Paul Mellon's Collection At The Royal Academy

Michael Wale recalls the richest man he ever met, and his art collection.

Paul Mellon is the richest man I have ever met, and with whom I spent some time. He had several great passions, the greatest being as an art collector, which coming from a wealthy American banking family, was one he could indulge in.

The Royal Academy in London’s Piccadilly are currently staging an exhibition of some of his lifetime collection under the title An American’s Passion for British Art.

It is a fascinating collection ranging from his favourite sporting art including the work of the great equine painter George Stubbs, to original books printed in the 1400’s by William Caxton, and drawings by William Blake. There are other famous names such as Constable and Gainsborough. But it is the sporting work that has been my lifetime love.

I met him at an exhibition for the sporting artist John Skeaping. Mellon was Skeaping’s patron, and Skeaping, like any good artist was both charming and at times quite difficult. His first wife has been the sculptor Barbra Hepworth, whom he had led a merry dance, before they finally broke up. As an equine artist he had to like the horse he had been asked to paint. John Hislop, the owner of Brigadier Gerard, who had beaten the great Mill Reef in the Two Thousand Guineas wanted Skeaping to record his animal. He even turned up at Skeapings home in the Camargues to persuade him to take the commission. Skeaping told me; “I liked neither the owner nor his horse. But mainly the owner.”

But what he did not add was that Mill Reef was owned by Paul Mellon, and went on to win the Eclipse stakes and the Derby with Geoff Lewis aboard. As a result he did several pieces with Mill Reef, most notably a bronze. When Skeaping grew old Paul Mellon had the horses he wished to be painted, flown to John at Mellon’s American home. Style!

As for Paul Meon when I met him he talked enthusiastically about how he had just completed a 57 mile ride, which was a marathon competition. He always referred to himself as an amateur in whatever he did, explaining that the word amateur came from the latin meaning love. He explained that he had been ‘an amateur in every phase of my life; a farmer, soldier and connoisseur of art among them.”

During his lifetime he gave a billion dollars to various causes ranging from health schemes and museums to the environment.

Indeed, only the other day I was told by a person who runs a mainly sporting art gallery that his burgeoning business faced imminent bankruptcy unless they could stage an important exhibition of work at a big race meeting. He wrote to Mr Mellon asking if he would consider backing the plan.

“I’ll always remember the day," he told me. "It was four-o-clock in the afternoon and I was driving to another exhibition when the phone rang in my car. It was Mr Mellon from America, who said that he would willingly back us. It secured our future.”

The reason, therefore, why you should visit the Royal Academy exhibition is that it shows you the wide range of his love of art. Yes, basically he loved sporting art, but to me as a writer some of the most interesting work are the original books of Caxton’s printing, the use of wood cuts, and a much larger book printed at Kelmscott House, which is next door to the Doves public house in Hammersmith, which I have passed many times. William Morris lived there, but the book that Paul Mellon bought was Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, thoroughly illustrated. A beautiful and historic piece of work considering that it was published in the late 1800’s.

There are also smaller works by famous artists, which in their way were sketches for bigger works of the future. Nowadays the artist would take photographs. One of these is by John Constable and is just a scene of clouds, with two birds motionless on the wind. It is so simple, and yet brilliant. with the combination of the texture of the clouds and the angle of the birds.

A true example of the immaculate taste of the Anglophile and generous man who was Paul Mellon.

Visiting Information

An American's Passion for British Art: Paul Mellon's Legacy is on at the Royal Academy of Arts now until the 27th January, 2008. Tickets cost £8 and the nearest tube stations are Picadilly or Green Park. You can buy tickets online at http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/planyourvisit/ticket-prices,311,AR.html

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