This essay exploring the genius of Leonardo da Vinci in Milan is included in my most recent book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in…
View More Debating Da Vinci in MilanTag: grand residences
I have a bit of an addiction to grand residences regardless of the country they are nestled into and I write about them often on The Diary of an Improvateur.
In her book Garden Inspirations, Charlotte Moss shares a number of visionaries that made an impact on the history of gardens in her chapter “Verdant Voices,” one of which is Empress Joséphine, “The Patron” of the group. Moss enlightens readers about the sovereign’s passion for flowers that resulted in her creation of an “earthly paradise” at the once downtrodden Château de Malmaison, one of France’s grand residences west of Paris that encompassed 150 acres of land when she purchased it and is now a national museum.
I hope to walk through the French interiors of this museum during my next trip to France. “The planning of the grounds was heavily influenced by the English school of landscape design, with its romantic features, gentle rolling lawns, and monumental trees,” Moss writes. It’s interesting to note that Joséphine’s influence didn’t end with her death; in 1844, 30 years after the Empress passed, a rose named Souvenir de la Malmaison appeared. A Russian Grand Duke payed homage to the royal by naming it and planting one of the first specimens of it in the Imperial Garden in St. Petersburg. I have a number of posts under this tag so I if you enjoy stories about or set within grand residences, I hope you’ll stop by.
Ottoline Morrell Gets Lit
This essay exploring the literary world of Ottoline Morrell is included in my most recent book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book…
View More Ottoline Morrell Gets LitPeggy Guggenheim Goes Off-Beat
This essay exploring the world of Peggy Guggenheim in Venice is included in my new book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book…
View More Peggy Guggenheim Goes Off-BeatThe Nature of Noble Loyalty
It’s spring in London and the flowers are bursting forth on Cheyne Walk, which skirts the edge of the River Thames until it gives way…
View More The Nature of Noble LoyaltyThe Tapestry of History
In just a few hours, the modern ideal of a fairy tale wedding will take place at Windsor Castle. A trip I took to the…
View More The Tapestry of HistoryThe Fabric of Design
In their introduction to The Decoration of Houses, Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman, Jr., write, “In the middle ages, when warfare and brigandage shaped the…
View More The Fabric of DesignMy Porcelain Bucket List
When I am planning literary design adventures, I look for experiences that give me the feeling of transcendence—encounters during which I am conscious of having…
View More My Porcelain Bucket ListA Conversation on Trends in Textiles
I’m thrilled to announce that I am producing the first in my Modern Salonnière series of events during High Point Market next month. With this…
View More A Conversation on Trends in TextilesTransitory Spaces
The beginning of one of Napoléon Bonaparte’s earliest letters to Joséphine de Beauharnais simply oozes sensuality: “Seven in the morning. I awaken full of you…the…
View More Transitory SpacesPeggy Guggenheim Visits Oculus Gallery
In 2009, I trekked to Venice with my dear friend JoAnn Locktov, the founder of Bella Figura Publications whose newest book Dream of Venice Architecture…
View More Peggy Guggenheim Visits Oculus Gallery