / 1632” written in red ink on its spine. This is a copy of the magnum opus Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world (43 bce–17/18 ce).

middle shelf A book stands upright on the shelf, open to its title page: Candid: Or, All for the Best By M de Voltaire.

Dublin Con. This is probably a rare English edition of Candide, ou l’Optimisme by Voltaire (the nom de plume of François-Marie Arouet, 1694–1778).

Voltaire published his famous novella in 1759 and translations of the work, including this one, appeared in quick succession. Behind the book, a drawing on blue paper of a winged female figure is propped at a casual angle against the back wall of the shelf. In front of it is a footed silver cup with a beautiful striated magenta and white carnation (Dianthus sp.).

lower shelf On the left is a book bound in brown leather with raised bands, gold decoration, and the words “Vathek” and “Horace Walpole” stamped in gold on its spine, apparently a published edition of two Gothic novels—Vathek, an Arabian Tale by William Beckford (1760–1844) and The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1717–1797). In the center is a large bound manuscript, standing upright and open to a title page that reads: “Painting…In Ancient Times when Painting first began. A Pen, or Chalk, thus imitated Man…” This is a manuscript copy of Rays of Genius, collected to enlighten the rising generation, which was published in London in 1806 by the English calligrapher Thomas Tomkins (1743–1816). Sitting in front of the manuscript and propping it open is a pearly nautilus shell (Nautilus pompilius). In the foreground is a stuffed white dove (Columbidae) on a wooden stand. On the right is a volume bound in dark green leather with a single bookmark, five raised bands, and “Poems / Donne” stamped in gold on its spine. It is most likely a copy of the Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of the great poet John Donne (1572–1631), published by the Nonesuch Press (London) in 1929, which was donated by Paul Mellon to the Yale Center for British Art.

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, south wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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South Wall—to the left of the glass doors opening to the arbor

To the right of the glass doors opening to the arbor

upper shelf A wicker basket containing onions (Allium cepa) and some sprigs of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare); a white ceramic bowl with a brown rim.

upper shelf A watering can with its handle missing; three pears (Pyrus communis cv. Abate Fetel), one to the left and two to the right.

middle shelf Three sprigs of Persian cumin (Carum carvi) tied together with a piece of raffia, hanging from the top of the shelf by a nail; cluster of hazelnut involucres with a husked hazelnut nearby (Corylus avellana); a two-tined spading fork; a wicker basket with one handle containing peaches with some leaves (Prunus persica).

middle shelf A heap of leather straps for tying plants; an oldfashioned double hoe made of cast iron, without its handle; a pair of wood and leather bellows with the initials “gc vp”; a large dibber; a spading fork with four tines; a long hoe; some seeds (two large ones) on a piece of white paper and other seeds scattered on the shelf.

lower shelf A sprig of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis); an oblong wooden fruit basket with the initials “df” painted in faded lettering; ceramic pitcher (possibly redware) with a French flag and some sprigs of dried fennel (Foeniculum vulgare).

lower shelf At the back of the shelf, a round open-weave gathering basket. In the foreground, two footed glasses, one of which holds a red dahlia (Dahlia sp.), and a large off-white colored crock containing a stick.

102 1/2 × 42 7/8 in.

(260.4 cm × 108.9 cm)

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, west wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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West Wall—to the left of the glass doors opening into the west greenhouse upper shelf A ball of string; a small scythe; a dibber (perhaps made from a small animal’s horn); standing upright, a round basket sieve with a wooden frame marked with the number “3”; behind it, a wicker basket containing a gardening implement of which only the handle can be seen, and a smaller ball of string.

middle shelf / right cupboard door A bundle of leeks (Allium porrum) bound with willow ties; a small trowel with traces of blue paint; a spading fork with two tines; seven seeds; a pyramid-shaped glass bottle with two cornflower stems (Centaurea cyanus), each bearing a blossom and two buds.

middle shelf / left cupboard door A pair of long-handled pruning shears hanging from a hook; a three-tined spading fork and a hoe with two tines; a wooden harvest basket filled with strawberries (Fragaria vesca); a celery plant with its roots (Apium graveolens).

lower shelf / right cupboard door A copy of The Garden Journal of the New York Botanical Garden (vol. 8, no. 2); a metal basket; and two rings designed by Jean “Johnny” Schlumberger (1907–1987) hanging from a loop of raffia.

lower shelf / left cupboard door A small lemon from which a wedge has been cut (Citrus limon); a small head of cabbage (Brassica oleracea, cultivar not identifiable); a wooden spool of green wire; a small glazed earthenware bowl with a rim.

inside the right cupboard door A small framed drawing of a polypetal red carnation (Dianthus sp.) in a glass.

102 1/2 × 163 3/8 in.

(260.4 cm × 415 cm)

Above the glass doors opening into the west greenhouse

To the right of the glass doors opening into the west greenhouse

upper shelf A basket beehive; a large watering can; a terra-cotta pot decorated with an incised pattern and frilled edging made of clay encircling the rim, base, and center; a spading fork with five tines; a wicker basket; and a long, curled piece of manila paper.

In the foreground, three lobed tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum cv. ‘Ribbed’).

upper shelf An open-weave wicker basket with a handle, containing two peaches (Prunus persica); a terra-cotta pot holding two implements of which only the handles are visible (perhaps gardening tools); and a large wicker basket containing a three-tined spading fork, a small hoe, and three bamboo plant stakes. middle shelf / left cupboard door A bundle of garlic heads (Allium sativum) hanging from the top right-hand corner of the shelf; a bear paw clam shell (Hippopus hippopus) filled with blackberries (Rubus fruticosus); a head of celery (Apium graveolens); a leek (Allium porrum); two bundles of asparagus (two different cultivars of Asparagus officinalis), one bound with willow ties and the other with brown string; a single cherry with its stalk (Prunus cerasus) casting a faint shadow to the far right.

middle shelf / right cupboard door A string stretched across the width of the shelf near the top, presumably held by two nails (only one nail can be seen). Against the back wall, a two-handled wicker basket hangs on a nail; beneath it, a pair of metal pruning shears and a bunch of radishes (Raphanus sativus) lean against the wall. A cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is propped against the right wall; to the left, a decorated beige metal box with a handle is filled with black cherries (Prunus cerasus); lying on the shelf in the foreground are three cherries, a radish, and a yellow citrus fruit, perhaps a large lemon (Citrus limon). lower shelf / right cupboard door A head of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea cv. Botrytis) with its leaves; an ornamental striped zucchini (Cucurbita sp.); a small lobed eggplant (Solanum melongena); and a shallot with its stem (Allium cepa cv. Ascalonicum).

lower shelf / left cupboard door An artichoke (Cynara scolymus) that has been cut in half; a tomato (Solanum lycopersicum); a small orange-colored citrus fruit (not identifiable); a head of cabbage, of which only the leaves can be seen (Brassica oleracea, cultivar not identifiable); four small berries (not identifiable).

