Villa America

The Murphys - 4/4

Gerald and Sara Murphy, La Garoupe Beach, Cap d’Antibes, 1926 © Beinecke Library, Yale.

Hôtel du Cap, Cap d’Antibes © Oetker Collection

The glamorous couple stayed at the Hôtel du Cap in 1925, while building their villa on Cap d’Antibes, where they would settle with their three children, the Villa America, living there almost continuously, as of the summer of 1925 for the nine next years.

This villa boasted unseen innovations, e.g. a flat rooftop sundeck, stainless steel bathroom fixtures and screen doors. The fire-place was framed with mirror glass. The villa had 14 rooms and was set on 7 acres of gardens. The exterior was painted beige with yellow shutters, and the terrace furniture was painted silver. The Murphys had electric fans and waffle irons!

In an anything-goes atmosphere, they turned their own life into a work of art during the decade they spent on the French Riviera. For the gallery here below (4 photos) please tap on photos or scroll horizontally!

Gerald Murphy on the balcony of Villa America

Villa America served as a meeting point and a center for avant-garde artists during the 1920’s, creating a vibrant artistic community on the Riviera. The Murphys actually supported the careers of such “unknown” at the time as Hemingway, Léger, Porter, etc. They were the hub of their circle of friends who became family members at Villa America…

Among their illustrious American friends was John Dos Passos, the Chicago-born American novelist, artist (1896-1970), and author of “U.S.A. Trilogy”. He wrote: “The cult of the sun had barely begun”, as well as “(Antibes) was just the quiet untrampled provincial seaport they had dreamed of discovering”.

And Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), the American poet and short story writer, who was once refused entrance to the Monte-Carlo casino because she was not wearing stockings, wrote: “I went to retrieve my stockings and then came back to lose my shirt”.

Other illustrious guests of the Murphys include Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau, Harpo Marx, Man Ray (who made beautiful photographs of the Murphy children), Archibald MacLeish (the American poet, writer, and Librarian of Congress who described the Murphys as masters in the art of living), Robert Benchley (the American newspaper columnist and film actor), Léger, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, as well as Latin Lover and silent movie heart throb Rudolf Valentino, who stayed at the Château de Juan les Pins, owned by the parents of his second wife.

Sara and Gerald seem to have known everyone who was anyone.…

In 1924, the hospitable couple Sara & Gerald was introduced to Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, who became close friends. They were the writer’s initial models for Nicole & Dick Diver in Tender is the Night. They appear in the first part of the novel, before they are transformed into characters representing Fitzgerald himself and his wife Zelda. The Villa America is renamed Villa Diana in the book.

Gerald, Patrick & Baoth Murphy, by Man Ray, Cap d’Antibes, ca. 1926 © Centre G. Pompidou, Paris

Honoria Murphy……. Sara Murphy with her three children, by Man Ray, Cap d’Antibes, 1926. It was Pablo Picasso who introduced the American photographer to the Murphys.

Villa America sign, by Gerald Murphy, 1924-1925, Curtis Galleries, Minneapolis, MN

The Villa America sign, painted in oil and gold leaf on canvas, was mounted in a glass-fronted case at the gate of the villa. The 5 stars symbolize the 5 Murphys as well as the Murphys’ identity as Americans.

Âme is French for soul, VIL is ville for city, LA RICA is Spanish for the rich… VIL(E) ÂME is ironic, and can be translated as vile or depraved: Gerald was poking fun at his own wealth and lavishly decadent parties…

The death of their sons, in their teens, in 1935 and 1937, and the death of Scott Fitzgerald in 1940 were a crash and a return to Earth for Sara and Gerald. Their dear friend Fitzgerald wrote to them: “ Fate can’t have any more arrows in its quiver for you that will wound like these. The golden bowl is broken indeed but is was golden: nothing can even take these boys away from you now.”

In 1962, Calvin Tomkins wrote about them in his book: LIVING WELL IS THE BEST REVENGE… recalling the enchanting period of the 1920’s in France.

Gerald died in 1964 aged 76 in East Hampton, NY, the Long Island summer resort. Ten years later, his paintings were shown at the MoMA, New York.

Sara died in 1975 at 91 in Arlington, VA, two years after Picasso...

“You must know that, without you, nothing makes any sense. I am only half a person, and you are the other half” – Sara to Gerald, August 7, 1963.

My tailormade conference “The Roaring Twenties on the French Riviera” presents the influence of Sara and Gerald Murphy, the “it” couple that invented their own life in the south of France, as well as a few secrets, like the exact location of Villa America…