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Trompe l’Oeil Painting: Vision, Perception, Deception
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.
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.
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. 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.
Formal greenhouse at Oak Spring, ca. 1960s. Photograph by Louis Reens.
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
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
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,
Fernand Renard, ca. 1970. Photograph by Derry Moore.
Note card to Bunny from Fernand Renard (front), Four baskets, three eggs, and two bamboo sticks, 1964, body color drawing, Gerard B. Lambert Foundation.
Four preliminary pencil drawings, one with body color, of the Oak Spring formal greenhouse, possibly by Fernand Renard, not dated, Gerard B. Lambert Foundation.
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 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.
Fernand Renard, Initial maquette proposal for the formal greenhouse, diluted oils on canvas, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA.
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
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 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