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, detail from middle shelf on right cupboard door at far right, west wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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120

Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, north wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

pau l a nd b u nny mel lon: visual biograph i e s

Unlike the other three walls of the vestibule, there is no passage through the north wall and it is therefore entirely decorated with trompe l’oeil paintings. The two central cupboard doors are actually a pair of folding doors that conceal a working counter with a sink.

North Wall—Far left

Center, above the folding cupboard doors

upper shelf Porcelain tureen in the form of a pumpkin; a tall open-weave wicker basket with one small handle.

upper shelf

middle shelf / cupboard door A bundle of small white turnips (Brassica rapa, one of many cultivars) hanging from the top right-hand corner of the shelf; a glazed gray pitcher with eleven bamboo canes (Phyllostachys sp.), serving as plant stakes, and two plant identification stakes; a small white fluted porcelain bowl containing different cultivars of beans (dried); three small beans lying on the shelf; a red cabbage (Brassica oleracea); and a small ornamental yellow squash (Cucurbita pepo) with a warty exocarp. lower shelf / cupboard door A colorful collection of seashells. In the back, Nautilus macromphalus, a branch of red coral, Turbo sarmaticus, and Conus betulinus. In the foreground, Conus marmoreus (marbled cone), a starfish, Pomacea canaliculata (golden apple snail), Clanculus pharaonius, Terebra guttata, Conus ebraeus, an unidentifiable gastropod, Mitra mitra, and a Cypraea species. wall to the right of the cupboard door A sheet of paper with sketches by Jean Schlumberger of an ornamental garden urn containing various flowers, a flower head (perhaps from the family Asteraceae), and a Centaurea species (a thistlelike flowering plant from the family Asteraceae). Below, a beetle painted en trompe-l’oeil.

102 1/2 × 152 1/4 in.

(260.4 cm × 386.7 cm)

Hanging from the top of the shelf is a basket made of light-colored wood with a handle of darker wood encircling the curved base of the basket; a piece of white string dangles over the edge; also suspended (upside down) from the top shelf is a blue tulip with its bulb (Tulipa sp., perhaps the famous cv.

Semper Augustus). Sitting on the shelf: an upended wicker basket with two handles; an apple (Malus sp.); a sieve with a wooden frame; a wicker basket holding two bamboo plant stakes; a small woven fish trap with a note on blue paper tied to it with red ribbon; a rectangular wicker basket containing pieces of broken terra-cotta and two bamboo plant stakes (one is colored green); a lemon (Citrus limon); and a traditional wine flask with a woven straw base.

Center, folding cupboard doors middle shelf / left folding door Long strands of raffia (Raphia ruffia) hanging from two nails in a festoon; a peacock butterfly (Aglais io) against the back wall; a spade; a sieve with a wooden frame; a large wicker basket filled with white and brown eggs, and at the top a polished stone egg (probably malachite); in the foreground a small wooden box with two compartments; a green and white striped mug with a variegated red and white carnation (Dianthus sp.); two eggs; three tiny berries; two rose hips; two small onion sets; and a head of garlic. lower shelf / left folding door A dibber with a metal tip; an apple (Malus domestica); a hazelnut (Corylus avellana); a pyramid of yellow apples (Malus domestica) with two pears (Pyrus communis) at the top of the pile; two blackberries (Rubus fruticosus); a peach (Prunus persica); a wooden pitcher; and a traditional surveyor’s tool useful for laying out a garden with two blue handles. lower register / left Below the set of shelves, a base painted a pale bluegreen and decorated with a pattern of bamboo latticework with a sheaf of wheat framed by two concentric circles in the center.

Far right middle shelf / right folding door An open-weave wicker basket hanging from a hook in the upper left corner; a harvest basket with four artichokes (Cynara scolymus); a large splint and wicker basket with a handle, containing an implement (only the handle can be seen) and several stems of an unidentifiable vegetable or plant; a Nantucket basket; and in the foreground a fennel bulb (Foeniculum vulgare) and the stem of the same unidentifiable vegetable contained in the basket. lower shelf / right folding door Some small berries (possibly blueberries, Vaccinium myrtillus, but not identifiable with any certainty), a sprig with yellowish fruits (not identifiable), and various seeds scattered on the shelf; a head of red cabbage (Brassica oleracea, unidentifiable cultivar) from which a wedge has been cut; a small pair of gardening shears with wooden handles; a hedgehog chestnut (Castanea sativa); a pear (Pyrus communis); a ball of string; a curious three-branched object, clearly botanical in nature, possibly a hypogean rhizome, but unfortunately not identifiable; a terra-cotta pot with a dead plant; the shell of a small green turban sea snail (Turbo marmoratus). lower register / right Below the set of shelves, as on the lower register of the left folding doors, a base painted a pale bluegreen and decorated with a pattern of bamboo latticework with a sheaf of wheat framed by two concentric circles in the center.

upper shelf Three small onions (Allium cepa) tied together with string and hanging from a nail in the upper left corner; a harvest basket and three shallots with long stems (Allium cepa cv. Ascalonicum) resting on the shelf. middle shelf / cupboard door Two color engravings from Le jardin fruitier (Paris, 1821) by Louis Claude Noisette (1772–1849) are attached to the back wall of the shelf; one (whose bottom edge is curled upward) is fixed by two small nails and illustrates gardening tools, while the other (which had once been folded down the middle) is attached by two roundheaded brasscolored thumbtacks and shows grafting tools and techniques. On the shelf: a nested stack of four terra-cotta pots with two wooden plant tags with wire in the topmost pot; two downy-white lobed objects, probably from a plant but unidentifiable; one small elderberry beneath the tail of the bird statuette and an infructescence of elderberry (Sambucus nigra); a peach (Prunus persica); a starfish (possibly Astropecten sp.); the statuette of a bird made of papier-mâché; a white porcelain pitcher containing some parsley (Petroselinum hortense) and a leafy branch (not identifiable) with small dark-colored fruits at the base of its leaves; at the foot of the pitcher a small, round, golden fruit (not identifiable). lower shelf / cupboard door Small wooden bucket bound with metal hoops and filled with wooden plant stakes; terra-cotta pot containing a bamboo plant stake and three wooden cooking implements (spoon, fork, and spatula); four mushrooms (Psalliota bispora); and three dark-colored berries (not identifiable).

