Jeffrey Smart: memorable moments at Posticcia Nuova

I visited Posticcia Nuova three times, twice when Jeffrey and Ermes were in residence and once while they were away in England.

Christopher Allen, left, with Jeffrey Smart at Posticcia Nuova, Italy, in 2006.

I visited Posticcia Nuova three times, twice when Jeffrey and Ermes were in residence and once at Christmas with Stuart Purves of Australian Galleries while they were away in England. On the first occasion, my wife Michelle and I were in Arezzo and we went to lunch at the house; afterwards I left Michelle, also a painter, to talk about the geometry of composition with Jeffrey while I helped Ermes in the kitchen.

The second time was in June 2006, when I was writing my book Jeffrey Smart: Unpublished Paintings, 1940-2007, and I visited with my daughter Rebecca. We shared a big room downstairs where we were woken in the morning by peacocks tapping loudly at the window. In between our talks and Jeffrey’s sessions in the studio there was swimming, reading, helping in the garden and convivial lunches and dinners prepared by Ermes.

There were many memorable moments, from a princess ringing to say she couldn’t join us for afternoon tea (“Thank God,” said Jeffrey as he put down the phone after copious protestations that he was heartbroken) to the sad morning when a corpulent neighbouring psychiatrist decided that one of Jeffrey’s pugs was not fine enough to breed from, and we had to take her to be desexed. My daughter, who hated pugs, nonetheless nursed her all the way into town on her lap, overcome by compassion for her fate.

One afternoon Jeffrey suggested I model for him while we talked, since he needed to complete a figure previously modelled by Ermes. He took a liking to Rebecca and allowed her into the studio, even permitting her to take a rare photo of him at work on a picture. He liked it and inscribed a copy of my book: “For Rebecca, my official photographer.”