Laurence
and Judy Cutler had just one requirement when they went looking for
a new house – room enough to hang their art collection. The thing
is the Cutlers are anything but your average art lovers. Over the years
they've amassed a couple of thousand paintings valued at $150 million.
They needed space in a big way. So when a real estate agent showed them
Vernon Court, a rundown 52-room mansion on Newport's Bellevue Avenue,
they knew they'd found the right place. "It was two or three times
more than I planned to spend," said Laurence, who'd looked in vain
for suitable properties in Maine and Georgia. "But when I saw Judy's
face, I knew this was it."
"I never saw a more perfect space," said Judy, who owns an
art gallery on New York's upper East Side. "It was love at first
sight." The Cutlers, childhood sweethearts who married five years
ago, have spent the past year and pots of money restoring Vernon Court,
plugging leaks in the roof, rebuilding chimneys and installing new heating
and air-conditioning systems - with 24 zones.
Now they plan to open the ground floor of their home to the public as
the first museum dedicated to the heyday of American illustration. Starting
late next month, visitors to the National Museum of American Illustration
will be able to stroll through marble-floored loggias and ornate salons
filled with paintings and drawings by the likes of Norman Rockwell,
Maxfield Parrish and N.C. Wyeth.
The Cutlers are also planning to turn a vacant lot they own across the
street into a public park honoring famed landscape architect Frederick
Law Olmsted. The grounds, once the site of Stoneacre, a lavish mansion
that burned, were designed by Olmsted in the 1880s. The mammoth beeches
he planted still stand. "Most of the good art that was once in
Newport was sold off years ago," said Laurence. "We're bringing
a lot of it back in a museum setting." But for all its grandeur,
its high-security fences, 13 fireplaces, dozen baths, and 31,500 square
feet,
Vernon Court is just plain old home to the Cutlers. When guests dropped
by the other night, Laurence flicked on the fountain in the rose garden
and cracked open a bottle of barolo. Judy retreated to a kitchen outfitted
with the kind of high-end, heavy-duty appliances you'd expect to find
in a restaurant, and whipped up a simple meal of pasta and grilled chicken.
The only ripple in an otherwise placid day occurred when Laurence had
to chase away a group of French tourists he found poking about the grounds.
"Everyone says this is the time in life to downsize," said
Judy, 57. "But we thought why not try it. You only live once."
Laurence, a 58-year-old architect who once taught at RISD and has had
offices the world over, took an immediate shine to Vernon Court, which
is next door to Chateau sur Mer. As Newport mansions go, he said, "this
is one of the best."
Built at the turn of the century in the 18th-century French chateau
style, the main house is beautifully proportioned, giving it a livable
feel, despite 25-foot-high ceilings and 10-foot-high doors. It was the
noted firm of Carrere and Hastings, designers of the New York Public
Library, that created Vernon Court for Mrs. Richard Gambrill Sr., the
wealthy widow of a prominent lawyer. The two architects were trained
at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, and their work reflects a faithful
adherence to the French notion of balance and elegance, unlike some
of the overblown homes along mansion row.
The grounds, three acres dotted with reproductions of Michelangelo and
Bernini sculptures, are fashioned after the gardens Henry VIII built
for Anne Boleyn at Hampton Court. A modern, in-ground pool and two tennis
courts are the only features that look out of place. The century-old
chateau's interior is the work of Jules Allard et ses fils, a Parisian
firm that took its inspiration from the Marie Antoinette Suite at Versailles.
The building served as a model for the New York home of business magnate
Henry Clay Frick, who also turned part of his residence into a museum,
which today houses the Frick Collection. But time was not kind to Vernon
Court. Back in the 1970s, it served as headquarters for a junior college.
Once-handsome bedrooms became classrooms; the 5,000-square-foot carriage
house was converted into a biology lab and dorms. Earle Cohen, the late
pediatrician who owned the Viking Hotel, lived in Vernon Court for a
while, as well as a Connecticut couple, who used it for weekend getaways.