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at the base, in the right-hand corner A signature and date: “Renard 1959–1960.” inside the folding doors / left Burberry raincoat used by Bunny Mellon as a gardening coat. inside the folding doors / right Mrs. Mellon’s blue gardening apron; a pitchfork with “Unity” painted on its wooden handle. on the wall above the counter A red geranium (Pelargonium zonale) in a small beige earthenware pitcher, a white tea towel with a strawberry pattern in blue along its borders, hanging from a coat hook; and a colored engraving from Phytographia curiosa, exhibens arborum, fruticum, herbarum & florum icones (Amsterdam, 1713) by Abraham Munting (1626–1683) illustrating a plant with blue flowers (possibly a chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia), with two brass-colored tacks in its top corners. In the foreground Renard has added a shovel and a scroll that reads “Ex Libris Bunny Mellon 1960.”

Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, details of Renard signature and cupboard interior, north wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, east wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

pau l a nd b u nny mel lon: visual biograph i e s

East Wall—to the left of the glass doors opening into the east greenhouse upper shelf Redware pitcher with a sprig of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare); glazed white clay pitcher; small demijohn with a wicker cover; small black pitcher with an artichoke flower (Cynara scolymus); large terra-cotta pot. middle shelf / left cupboard door Drawing of the greenhouse with a ground plan, prepared by Cross & Son Architects and dated November 19, 1957; a copy of Les beaux fruits de France (Paris, 1947) by Georges Delbard (1906–1999); an immature lemon (Citrus limon); a small stone obelisk (perhaps made of porphyry); a copy of Kate Greenaway’s Birthday Book for Children (London, 1880); Le raisin, ses espèces et variétés, dessinées et colorées d’après nature (Stuttgart, 1799–1810), a rare book in two folio volumes of red leather by Johann Simon Kerner (1755–1830); a manuscript bound in green leather, “Stirpium imagines lxxv quas ex horto patavino delineavit et vivis coloribus ad naturam”

by Baldassare Cattrani (fl. 1776–1810). lower shelf / left cupboard door Wicker basket containing some letters and postmarked envelopes, a white kerchief with a paisley pattern in red and blue, a pencil, and a small cardboard box with “…ns Hedges” printed in blue Gothic lettering and the word “Mouthpiece” handwritten in block letters; two letters lie on the shelf, together with a peach (Prunus persica) and a small glass rabbit

102 1/2 × 163 3/8 in.

(260.4 cm × 415 cm)

middle shelf / right cupboard door Tall metal vase decorated with two dark green bands, for cut flowers; large blue mug with black stripes and a white handle containing a narcissus (Narcissus poeticus) and two blue asters (Asteraceae); a wicker basket containing a small curved handsaw, a leather strap, and two polished wooden shafts that could be the handles to a gardening tool; a sycamore twig with its seed pod (Platanus occidentalis). lower shelf / right cupboard door A powder compact designed by Jean Schlumberger; a twig with leaves and berries from a wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis); small cottage in porcelain whose decoration includes an espalier against one wall; wooden bowl containing grapes (Vitis vinifera, cv. not identifiable) with a small dark berry and a grape lying on the shelf beside it. on the wall to the right of the cupboard A sheet of paper tacked to the wall with a poem in Paul Mellon’s handwriting: “PAesop’s FABLES (The Fox & The Rabbit).”

Above the glass doors opening into the east greenhouse

To the right of the glass doors opening into the east greenhouse

upper shelf Large demijohn with wicker cover; a pear (Pyrus communis); a muskmelon (Cucumis melo); a small terra-cotta pot containing some parsley (Petroselinum hortense) and chives (Allium schoenoprasum); a broken terra-cotta pot with two implements of which only the handles are visible; a small red metal basin; a large watering can.

upper shelf White and yellow pottery pitcher, possibly Italian or Portuguese, with two green-tinted bamboo stakes and a plant identification stake; an orange with its leaves (Citrus sp.); a dark green bottle with a cork; a terra-cotta flower pot; a small metal milk can speckled with red paint; a large wicker basket with a handle. middle shelf / left cupboard door Hanging from a nail against the back wall, a pair of small pruning shears with blue handles; a bundle of white, black, and brown feathers tied together, hanging from the top of the shelf; a large wicker basket with yellow and blue plums (Prunus domestica, different cultivars); a commercial packet of cornflower seeds (Centaurea ‘Barbeau Bluet’); a footed glass with a leafy stem of Pelargonium zonale; a fruiting head from the sweet gum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua); a peach (Prunus persica).

middle shelf / right cupboard door Three branches of plums, tied together and hanging from a string (Prunus domestica, two different cultivars); blue denim hat; a red poppy petal; an Old World swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon); and a redware pitcher containing two red poppies (Papaver sp., but not the common red poppy Papaver rhoeas), a feather, and several stems of a cereal (not wheat or barley, but perhaps a species of foxtail grass, Alopecurus sp.) lower shelf / right cupboard door A copy of Le jardin fruitier (Paris, 1821) by Louis Claude Noisette, in three volumes with a white bookmark in the uppermost volume and a white leather gardening glove.

lower shelf / left cupboard door A small pair of pruning shears hanging from a nail; a hammer; four U-shaped nails; five red currants (Ribes rubrum); a walnut (Juglans regia); a wicker ball; behind the wicker ball, what appears to be a small tan fruit or nut, but not identifiable.

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127

Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, detail of east wall to the right of the glass doors, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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List of Objects in the First Proposal for Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring by Fernand Renard I

Two sections, each 87 5/8 × 70 in.

(222.6 × 177.8 cm) All descriptions are from left to right.

upper shelf A Chelsea artichoke tureen, with a porcelain pecking finch on lid; a small terra-cotta pot with three feathers, two are yellow and one is white; an origami paper statue with three-leaf clovers (perhaps an imitation of a suit of clubs); a porcelain topiary tree with red berries in a white, red marbled urn; an origami paper statue with red diamonds (perhaps in imitation of a suit of diamonds); two sheaves of wheat; a Chelsea cauliflower tureen. upper middle shelf A porcelain or wooden bird; two blue cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus); a porcelain lemon with a leaf box, possibly Chelsea; one small red seed; a Jacob Petit oval tureen and cover, modeled as a two-handled basket filled with a variety of vegetables; a porcelain tulip cup with seven cigarettes, one lying on the shelf; a Staffordshire enamel apple box; a porcelain or wooden bird.

lower middle shelf A Chelsea asparagus tureen (bundle of sixteen with two ties); a persimmon (Diospyros sp.); a wicker basket with fruit, possibly seven quinces (Cydonia sp.), dried plants, possibly tansy (Tanacetum sp.), and sweet gum fruit balls (Liquidambar styraciflua); one sweet gum fruit ball on shelf (Liquidambar styraciflua); a persimmon (Diospyros sp.); a large die; an envelope/letter from Jean “Johnny” Schlumberger (1907–1987) to Mrs. Paul Mellon, posted from Guadeloupe; a porcelain Chelsea plate with four large green leaves (possibly Brassica sp.), three butterflies, and one ladybug; a clear glass vase with white stripes, containing two carnations (Dianthus sp.), one white and one red; two red petals lying on the shelf. lower shelf A Jacob Petit artichoke box and cover; a yellow pear (Pyrus sp.); two shells, one inside the other; a Jacob Petit asparagus tureen, modeled as a large bundle of asparagus tied at two ends, resting on a bed of leaves, and applied with onions, garlic, and small vegetables; an ivory hourglass (sand in bottom bulb) with embossed flower blossoms at top and bottom; red, white, and blue ribbon, tied around bamboo latticework; hanging black wired egg basket with red tie containing three eggs.

