Masterworks from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon
#AntiqueMasterpieces"One of the last great private American collections formed in the 20th century, this array of masterworks reveals a unique curatorial vision and true connoisseurship. Ranging from Old Master and Impressionist paintings through the contemporary period, highlights include major canvases by Rothko, Diebenkorn, O'Keeffe and Hopper.
As a designer, there are people that you knew in the beginning of your career and
watched their work your entire life. Mrs. Mellon, I think she was an artist herself.
She was a world-class gardener doing things like the Rose Garden at the White House.
She created this incredible library at Oakspring, even though she didn't paint a canvas.
I mean, Oakspring, you could say, was her big canvas.
She had this unique ability to see the perfection and imperfection
as well as she could see the perfection in something that was museum quality.
Mrs. Mellon's interest in horticulture started at a very early age. She created her first garden
when she was seven. She asked her father for a plot outside of their dining room window.
When you have an interest, you know, it's like water.
It finds its way into every aspect of your life, even when it comes to setting the table.
Great style, where does it come from? It comes from self-confidence.
It comes with cultivating that eye, and it also just comes with a natural common sense
about living life. I have a letter that I own that Jackie Kennedy wrote to one of her housekeepers
with a little drawing of a casserole dish that was set into a wicker, a carrier, and the note said,
please purchase some of these at Woolworth's. They're like the one Mrs. Mellon uses.
When you can put a seashell that a grandchild gave you on a Louis XVI table next to a beautiful
piece of porcelain, you're not thinking about pleasing other people. It's sort of the joy in
beauty, and it's creating beauty at every turn and doing something to draw your eye towards it,
but not in that look-at-me kind of way. There was certainly a clarity in her style.
To walk through Sotheby's, to see what is there, tabourees and footstools and
painted bergers and fauteuils that just, you know, are mouth-watering,
the gardening objects that are divine, the art that is personal, and you know it's personal,
the miniature chairs, the incredible collection of painted furniture. There really is something
for anyone that is interested in owning something from someone that had great vision,
and empathy for objects. This is an opportunity, I think, a sale like this, because there are few
and far between today. This was a person that was interested in certain things, and they all
interconnected. It's that sense of curation from the painting on the wall to the everyday object,
and everything was used. It wasn't for decoration's sake, it was to use and live with.