An exhibition on Mimi Blunt, dynamic patron, at the Villa Reale in Marlia

From July 21 to Dec. 17, 2023, the Villa Reale di Marlia in Capannori (Lucca) will host the exhibition Mimi. Anna Laetitia Pecci Blunt: Her Soul in an Archive. Life, Notes and Images, an exhibition that celebrates the figure of Mimì Blunt, a refined and extraordinary woman, eclectic patron of the arts, who right at the Villa di Marlia, her summer residence, hosted and brought to fame the most important names in art, theater and literature of the 20th century, from Salvador Dalí to Jean Cocteau to Alberto Moravia.

The exhibition is curated by Roberta Martinelli, the historical research and texts are by Simonetta Giurlani Pardini, the installation design is by Beatrice Speranza, and the video portrait is by Giulia Vannucci . It is sponsored by Henric and Marina Grönberg, owners of Villa Reale di Marlia, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca and the association “Napoleon and Elisa: from Paris to Tuscany,” and will remain open until Sunday, Dec. 17, 2023. The exhibition is housed in the new wing of the Palazzina dell’Orologio, in the large kitchen on the ground floor that was the center of fantastic evenings and is open to the public for the first time. Documents from Mimi’s life, such as her records, her magazines, her ethnographic collection and memorabilia that belonged to Pope Leo XIII, are preserved in the spaces on the second floor of the Palazzina.

As this year marks the centenary of the Pecci Blunt family’s purchase of the Villa Reale in Marlia, the new owners want to pay tribute to Mimi who, with determination, convinced her husband Cecil to buy it. After restoring the villa’s First Empire appearance by finding original furnishings, the countess used it with the same patronage that had marked the policies of Elisa Baciocchi Bonaparte. The exhibition aims to bring out Mimi as a protagonist of international social life, but above all as a patron constantly engaged in spreading new cultural trends and supporting the artistic avant-garde. She created in her much-loved mansion an artistic and intellectual circle where poets, artists and musicians such as Dali, Cocteau, Valery, Poulenc and Claudel gathered, making this Lucca villa the heart of the artistic world and at the same time a place of great inspiration and wonderful friendships. Her parties are mentioned in the magazines of the time, such as Vogue, which report the names of the most distinguished guests. From her shots peep the biggest names in modern culture portrayed poolside or intent on a dance or costume show at the many parties dedicated to art and creativity. Every moment of her life is fixed through photos almost always taken by her, accompanied by dates, places and names of those present. There is no shortage of witty and insightful comments, written in her tiny, very precise handwriting, that give us insight into her complex personality.

An installation placed in the former kitchens, where the Pecci Blunts used to hold their parties, begins the exhibition with three luminous panels, like the light games she herself designed for this room: the first brings the heraldic coat of arms of Pope Leo XIII in the background and highlights the main stages of Mimi’s life with portraits of her and her friends; the second presents part of her Vogue magazine collection and articles about her and her parties; and the third compares the influence of the culture and “worldliness” of the time, from the revolutionary Ballets Russes to Mimi’s spectacular parties, including games and private events. In this room, it is possible to overlook the bar corner with the original wall collages that she so loved.

The room made available by Villa Reale is precisely one of the rooms in which Mimi held parties and theatrical staging: the kitchen inside the Palazzina dell’Orologio. For this room, Mimi had designed light effects and used collages made from her photos to cover the walls of the bar corner adjacent to the room. Here, three luminous totems with fabric prints made by Alessandro Cattani’s Allestend summarize her life, her friends, and her passions. The focal point of the exhibition is the video portrait made by Giulia Vannucci. The building also houses a rich collection of ethnic dolls, purchased by Mimi during her travels, which hint at her interest in ethnography, a science in full development in those years. A second part of the narrative is an in-depth look at the main stages of the patron’s life: a book full of colorful images and graphics underscores Mimi Blunt’s playful spirit and dynamism. All historical images are taken from Mimì’s photo albums, preserved in the archives of Villa Reale in Marlia and the Pecci Blunt archives. Inside the book on the colophon page a qr code links directly, online, to the video about Mimì.

“The Villa Reale of Marlia is a treasure chest of treasures, some already known, others unveiled in recent years and who knows how many others still hidden,” write the owners of Villa Reale, Marina and Henric Grönberg, in the catalog, "the amazement we feel from the discoveries that animate our days following the restoration work is constant. The massive restoration of the entire complex started in 2014 when we took over the large property with its buildings and gardens in a now critical condition. After years of relentless work and construction sites we finally see the results of so much effort with the joy of being able to share this great Italian architectural and landscape heritage of inestimable value with visitors. It was precisely on the occasion of the first opening of the restored apartments of Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi, thanks to the association ’Napoleon and Elisa: from Paris to Tuscany,’ that we deepened our knowledge of this extraordinary princess and learned about her habits, her lifestyle and her choices of furnishings in the Royal Villa. Now, through this exhibition, we are able to discover the world of another great protagonist in the history of the property: Mimì, Countess Anna Laetizia Pecci Blunt, who in the last century made Villa Reale di Marlia experience years of glory, patronage and culture, among artists, writers, famous people. We are presenting today an important collaboration with the Napoleonic Association to introduce a new wing of the Palazzina dell’Orologio, where memorabilia, photographs and videos allow us to take another incredibly curious and unexpected journey through history."