Fernand Renard, Initial maquette proposal for the formal greenhouse, detail, diluted oils on canvas, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

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Selection of surviving objects from Fernand Renardˇs Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, 2019, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.

pau l a nd b u nny mel lon: visual biograph i e s

List of Surviving Objects I

These objects, depicted in the Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring

by Fernand Renard, are in the collections of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

south wall To the right of the glass doors, middle shelf Heap of leather straps for tying plants.

To the left of the glass doors, lower shelf A French flag. west wall To the left of the glass doors, middle shelf right cupboard door Pyramid-shaped glass bottle.

To the left of the glass doors, lower shelf right cupboard door The Garden Journal of the New York Botanical Garden (vol. 8, no. 2) and a metal basket. north wall Center shelf above the folding doors Fish trap with a note on blue paper tied to it with red ribbon (gift from Mrs. Kennedy).

Center, lower shelf/left folding door, Surveyor’s or gardener’s instrument with two blue handles.

Far right, lower shelf cupboard door Wooden bucket with wooden plant stakes, one with white string wrapped around it.

east wall To the left of the glass doors, middle shelf right cupboard door Large blue mug with black stripes and a white handle.

To the right of the glass doors, upper shelf White and yellow pottery pitcher, possibly Italian or Portuguese.

To the right of the glass doors, lower shelf left cupboard door Wicker ball.

To the right of the glass doors, lower shelf right cupboard door Leather gardening glove.

Also still to be found in the collections of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation are all of the rare books from Bunny Mellon’s private collection that are depicted in the trompe l’oeil, the colored engraving of the “Strawberry tree” (in Phytographia curiosa, exhibens arborum, fruticum, herbarum & florum icones

by Abraham Munting), and the autographed poem that Paul Mellon wrote for his wife.

131

Bibliography and Selected Additional Literature I

132

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Exhibition catalog.

Morely, John. “Martin Battersby.” Journal of Decorative Society 1890–1940, no. 7 (1983): 5–8.

Old and New Trompe l’Oeil: Illusion, Double Image, Perspective. New York, 1938.

Olmi, Giuseppe. “Natura morta e illustrazione scientifica.” In La Natura morta in Italia, edited by Federico Zeri and Francesco Porzio, 1:69–91. Milan, 1989.

Painting in England, 1700–1850. Richmond, VA, 1963. Exhibition catalog.

The Paul Mellon Gift to the Pierpont Morgan Library. Preface by Charles Ryskamp.

New York, 1981.

Raphael, Sandra. An Oak Spring Sylva: A Selection of theRare Books on Trees in the Oak Spring Garden Library. Upperville, VA, 1989.

Raphael, Sandra. An Oak Spring Pomona: A Selection of the Rare Books on Fruit in the Oak Spring Garden Library. Upperville, VA, 1990.

Rewald, John. French Paintings from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and Mrs. Mellon Bruce: Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition, 1941–1966.

Washington, DC, 1966. Exhibition catalog.

Ridgway, Christopher. “A Garden Furnished with Books.” Country Life, December 1997, 36–41.

Ridgway, Christopher. “To Walk in a Vision of Economy and Grace.” Country Life, January 1998, 30–35.

Roubo, André Jacob. L’art du treillageur, ou Menuiserie des jardins. Paris, 1775.

Rowel, Margit, ed. Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life. New York, 1997.

Exhibition catalog.

Ruskin, John. Modern Painters. New York, 1856.

“Sleight of eye: in seven houses.” Vogue, February 15, 1960, 138–41.

Sotheby’s Auction: Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon, 21–24 November 2014.

4 vols. New York, 2014.

Sterling, Charles. La nature morte de l’antiquité à nos jours. Paris, 1952.

Tapié, Alain, ed. Les Vanités dans la peinture du xvii siècle. Caen, 1990. Exhibition catalog.

Tomkins, Calvin. “Love for Sale.” The Art World. New Yorker, August 11, 1997, 64.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, Lucia. An Oak Spring Herbaria: Herbs and Herbals from the Fourteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries: A Selection of the Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon. Upperville, VA, 2009.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, Lucia. “Immagine naturalistica: Tecnica e invenzione.” In Natura-Cultura. L’interpretazione del mondo fisico nei testi e nelle immagini, edited by Giuseppe Olmi, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Attilio Zanca, 133–51. Florence, 2000.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, Lucia. An Oak Spring Flora: Flower Illustration from the Fifteenth Century to the Present Time: A Selection of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Works of Art in the Collection of Rachel Lambert Mellon.

Upperville, VA, 1997.

Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr., ed. From Botany to Bouquets: Flowers in Northern Art. Washington, DC, 1999. Exhibition catalog.

Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Small Wonders: Dutch Still Lifes by Adriaen Coorte. Washington, DC, 2003.

Willis, Tony. “Rachel Lambert Mellon: Her Library and Outstanding Collection of Botanical Art.” In Arte botanica del terzo millennio / Botanical Art into the Third Millennium, edited by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi and Alessandro Tosi, 45–48. Pisa, 2013. Exhibition catalog.

Wilmerding, John. Essays: In Honor of Paul Mellon. Washington, DC, 1986.

Zafran, Eric M. Masters of French Painting, 1290–1920 at the Wadsworth Atheneum.

Hartford, CT, 2012.

Zeri, Federico, and Francesco Pozio, eds.

La natura morta in Italia. 2 vols.

Milan, 1989.

Tongiorgi Tomasi, Lucia, and Alessandro Tosi, eds. Il cannocchiale e il pennello.

Nuova scienza e nuova arte nell’età di Galileo.

Florence, 2009. Exhibition catalog.

Trompe l’oeil anciens et modernes. Paris, January 1985. Exhibition catalog.

Veca, Alberto. Inganno & Realtà. Trompe l’Oeil in Europa xv–xviii sec. Bergamo, 1980.

Exhibition catalog.

Veca, Alberto. Vanitas. Il simbolismo del tempo.

Bergamo, 1981. Exhibition catalog.

b i b l i o g ra ph y

133

Index I Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations.

Numbers followed by n indicate notes.

