The Revival of Trompe l’Oeil Painting in the United States

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

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

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

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

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

The Completion of the Greenhouse

A charming photograph (see page 103), probably taken in 1960, shows Bunny in the vestibule of her greenhouse, smiling and holding a bas- ket.  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

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

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

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

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. 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

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.

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 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