Historian Robert Veel’s home a melting pot of art, music and culture
Cultural historian Robert Veel divides his time between two houses and two countries, spending seven months in Dulwich Hill, Sydney, and the other five months in Venice, Italy.
Cultural historian Robert Veel divides his time between two houses and two countries, spending seven months in Dulwich Hill, Sydney, and the other five months in Venice, Italy.
“In Sydney, we’re lucky to live in a 1914 late Federation bungalow, close to the Cooks River and in Venice we’ve got a comfortable one-bedroom apartment overlooking a Renaissance garden in the San Polo district,” Mr Veel says.
“In both places, I love the quiet. To me, Dulwich Hill combines the best of the inner city with the best of suburbia. There are cafes, specialty bakeries and a vibrant mix of communities, but there’s also abundant birdlife and greenery.”
Company director and tour leader of Limelight Arts Travel, Mr Veel says he was immediately captivated by the art nouveau detailing in the Dulwich Hill house with swirling ceiling mouldings and timber fireplace surrounds with an “arts and crafts” feel.
“The north-facing garden is very private, enclosed by hedges, but there are tall gums all around, and plenty of birds,” he says.
“The Cooks River path – kilometres of winding cycle and walking tracks is right across the road. It’s been transformed in the past 20 years with careful landscaping, rehabilitation of native plants and good recreational facilities.”
He describes the Sydney home’s lounge/kitchen/study, as his favourite room as it overlooks the back garden and catches the morning sun.
The Venice apartment is decorated in the traditional “la Veneziana” style.
“That means an 18th century Murano chandelier and questionable decorative touches, such as ‘Otello’, our standard lamp – at least it’s a conversation opener,” he says.
Mr Veel and his partner bought Dulwich Hill at auction in late 2014 and knew it was the right house for them and within budget. As for the Venice purchase process, it was an absolute pleasure, according to Mr Veel.
“Before agreeing to sell to us, the vendors – Giuliana and Dario, a lovely older couple – wanted to be sure that we had a genuine commitment to Venice. A couple of chats about Titian’s paintings in the nearby Frari church sealed the deal,” he says.
“Every pre-sale lawyer meeting was followed by prosecco at Quadri on St Mark’s Square, and they even had us to dinner afterwards to check that everything was okay.”
Some of his favourite possessions include art works.
“My partner and I are both crazy art collectors. We realised that we were serious about each other when discussing the contemporary Australian/New Zealand artist Euan McLeod, whose works we both collected,” Mr Veel says.
“My partner loves to support emerging artists, so has a rather eclectic collection of sculpture and painting, I’m a bit more conservative, so I go for mid-century modernists like John Coburn, Frank Hinder and Sidney Nolan.”
Other favourite possessions include artworks by Fiona Hall, who represented Australia at the Venice biennale, plus a pair of gilt candlesticks that once belonged to the Australian singer Dame Nellie Melba.
After graduating in Italian language, Mr Veel was an academic at Sydney University researching and teaching language and literacy.
He also taught Italian history and helped establish an overseas study tour program. Then in 2004 he founded another specialist tour company and was with it for 17 years.
In 2018, he and a friend rescued the failing music publication, Limelight.
“We both love classical music and thought it was important that there was quality coverage of the performing arts in Australia. Classical music is a niche and virtually impossible for the mainstream media to cover adequately nowadays,” Mr Veel says.
“Lovers of classical music and opera also tend to love art, history and travel, so when looking to start a travel company for the post-Covid age there seemed to be a natural fit between Limelight the media company and Limelight the travel company. So far, so good.”
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