A

134

Abbey, John Roland, 92 Accolti, Pietro, 11 Ace of Clubs Pierced by a White Tulip (Dabos), 79, 80 Ace of Hearts Pierced by a Pink Carnation (Dabos), 79, 80 Aesop, 71–73 After the Hunt (Harnett), 21, 22 Algarotti, Francesco, 83 Alken, Henry, 91 Allegories of Virtues and Vices (Giotto), 12 All Out of Step (Lambert), 100 Andrea Doria, 86 Annunciation (Master of Flémalle), 13 Antigua, 79–82, 92, 101 “Architettura” (Ponti), 85 Ariosto, Ludovico, 43, 111, 112 Arlington National Cemetery, 102 Arnheim, Rudolf, 24 Arnolfini Portrait (Van Eyck), 13 Art and Illusions: Masterpieces of Trompe-l’oeil from Antiquity to the Present Day exhibition (2009), 86 Art Deco Fashion (Battersby), 39 L’Art du Menuisier (The Art of the Joiner) (Roubo), 51–54 L’art du treillageur, ou Menuiserie des jardins (Roubo), 53, 54 Artificialia (man-made artifacts), 15 Art Nouveau: The Collection of Martin Battersby exhibition (1964), 38 Ashford, Daisy, 43–44, 111, 113 Atlantic, 99–100 Auerbach, Erich, 24

B

Baker, Jan, 83, 83–85 Balenciaga, Cristóbal, 37, 101 Barnes, Edward Larrabee, 66, 104 The Basket of Bread (Dalí), 25n34 Basket of Fruit (Caravaggio), 68 Basket of Fruits (Ast), 17n8, 70 Baskett, John, 92, 95 Battersby, George Martin, 14–15, 37–38, 39, 70 —works and exhibitions, 77; Art Deco Fashion, 39; Art Nouveau: The Collection of Martin Battersby exhibition (1964), 38; The Decorative Thirties, 39; The Decorative Twenties, 39; The Jazz Age, An Entertainment exhibition (1969), 38; “Sphinx” room, 39; Tilly Losch painting, 37, 39, 77; Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, 7, 9, 36, 37, 41–48, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 63, 108, 110, 111, 112–13, back cover; Trompe l’Oeil: The Eye Deceived, 38, 39, 39, 85; The World of Art Nouveau, 39 Baudrillard, Jean, 11, 14, 22, 63 Beach, Thomas, 104 “Beauty Came” (Mellon), 89, 90 Les beaux fruits de France (Delbard), 66, 124, 125 Beckford, William, 45–46, 111, 113 Bening, Simon, 28, 29 Blake, William, 91

Blondel, Jean François, 54 The Blue Envelope (Peto), 17n8 Boilly, Louis Léopold, 22–24 Bois Doré, 38, 39 The Bookcase (Davies), 16, 16 Bookmark (Baker), 83, 83–85 Borges, Jorge Luis, 46, 63 Bosschaert, Ambrosius the Elder, 26, 33, 34 botanical art, 27–35, 101 Boudin, Stéphane, 57 Boutet de Monvel, Louis Maurice, 100 Brizé, Cornelis, 85 Brook Street Gallery (London), 38 Brown, Mary Elizabeth Conover, 90–92 Bruce, Ailsa Mellon, 89, 94 Bruce, David, 91 Byron, 45

C

“Cabinet des Curiosités” exhibition (Paris), 70 A Cabinet with Objects of Art (Hainz), 15, 17n14, 40, 41, 49n67 Cadiou, Henri, 23, 24, 70 Callot, Jacques, 32 Campi, Vincenzo, 68 Candide (Voltaire), 44, 111, 113 canons, 14 Caravaggio, 68 Carnegie, Hattie, 101 Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 50 Casaus, Albert, 24 The Castle of Otranto (Walpole), 45, 46, 111, 113 Cattrani, Baldassare, 66, 124, 125 Chardin, Jean-Siméon, 69 Château du Jonchet, 104 Chéry, Philippe, 19 Chirico, Giorgio De, 22 Christmas cards (Renard), 78 Cimabue, 12 Cinq coquillages sur une tranche de pierre (Coorte), 49n67 Clarke Courier, 101 Cocchi, Antonio, 83 Colantonio, Niccolò, 13 Collection des dessins (Boilly), 22–24 La Colombe (Picasso), 49n71 Complete Poetry and Selected Prose (Donne), 111, 113 Composition aux livres (Oudry), 16 Concerning the Eccentricities of Cardinal Pirelli (Firbank), 43, 111, 112 Conover, Catherine (Cathy) Mellon, 90, 101 Conrad, Fred, 63, 106 Constable, John, 91 contrefait (to imitate or faithfully copy) (term), 22 Coolidge, Calvin, 89 Coorte, Adriaen, 49n67, 69, 70, 75n109 counterfeit, 27–35 Crespi, Giuseppe Maria, 10, 15, 16, 83 Cross, H. Page, 51, 64, 92 Cross & Son Architects, 52, 64, 124, 125 curiosities (Curiosa), 15 curiosity cabinets (gabinetti di curiosità), 41

D

Dabos, Laurent, 79, 80 d’Alembert, Jean Le Rond, 54

paul a n d bunny mell on: visual bio graphi e s

Dalí, Salvador, 22, 25n34 Darling, Thomas Neil, 88 Davies, Kenneth, 16, 16 da Vinci, Leonardo, 24, 27 Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l’Oeil Painting exhibition (2002–3), 86 La Déchirure (The Tear) (Cadiou), 23, 24 Decker, Joseph, 86, 86 The Decorative Thirties (Battersby), 39 The Decorative Twenties (Battersby), 39 Degas, Edgar, 92, 93 Delbard, Georges, 66, 124, 125 Les délices des yeux et de l’esprit, ou, Collection générale des différentes espèces de coquillages (Knorr), 68 Diderot, Denis, 54 Diebenkorn, Richard, 101 Documents on the Wall (Brizé), 85 Donne, John, 46, 111, 113 Douet, Edme-Jean-Baptiste, 79–82, 81 Due conchiglie (Napoletano), 49n67 Dürer, Albrecht, 27

E

Edge, David, 38 eggplant (Solanum melongena), 116, 118 elderberry (Sambucus nigra), 120, 122 Elévation Géométrale d’un Salon de Treillage Accompagné de Galeries de Deux Differentes Décorations (Roubo), 53 L’Empereur Maximilien tenant un oeillet (Joos van Cleve), 49n69 Empoli, Jacopo da, 69 Encyclopédie: Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (Diderot and d’Alembert), 54