Then it sat empty for years. The Cutlers bought the property last August
for an undisclosed sum from British yachtsman and entrepreneur Peter
deSavery, who considered turning the place into a private club. DeSavery
also sold the Cutlers the three-acre lot across the street, at Bellevue
and Victoria Avenues. Although Vernon Court may have been just what
the Cutlers were looking for, it needed a ton of work. That's not uncommon
for an older home, especially one that has been vacant. But in this
case, the fix-up effort had to be multiplied by 52 rooms and a scale
of gigantic proportions. The roof slates, many of which had to be replaced,
measure 2-by-21Ú2 feet. Eight stucco chimneys jut 80 feet from
a steep hip roof. When one had to be rebuilt, the estimate came in at
$100,000.
Workers cutting through the floor to install new heating grates encountered
almost a foot of marble and concrete, turning what should have been
a simple task into a herculean one.
New, weather-tight windows were installed on the third floor. Laurence
said he had to pay an extra $700 per window to add 11Ú2 inches
to the center mullion, or $1,600 per window. "My cousin just did
all the windows in his house for $3,200," he said. The Cutlers'
art collection made the restoration all the more costly. To protect
the paintings from the elements, tinted windows were installed on the
first floor, along with a climate control system, which meant duct work
had to be snaked throughout the floors and ceilings. “We wanted
it hidden," Laurence said of the air conditioning, "which
was really hard for me, because I can't see where all the money went."
Judy and Laurence, who grew up outside New Haven, Conn., were both married
before, then got together
40 years after their first date. They have collaborated on four books
about Maxfield Parrish, whose luminescent images were found in many
a book, calendar and magazine during the first half of this century.
A fifth volume on Parrish is due out soon.
Although the Cutlers received overtures from several museums interested
in their art, they wanted to keep the collection intact, yet share it
with the public. The couple, who keep homes in New York and New Hampshire,
plan to live for the most part on the
second floor of Vernon Court, at least during museum hours. The 14 rooms
on the third floor will be used for storing art, a library and office
space for the museum. Their collection boasts the largest number of
Rockwells in private hands, 120 canvases, and the biggest block of Parrishes
anywhere, 55 paintings and some 800 prints, studies and assorted memorabilia.
They also own some 70,000 prints. A series of 10-foot-high panels from
a Parrish mural, Florentine Fete, form the centerpiece of their holdings.
The painting, which shows a carnival-like scene, once hung in the headquarters
of the Curtis
Publishing Company in Philadelphia. "This is the most American
of American art," said Laurence. "It's significant stuff."
Paintings won't be for sale at the museum, although a museum shop is
planned in the basement. The opening is set for late next month or early
October, although more formal opening ceremonies will take place next
March and on the Fourth of July, 2000. Information on the museum is
available over the Internet.
The Olmsted Legacy Park, situated on the vacant acres across the street,
will probably be open next spring. The Cutlers also plan to erect a
monument on the site to famed architect Louis Kahn. That will be in
the form of a brick arch Kahn designed for the India Institute of Management
in Ahmedabad. Laurence Cutler envisions the park as a place for meditation
and reflection, where people can stroll along paths that wind through
a field of wildflowers and imposing trees. "It's the first national
memorial to a landscape architect," he said. "Usually monuments
are to politicians and generals, so it's nice to honor designers."
Taking on Vernon Court - fixing up the house, opening a museum and park
- has been daunting project, but the Cutlers said they have no regrets.
"I can't tell you how lucky we feel to have found a place like
this," said Laurence, "where we can house a
major collection in a significant piece of architecture."
PICTURE-PERFECT: Florentine Fete by Maxfield Parrish finds a home in
the soon-to-open National Museum of American Illustration in Newport.
THANKS to an art-collecting couple, Vernon Court on Newport's Bellevue
Avenue has been restored to its former glory.
DESPITE ITS 52 ROOMS AND 25-FOOT CEILINGS, Vernon Court is a Newport
mansion with a livable air. Above, the south loggia has large arched
glass doors and a collection of Maxfield Parrish paintings.
ARCHITECT Laurence Cutler took an immediate shine to Vernon Court.
A DETAIL from one of the many Maxfield Parrish paintings.
A DRAWING OF SCOUTS by Norman Rockwell is on display in the north loggia
of the museum.
WALLS AND CEILING in the south loggia have trompe l'oeil latticework
laden with flora, fauna and cherubs.
