Il Palmerino – home of Vernon Lee and Lola Costa

This famous image is currently being shown in London at the hugely popular John Singer Sargent exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery, but it is a well travelled picture as it regularly appears in Exhibitions in Florence depicting one of our most famous American expatriates, the author and playwright Violet Paget – better known by her non gender specific nome di plume of Vernon Lee 

This painting was done around about the time that she made her name with her ground-breaking “Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy” – thereafter she wrote a prodigious amount of books and essays covering ethics, history and finally fantastical fiction.

According to our guide Dr Katie Campbell in her book Paradise of Exiles – Anglo-American gardens of Florence E.M Forster could have been thinking of Violet Paget when he wrote

“Living in delicate seclusion, some in furnished flats, others in Renaissance villas on Fiesole’s slope, they read, wrote, studied and exchanged ideas, this attaining to that intimate knowledge, or rather perception, of Florence which is denied to all who carry in their pockets the coupons of Cook”

She purchased the Villa known as Il Palmerino in 1889 where she held salons for all the famous visitors to Florence as well as some of the permanent residents – although she was known to have fallen out with most of them – including famously being accused by Bernard Berensen of plagiarism.  Henry James described her as having “the most able mind in Florence”

She also produced her plays and recitals in the courtyard of the Il Palmerino, which we were privileged to visit last week as part of our day of Artists and Authors Villa and Garden tour.

The current owner of part of the three Villa family complex that is now Il Palmerino is ex ballenina Federica Parretti. She had most kindly arranged a gorgeous classic Tuscan fresh food lunch for us as part of our visit in which we were given a tour of the gardens and part of her home – including viewing a selection their ever growing collection of the works of Vernon Lee.

Federica is also the granddaughter of artist Lola Costa, whom I have featured in an earlier blog. We were allowed to roam around her formal garden, shown in the painting below ( apologies for the bad photo from a book) as well as visiting the gardens of her uncle and the site of their newly developed conference centre

According to Federica – “The mission of the Associazione Culturale Il Palmerino is to promote and continue the exchange of ideas and events of an interdisciplinary nature, which have played a vital role in the past tradition and history of Il Plamerino.

In a setting which houses works of the past and contemporary creative events, l’Associazione encourages artists from national and international backgrounds to meet and share cultural projects and initiatives, including artist seminars and individual study and research in the fields of Art, Literature and Science.

The Centre is open 2nd – 7th June for a Festival week for the opening of new Association Location. When we visited they were putting the finishing touches to what looks to be a splendid site for Conferences and a perfect location for an Artist or Writers retreat.

I leave you with this image of the work of a former artist in residence gifted to the centre – it shows paintings and poems and thoughts of the artist from each day of her stay – all bound into this incredible pull out book. Amazingly it all just folds back up again when the ribbons are pulled – Quite a diary of a stay in Tuscany!