“This exhibition,” explains curator Roberta Martinelli, "is the happy outcome of two operations: the recovery and return to its original beauty of the Villa Reale, conducted with munificence and foresight by the current owners, and at the same time the cultural journey focused on the enhancement of the role and personality of Elisa Bonaparte, Princess of Lucca. In Ã?lisa’s strategy, directed at transferring to Lucca the brilliant way of life of Paris, capital of the Empire, the villa of Marlia fulfilled a function of absolute importance: it was the place of delight where the princess gathered her court, which in that pleasant and elegant environment could experience the seductive sensations of realized beauty. Surely it was those scenes that Mimì Pecci Blunt thought of when, having become the owner of the Villa di Marlia in 1923, she wanted to make it a hospitable place for the artists and literati she frequented in Paris and Rome. Gifted with an innate princely predisposition, Mimì made the Villa relive the splendors of Elysian times and, so that the memory of the new enchantments that sprang from her hands would not be lost, she provided for the preservation of their testimony by entrusting it to an archive that guards the secret of her marvelous affair. After the recovery carried out by the estate, which we thank for involving us as an association by offering historical advice based on the study and research activities carried out in recent years, it was the right time to look up from Elisa’s villa to Mimi’s maison de campagne. This centenary indeed demanded a special consideration that would know how to put Countess Anna Laetitia Pecci Blunt back at the center of a European history of art and culture that had as its setting the splendid Villa di Marlia."

“The project of delving into Mimì’s life was born at Villa Reale in Marlia, the moment we were able to leaf through one of her private albums,” says Simonetta Giurlani Pardini, author of the texts for the catalog. “Under each shot, in his neat little handwriting, was a description of the place and the names of the protagonists of those images. That album was dated 1926; in the first pages, Mimi had immortalized in the garden of the villa, Sergej Diaghilev, Boris Kochno and Serge Lifar, three of the most important components of the artistic avant-garde of the 1920s: the Ballets Russes. From that album the research went on, thanks to the privilege of being able to consult the archive created and organized by Mimi herself, who had collected and catalogued files of writings and documents. It was exciting to touch those pages that she herself had held in her hands, to smell her notebooks made of ink, paper but above all dust, the kind that settles on things of the past and is waiting to be swept away to bring back distant memories. Inserted in a folder, of a now faded blue, was kept his birth certificate, the beginning of his journey in this life. And then, in the long row of shelves, were grouped in chronological order the signs of the most significant moments of her life: notebooks, letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines and her notebooks where each letter of the alphabet corresponded to the addresses of personalities of the international jet set but above all of painters, musicians, writers, actors among the most important of the twentieth century and whom she called ”my illustrious relatives.“ Mimi left us a true autobiography, the narrative of a woman who was able to fulfill her purpose of a life dedicated to art, but Mimi’s life itself was a work of art.”

The exhibition design, catalog and graphics are by Beatrice Speranza, a photographer and architect. “In this exhibition project, which has entailed a great deal of study, we want to tell Mimi’s story through the images she herself left us, her notes, documents and letters, all organized and archived with such precision that it seems precisely that these tapes that collect her documents have been preserved to be untied and unveiled,” she writes in the introduction to the catalog. “And we approached it with great emotion and respect as we flipped through the pages of an intense life, which we are here to tell you not only through this narrative studied through the texts and books of those who knew her, but also with the presentation of a temporary installation created precisely in the former kitchens where Mimi and her husband Cecil held their parties. The focal point is a video portrait made by Giulia Vannucci, a young author I chose for her sensitivity, whom I met and appreciated during her project on biographies of photographers.”

The exhibition opens, until Nov. 5, daily from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (last entry 30 minutes before closing time); on weekends in July and August, special opening of the park until 8 p.m.; last entry 6:30 p.m. From Nov. 6 to Dec. 17, open only on weekends and holidays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; on Dec. 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 16, and 17, Christmas opening from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Special closures: Saturday, Aug. 26, Sunday, Sept. 17, and Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023. The exhibition can be visited with the park entrance fee: 12 euros full price, 9 euros reduced (10 to 17 years old, groups of more than 10 people, adults over 65, FAI and TOURING CLUB members, ADSI members, ICOM members, “students of Tuscany” card) and 5 for students (only school groups up to high school, accompanying persons free access). Free admission for children up to age 9 (excluding groups), chaperones, guides, drivers, people with disabilities. Tickets can also be purchased online: https://villarealedimarlia.it/visita/orari-e-costi/

Pictured: the Royal Villa in Marlia. Photo: Giuseppe Panico

An exhibition on Mimi Blunt, dynamic patron, at the Villa Reale in Marlia

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