F

Fairfax-Carey, Grace, 38 Fantin-Latout, Henri, 17n8 Filarete, 12 Firbank, Ronald, 43, 111, 112 The Flower-Garden Display’d (Furber), 100 Flower Guide: Wild Flowers East of the Rockies (Reed), 100 Flowers in a glass vase (Seghers), 34 Flowers with a fritillary in the center (Pini), 31 Flowers with an iris in the center (Pini), 30 Foisse, François (Brabant), 16 Fornasetti, Piero, 84, 85, 85–86 Frisell, Toni, 103 Frugoni, Carlo Innocenzo, 83 Fruit Seller (Campi), 68 Fruits exotiques (Douet), 79–82, 81 Furber, Robert, 100

G

Gabriel, 13 Galileo Galilei, 27 Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence), 27 Garner, Philippe, 38 Garzoni, Giovanna, 69 Giacometti, Diego, 101 Gilou, Pierre, 24 Giotto, 12

Givenchy, Hubert de, 37, 101, 104, 106 Golden Age, 15, 70 Gombrich, Ernst H., 9 Gossaert, Jan (Mabuse), 14, 15 grapes: Grapes (Decker), 86, 86; Le raisin, ses espèces et variétés, dessinées et colorées d’après nature (Kerner), 66, 124, 125; purple grapes (Vitis vinifera), 111, 113 Greenaway, Kate, 100 Green Plums (Decker), 86 greeting cards (Renard), 55, 74n79, 78, 87n114 Gysbrechts, Cornelis Norbertus, 15, 17n14, 49n70

H

Hainz, Georg, 70; A Cabinet with Objects of Art, 15, 17n14, 40, 41, 49n67; A Table with Drinking Vessel and Confectionery, 17n14 Hamilton, Billy, 77 Hammer Galleries (New York), 59 Handback, C., 52 Hanson, Duane, 24 Harnett, William Michael Harnett, 21, 22 Haseltine, Herbert, 92, 93 Herbert, Henry, 77 herb topiaries, 102 Hill, Nathaniel, 38 Hodgkin, Eliot, 69, 69, 85 Hoey, James, Jr., 44 Honeysuckle with flowers and a scroll with thieves fleeing an inn (Saint-Aubin), 33 Hoogstraten, Samuel van, 70 Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis ad Usum Romanum (Bening), 28, 29 Hulsdonck, Jacob van, 76

I

Illusionism and Trompe l’Oeil exhibition (1949), 22 Il vitto pitagorico…discorso di Antonio Cocchi, 83 impressionism, 101 Ingersoll, Elinor, 38, 39 insects, 68, 120, 121 Instruction pour les jardins fruitiers et potagers (La Quintinie), 106 intarsia, 12, 12–13 Isabell, Robert, 85, 101, 106 Italian cabinet in trompe l’oeil with marbled shelves and books, 82, 82–83

J

Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, 102 Le jardin fruitier (Noisette), 66, 120, 122, 124, 126 The Jazz Age, An Entertainment exhibition (1969), 38 jewelry: Bunny’s collection, 75n108; greenhouse trompe l’oeil, 64, 70, 116, 117 John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (Boston, Massachusetts), 102–4 Johnson, Anne Ford, 55 Johnson, Lady Bird, 102 Johnson, Lyndon B., 102 Joos van Cleve, 49n69 Joséphine de Beauharnais, 77 Jung, Carl Gustav, 91

K

Kahn, Louis Isidore, 94 Kate Greenaway’s Birthday Book for Children, 66, 124, 125 Kennedy, Jacqueline, 57, 64, 85, 102, 104 Kennedy, John F., 102 Kepler, Johannes, 27 Kerner, Johann Simon, 66, 124, 125 Kiley, Dan, 104 King, Charles Bird, 18, 19–21, 21, 64 Knorr, Georg Wolfgang, 68

L

Lafayette Square (Washington, DC), 95 Lambert, Albert Bond, 99 Lambert, Gerard Barnes, 99–100 Lambert, Gerard Barnes, Jr., 99 Lambert, John David Wooster, 99 Lambert, Jordan Wheat, 99 Lambert, Jordan Wheat, Jr., 99 Lambert, Lily, 99 Lambert, Marion Liscome Jarvis, 99 La Quintinie, Jean-Baptiste de, 106 Lawrence, Joseph Joshua, 99 Leopoldine, Ottilie Ethel (Tilly Losch), 37, 39, 77 Leroy de Barde, Alexandre-Isidore, 70 letters, 124, 125, 128, 129 Letters, Papers, etc. on a Board Partition (Gysbrechts), 17n14 Levy, Julien, 22 Libreria (Crespi), 10, 15, 16, 83 Lichfield, John, 44 Ligozzi, Jacopo, 27 Little Dancer Aged Fourteen (Degas), 93 Lloyd, Stacy Barcroft, III, 101 Lloyd, Stacy Barcroft, Jr., 101 Locke, John, 92 Losch, Tilly, 37, 39, 77 Louis xiv, 27, 106 Louis xviii, 70 Lowe, Arthur Houghton, 100 Lowe, Rachel Parkhill, 99

M

Mabuse (Jan Gossaert), 14, 15 Magritte, René, 22 Maison Jansen, 57 Manet, Edouard, 69–70 man-made artifacts (Artificialia), 15 Manno, Paul, 57 Marbeuf, Marquis de, 74n74 Marshall, Benjamin, 91 Massachusetts, 92, 102 Master of Flémalle, 13 Maupin, J., 24 McBean, Angus, 39 McEwen, Rory, 69 McMullen, Nora Mary, 89 Medici family, 27 Meléndez, Luis, 79 Mellon, Andrew William, 86, 89, 90, 91, 101 Mellon, James Ross, 89 Mellon, Mary Elizabeth Conover, 90–92 Mellon, Paul, 7, 41, 88, 97; acquisitions, 86; Americana collection, 92, 93; appreciation of English art, history, and culture, 9, 37, 89, 91; approach to reading, 44; autobiography, 95–96; “Beauty Came,” 89, 90; biography, 89–96; book collection, 91, 92, 93; British art collection, 91, 92–94, 95,

