Veranda September/October 2022

“Art should be something like a good armchair in which to rest from physical fatigue.”—HENRI MATISSE Among its powers, art is a salve. To the French painter and master colorist Henri Matisse, it represented both emotion and relief. That he painted his artworks into Large Red Interior—his last finished oil painting, on exhibit through September 10 at the Museum of Modern Art—is telling of its potency, and even necessity, within our own environments. In this issue, we explore the role of art in exceptional design, from the works we collect for our interiors to the enduring impact of craft in our most important buildings—and how each becomes a personal bolt-hole of wonder and self-expression. Digital Image © CNAC/MNAM, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY. Artwork © 2022 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS),…

EARLIER THIS SUMMER I fell in love with a painting in an unexpected place: my dear friend M.K. Quinlan’s clothing and vintage shop. To celebrate her new brick-and-mortar location, she curated a selection of works from artist Justin Giunta and hosted an opening for his show. It had all the trappings of a bona fide gallery opening—rousing conversation among a mélange of stylish guests (some old friends, some new), loads of visual stimulation, and free-flowing wine. After a chat with Giunta about his unique approach to still life painting, I bought Bauhaus Still and left invigorated by discovering a new way of seeing things when I didn’t know I was looking for it. There are so few moments for spontaneity these days, but immersing ourselves in creative work—our’s or others’—can spark…

A PASSAGE TO INDIA David Hicks employed eye-popping black borders to “divide” the amber walls of his St. Leonard’s Terrace dining room into panels, a look inspired by the color and patterning of Jaipur’s Durbar Hall. A SHIMMERING CROWN In Manhattan, Jeffrey Bilhuber finished a flocked wallpaper by Mauny with a coordinating border; the opulent frieze with copper leaf underlay becomes a garland for an understated cornice—and a tip of the hat to the copper wallpaper tacks borders were once intended to hide. SUITE STRIPES Doyen of English country house style, John Fowler elongated dusky-blue bedroom walls with vertical floral sashes. The Hampshire Hunting Lodge’s current owner, designer Nicky Haslam, preserved what he calls a “quick, inexpensive” decorating trick. COVERT AFFAIRS In New Orleans’ French Quarter, Brockschmidt & Coleman uses a graphic trim atop a whimsical ashlar…

Gutsy Fauvism The “wild beasts” of France’s early 1900s art scene did not paint softly, dethroning Impressionism with intense color and gestural brush-strokes. New, oversize florals recall Henri Matisse’s paper cutouts and vivid foliage evokes André Derain’s emotive landscapes—even stripes take on an ultrasaturated bravado. Cubism Recast Enough with the drama, said Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque of their early 1900s quest to restore order to art. Today’s abstract forms and mixed-material furnishings elevate quotidian objects and delight in papier collé, marrying elements like walnut and rush or cast resin and white oak. Light, Lyrical Orphism The melodic cousin of Cubism saw radiant color in its march toward abstraction; rainbow brights and curving silhouettes are adopted anew in the chromatic ceramics of potter Nicholas Newcomb, swirling tilework, and graphic fabrics. A Warmer Bauhaus The famed German art…

Circle of Influence Coco Chanel adored buttons and used them to refashion the female form. In tribute, the maison’s new Golden Pearl Motif long necklace dangles a timepiece of yellow gold and brilliant-cut diamonds at the plunge of a sautoir—that intoxicating emblem of the era (and Chanel herself). But the true signature of Mademoiselle emerges when the timepiece flips to reveal an oh-so-Coco button of gold pearl. Chanel Hors-Série Mademoiselle Privé Bouton Golden Pearl Motif long necklace, 800-550-0005 Star Turn Nearly a century after Gloria Swanson first donned her Cartier rock-crystal and diamond bracelets—including in Sunset Boulevard—the maison’s Deco decadence returns in its shape-shifting Libre Morphosis watch. A twist of an elastic band takes it from watch to bracelet as links of brilliant-cut diamonds and pyramid-cut garnets command the spotlight. Cartier Libre Morphosis watch, 212-446-3419 Unlocking…

ADVANCED GEOMETRIES Soane Britain’s Rumi linen frames a 1920s Egyptian khayamiya in an intricate leaf pattern (also shown on cushions, opposite). Date fabric’s stylized hexagons animate the Quiver Klismos stool. ARCHIVAL GRAPHICS LULU LYTLE has been an Egyptomaniac all her life. Yes, massive cultural obsessions with the ancient civilization have come and gone, but the cofounder of Soane Britain has been having an Egypt moment since she was a little girl collecting travel brochures about the far-flung destination. She wrangled a trip there with her parents at age 17. “To me it was completely intoxicating,” she says. “The intensity of the heat and the light, the extraordinary relief of the shade, the ripples on the Nile, the overwhelming scale of the architecture. I was in love.” It’s no wonder Lytle, who studied Egyptology at…