Jayne wrightsman biography of christopher
A Trip (or Two) to the Past
space of the week
Revisiting 18th and 19th century furniture and decorative arts at Christie’s.
ByWendy Goodman, Curbed and New York Magazine’s design editor who covers the city’s most spectacular interiors.
Great Rooms
A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman
Jayne Wrightsman. Photo: Courtesy of Christie’s
Great Rooms
A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman
Jayne Wrightsman. Photo: Courtesy of Christie’s
Christie’s New York has announced two upcoming sales of important 18th and 19th century furniture and decorative arts. First up, on April 2, is The Dalva Brothers, who have long been go-to dealers for decorators and collectors. Next, on April 24, is The Private Collection of Jayne Wrightsman. While few have the means and voracity to collect the way Charles and Jayne Wrightsman did (the pair bought up vast quantities of 18th century furniture and art) we are indebted to their passion and legacy, which includes, for one, The Wrightsman Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Wrightsman reinvigorated the lust for all things 18th in her time, just as Elsie de Wolfe did in hers. Wrightsman learned and collected with the best, including French decorators Stéphane Boudin, who headed up Maison Jansen, and Henri Samuel. Wrightsman’s legacy includes, among (many) other things, helping Francophile Jacqueline Kennedy spiff up the White House. So how do we understand these collections through a modern lens? We asked a handful of decorative arts pros to weigh in, including interior designer Robert Couturier. “I think Jayne Wrightsman, seen here in her New York City apartment, invented her life in reference to people who proceed her,” he said. “Wrightsman is still the reference for taste and generosity. That is the admirable thing about true American collectors, because none of them were born into understanding it. They learned it, and they educated themselves. European people were bo “Palm Beach Fable”: that was the headline for an article written by Rosamond Bernier for the May, 1984, issue of House & Garden, featuring the famous but never-before-published rooms of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Wrightsman. In the same month of the following year the property would be sold and its contents put on the auction block with Sotheby Co. The loggia, as decorated by Henri Samuel. I remember receiving this issue in the mail and pouring over the remarkable rooms contained within time and time again (I had subscriptions to all of the shelter magazines beginning at the age of thirteen). In the years since I am somewhat surprised that it hasn’t re-appeared in the blog posts of fascinated “designaholics” such as myself. I found this issue in a box and decided it was time to share the full story, with all of its sumptuous photography, once more. Henri Samuel had the entrance hall painted salmon. A Languedoc marble jardiniere from Versailles stands bewteen two Indian chairs in ivory-veneered fruitwood. Built in the nineteen-twenties by Maurice Fatio the mansion enjoyed a heady and glamorous life prior to the Wrightsman’s stewardship. In the thirties the richest man in America, Harrison Williams, and his wife, the great beauty Mona (who later become Countess von Bismarck), enlisted Syrie Maugham, at the height of her career, to bring her own brand of light and glamour to the eccentric spaces of this Mediterranean villa by the sea at 513 North County Road. The Harrison’s gave Maugham a retainer of $50,000 a year – big money at that time! Given the drawing room, the library, the terrace, and the pool Maugham extended her white treatment, covering everything in white, down to white fur rugs and white flowers everywhere. A watercolor by Cecil Beaton of Mona and Harrison Williams in their Palm Beach sitting room. In the reception room, where the Met’s Head of a Girl by Ve When Christopher Columbus Wright was born on 6 October 1849, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States, his father, Ralph "Rafe" Smith Wright, was 32 and his mother, Elvira Francey Wofford, was 27. He married Lousiana Belle Botts on 1 September 1870, in Prentiss, Mississippi, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 4 daughters. He lived in Prentiss, Mississippi, United States in 1880 and Beat 4, Prentiss, Mississippi, United States in 1900. He died on 12 April 1923, in Marietta, Prentiss, Mississippi, United States, at the age of 73, and was buried in Marietta, Prentiss, Mississippi, United States. &#;Palm Beach Fable&#;: that was the headline for an article written by Rosamond Bernier for the May, , issue of House & Garden, featuring the famous but never-before-published rooms of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Wrightsman. In the same month of the following year the property would be sold and its contents put on the auction block with Sotheby Co. The loggia, as decorated by Henri Samuel. I remember receiving this issue in the mail and pouring over the remarkable rooms contained within time and time again (I had subscriptions to all of the shelter magazines beginning at the age of thirteen). In the years since I am somewhat surprised that it hasn&#;t re-appeared in the blog posts of fascinated &#;designaholics&#; such as myself. I found this issue in a box and decided it was time to share the full story, with all of its sumptuous photography, once more. Henri Samuel had the entrance hall painted salmon. A Languedoc marble jardiniere from Versailles stands bewteen two Indian chairs in ivory-veneered fruitwood. Built in the nineteen-twenties by Maurice Fatio the mansion enjoyed a heady and glamorous life prior to the Wrightsman&#;s stewardship. In the thirties the richest man in America, Harrison Williams, and his wife, the great beauty Mona (who later become Countess von Bismarck), enlisted Syrie Maugham, at the height of her career, to bring her own brand of light and glamour to the eccentric spaces of this Mediterranean villa by the sea at North County Road. The Harrison&#;s gave Maugham a retainer of $50, a year &#; big money at that time! Given the drawing room, the library, the terrace, and the pool Maugham extended her white treatment, covering everything in white, down to white fur rugs and white flowers everywhere. A watercolor by Cecil Beaton of Mona and Harrison Williams in their Palm Beach sitting room. In the reception room, where the Met&#;s Head of a Girl by Vermeer once hung, the Wrightsman&#;s placed a gi The Wrightsman Rooms
The Wrightsman Rooms