101; catalog commissions, 95; conservation, 95; death, 95; donations to NGA, 17n8, 22, 86, 91, 94, 101; donations to Yale Center for British Art, 94, 95, 101, 113; horse racing and breeding, 94, 95; legacy, 77, 86, 96; marriage to Bunny, 92, 101; military service, 92; “PAesop’s FABLES (The Fox & The Rabbit),” 71–73, 72, 124, 125, 131; philanthropy, 89–96; sporting art collection, 91, 92, 95, 101 Mellon, Rachel (Bunny) Lambert, 7, 25n34, 41, 50, 62, 63, 73, 92, 97, 98, 99–107, 103; Antigua garden, 82; approach to reading, 44; art collection, 27, 29–32, 45, 66, 86, 101; awards, 106; book collection, 66, 67, 67, 68, 92, 100, 101, 104, 131, 134; correspondence with Paul, 97; correspondence with Renard, 55, 59, 74n76; death, 106; donations to NGA, 17n8, 22, 86, 91, 94, 101; garden designs, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106; on gardening, 99, 102; herb topiaries, 102; Herb tree in a pot watercolor, 97; horticultural undertakings, 99, 100; jewelry collection, 64, 70, 75n108, 116, 117; love of French culture, 9, 37, 58, 92; marriage to Paul, 92, 101; personal effects, 64, 65, 70, 106, 123, 123, 124, 125, 126, 130, 131, 134 Mellon, Richard Beatty, 89 Mellon, Thomas Alexander, 89 Mellon, Thomas Alexander II, 89 Mellon, Timothy (Tim), 90, 101 Memling, Hans, 49n69 Merian, Maria Sibylla, 27, 32 Metamorphoses (Ovid), 111, 113 Misserini, Niccolò, 43 Moillon, Louise, 69 Molière, 39 Mona Lisa (da Vinci), 24 Monet, Claude, 17n8 Monnoyer, Jean-Baptiste, 82 Montefeltro, Federico da, 12, 54 Moore, Derry, 59 Moore, Eliza Lloyd, 59, 79, 83, 101, 104 Munting, Abraham, 67, 67, 123, 123, 131 Murder in Newport (Lambert), 100

N

Nantucket basket, 120, 122 Napoletano, Filippo, 49n67, 69 National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), 79, 91; Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l’Oeil Painting exhibition (2002–3), 86; donations from Paul and Bunny Mellon, 17n8, 22, 86, 91, 94, 101; East Building, 94, 104; West Building, 104 natural history specimens, 47, 70 Naturalia (scientific specimens), 15 Negley, Sarah Jane, 89 Newtonismo per le Dame di Francesco Algarotti, 83 New York International Flower Show, 102 Noisette, Louis Claude, 66, 120, 122, 124, 126 Noland, Charlotte Haxall, 101 Nourse, John, 44

O

Oakes, George, 79 Oak Spring, 7, 92, 101, 102, 108; trompe l’oeils, 77–87; “Walled-In Espaliered Garden” miniature, 106 Oak Spring Garden Foundation, 106–7

Oak Spring Garden Library, 66, 104–6; Italian cabinet in trompe l’oeil with marbled shelves and books, 82, 82–83; New Wing, 104, 105; Old Wing, 105; stool decorated en trompe-l’oeil, 79 offizioli (manuscripts of prayers for noble laypersons), 13 Old and New Trompe l’Oeil: Illusion, Double Image, Perspective exhibition (1938), 22 Olivier, Laurence, 38 Olmsted Brothers, 100–101 Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, 57, 64, 85, 102, 104 The Open Missal (Ring the Younger), 16 optical deception, 13 Orangerie, 24 “Orlando Furioso” (Ariosto), 43, 111, 112 Oudry, Jean Baptiste, 16 Ovid, 43, 44, 111, 113

P

“PAesop’s FABLES (The Fox & The Rabbit),” 71–73, 72, 124, 125, 131 Palace Theatre (London), 77 Palazzo Alessi (Genoa), 86 Palazzo Bo (Padua), 85 Palazzo Ducale (Urbino), 12, 12–13 Palazzo Marino (Milan), 86 Palazzo Strozzi (Florence), 86 papers and prints: greenhouse trompe l’oeil, 124, 125, 128, 129; living room trompe l’oeil, 48 Parrhasius, 11, 12, 19 Parus, Auguste Desiré, 55 Peale, Charles Wilson, 19 Peale, Raphaelle, 19; Still Life with Apples, Sherry, and Tea Cake, 22, 23; Strawberries and Cream, 22; Venus Rising from the Sea— A Deception (After the Bath), 19, 20, 70 pears (Pyrus communis): first greenhouse trompe l’oeil proposal, 128, 129; greenhouse trompe l’oeil, 114, 115, 120, 122, 124, 126 Pei, I. M., 94, 102–4 Peintres de la Réalité exhibition (1934), 24 Pelargonium zonale, 67, 124, 126, 127 Penot, Jean Valette-Falgores, 62 Perry, William, 55 Persian cumin (Carum carvi), 114, 115 persimmon (Diospyros), 128, 129 personal effects: greenhouse trompe l’oeil, 64, 65, 70, 124, 125; greenhouse trompe l’oeil objects still in the Oak Spring collections, 130, 131 Personal Effects in the Cupboard (Hoogstraten), 70 Peruzzi, Baldassartre, 15 Peto, John Frederick, 17n8, 22, 23 Phytographia curiosa, exhibens arborum, fruticum, herbarum & florum icones (Munting), 67, 67, 123, 123, 131 Picasso, Pablo, 22, 49n71 Pini, Gerolamo, 29, 30, 31 Plasschaert, Jacobus, 85 playing cards, 79, 80 Pliny the Elder, 11–12 Poirier, Jacques, 24 Poniatowski, Stanislaw II August, 87n123 Pontelli, Baccio, 12, 12–13 Ponti, Gio, 85, 86 Poor Artist’s Cupboard (King), 18, 19–21, 21, 64

Pope, John Russell, 91 Portrait of a Man with Carnation (Memling), 49n69 Portrait of Saskia with a Red Carnation (Rembrandt), 49n69 Le Potager du Roi garden (Versailles), 106 Potter, Beatrix, 79 powder compacts, 124, 125 precious objects, 64, 70, 116, 117 Private study of Federico da Montefeltro (Workshop of Baccio Pontelli), 12, 12–13 Pumpkin with a Stable-lad (Stubbs), 91

Q

quadrature, 14–15

R

rabbit statuary, 124, 125 Rackham, Arthur, 100 Le raisin, ses espèces et variétés, dessinées et colorées d’après nature (Kerner), 66, 124, 125 Rays of Genius, collected to enlighten the rising generation (Tomkins), 44–45, 111, 113 realism, 19 Recueil de Plantes Copiées de’ Apres Nature par de Saint-Aubin, Dessinateur du Roy Louis xv (Saint-Aubin), 32, 33 Redouté, Pierre Joseph, 27, 32 Reed, Chester A., 100 Rembrandt van Rijn, 49n69 Remps, Domenico, 15, 40, 41 Renard, Fernand, 7, 9, 37, 54–57, 55, 70, 74n76; correspondence with Bunny, 55, 59, 74n76, 77; exhibitions, 59; greeting cards, 55, 74n79, 78, 87n114; small paintings, 77, 79; still life paintings, 59, 77; Ricci, Franco Maria, 46 Ring the Younger, Ludger tom, 16 Robert, Nicolas, 27, 32 Robert Sielle’s Files (Hodgkin), 69, 85 Rokeby Farm, 90, 91, 92, 95, 101–2 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 89 Roses and a Tulip in a Glass Vase (Van Thielen), 17n8 Rothko, Mark, 101 Roubo, André Jacob, 51–54, 53, 74nn73–74 Rowlandson, Thomas, 91 Ruskin, John, 19 Ryskamp, Charles, 104

S

Sagittarius Gallery (New York City), 38 Saint-Aubin, Charles-Germain de, 32, 33 Saint Jerome in His Study (Colantonio), 13 Sala delle Prospettive (Peruzzi), 15 Salon de Paris, 22–24 Sánchez Cotán, Juan, 69 Sandys, George, 44 Scarabattolo (Cabinet of Curiosities) (Remps), 15, 40, 41 Schlumberger, Jean (Johnny), 59, 101; band rings, 64, 70, 116, 117; correspondence with Bunny, 128, 129; gardens, 104; greenhouse finial, 51, 53, 64, 74n73; ornamental garden urn sketches, 120, 121; powder compact, 124, 125 scientific specimens (Naturalia), 15 Seghers, Daniel, 34, 34 Seymour, James, 91 Shakespeare, William, 38

i n de x

135

136

Six coquillages sur une tranche de pierre (Coorte), 49n67 Skeaping, John, 92, 93 Skull. Back of the Carondelet diptych (Gossaert), 14, 15 Smith, William, Jr., 44 “Sphinx” room (Carlyle Hotel), 39 sporting art, 91, 92, 95, 101 Statens Museum for Kunst (Copenhagen), 17n14 statuary: first greenhouse trompe l’oeil proposal, 128, 129; greenhouse trompe l’oeil, 120, 122 Sterling, Charles, 24 Still Life of Exotic Fruits (Douet), 79–82, 81 Still Life of Plums, Cherries, Strawberries, and a Rose (Hulsdonck), 76 Still Life of Variegated Tulips, Roses, a Hyacinth, a Primrose, a Violet, Forget-me-nots, a Columbine, Lily-of-the-valley, a Cyclamen, a Marigold and a Carnation, all in a glass vase, with a Butterfly and a Housefly (Bosschaert the Elder), 26, 33, 34 still life painting, 13–14, 16, 17n8 Still Life with Apples, Sherry, and Tea Cake (Peale), 22, 23 Still Life with Books (Foisse), 16 Still Life with Bottle, Carafe, Bread, and Wine (Monet), 17n8 Still Life with Cake, Lemon, Strawberries, and Glass (Peto), 22 Still Life with Mustard Pot (Fantin-Latout), 17n8 Still Life with Oranges and Goblet of Wine (Peto), 22, 23 Still Life with Shells (Ast), 49n67 “Stirpium imagines lxxv quas ex horto patavino delineavit et vivis coloribus ad naturam” (Cattrani), 124, 125 Strawberries and Cream (Peale), 22 Streamline—The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 77, 87n113 Stubbs, George, 91 Study of plants and insects (Van Kessel the Elder), 32

T

A Table with Drinking Vessel and Confectionery (Hainz), 17n14 The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Potter), 79 Taylor, Basil, 92 Tema e Variazioni, 86 The Temple of Florai (Thornton), 45 Thornton, Robert John, 45 Todorov, Tzvetan, 46 Tolstoy, Leo, 43, 111, 112 Tomkins, Thomas, 44–45, 111, 113 Touillon, L., 24 Trompe l’Oeil: A Cabinet of Curiosities with an Ivory Tankard (Gysbrechts), 17n14 Trompe-l’oeil à la statuette d’Hercule (Penot), 62 trompe-l’oeillistes, 24 trompe l’oeil painting, 9, 11–17. see also specific works; revival, 19–25; themes, 16, 70 Trompe l’Oeil Panel with Shipping Documents (Plasschaert), 85 Trompe l’Oeil / Réalité movement, 24 Trompe l’Oeil: The Eye Deceived (Battersby), 38, 39, 85 trompe l’oeil trumeau (secretary) (Fornasetti), 84, 85, 85, 86

Trompe l’Oeil with Violin, Music Book and Recorder (Gysbrechts), 17n14 tulips, 66–67, 120, 121 Turner, Joseph Mallord William, 91

V

van der Ast, Balthasar, 17n8, 49n67, 70, 70 van Eyck, Jan, 13 vanitas paintings, 14, 15, 47, 49n70 Vanitie, 99–100 van Kessel, Jan, the Elder, 29–32, 32, 70 van Thielen, Jan Philip, 17n8 Vathek, an Arabian Tale (Beckford), 45–46, 111, 113 Venus Rising from the Sea—A Deception (After the Bath) (Peale), 19, 20, 70 Versailles, 106 Vestiaire d’usine (Cadiou), 24, 70 Victoria, Frederick P., 55–57, 74n79 Villa Farnesina, 15 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 92–94, 95, 101 Virginiana, 92 Virginia Outdoors Foundation, 95 Vogue, 77, 102 Voltaire, 44, 111, 113

W

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 16 Walpole, Horace, 45, 46, 111, 113 Walpole, Robert, 46 War and Peace (Tolstoy), 43, 111, 112 Warnecke, John Carl, 102 Wheeler, Perry Hunt, 102 Whistler, Reginald John “Rex,” 77, 87n113 White House (Washington, DC), 57; Jacqueline Kennedy Garden (East Garden), 102; Rose Garden, 102 The World of Art Nouveau (Battersby), 39 Wunderkammern (cabinets of marvels), 15

Y

Yale Center for British Art, 94, 95, 101, 113 Yankee, 99–100 Yankee in England (Lambert), 100 The Young Visiters, or, Mr Salteena’s Plan (Ashford), 43–44, 111, 113

Z

Zeuxis, 11, 12, 19

© 2020 by Oak Spring Garden Foundation First published in 2020 by Oak Spring Garden Foundation 1776 Loughborough Lane Upperville, VA 20184 www.osgf.org All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of Oak Spring Garden Foundation, 1776 Loughborough Lane, Upperville, VA 20184.

Every effort has been made to acknowledge correct copyright of images where applicable. Any errors or omissions are unintentional and should be notified to Oak Spring Garden Foundation, who will arrange for corrections to appear in any reprints. isbn 978-0-578-63116-5 Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.

Designed by Studio A, Alexandria, VA Edited by Magda Nakassis Indexed by Pilar Wyman Printed by Verona Libri in Verona, Italy Front cover: Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, detail of east wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA. Frontispiece: Fernand Renard, Trompe l’Oeil in the Formal Greenhouse at Oak Spring, detail from the cupboard interior, north wall, 1959–60, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA. Back cover: Martin Battersby, Trompe l’Oeil in the Living Room at Oak Spring, detail, ca. 1959, diluted oils on canvas mounted to wood, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.