iHuis Marseille, Museum for PhotographyGrachtengordel
Adolphe de Meyer: The Substance of a Venetian Dream
The first European museum show of a rediscovered set of 75 photographs by fashion pioneer Adolphe de Meyer, documenting his life in Venice's Palazzo Balbi-Valier between 1904 and 1909.
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Preview: written before the show opened
In 2019 a librarian in Tours, cataloguing a local collector's estate, found 75 photographs stamped with the collector's name and nobody else's. They turned out to be Adolphe de Meyer's record of his Venice years, and all 75 hang here together for the first time, in his first European museum show.
From 1904 he and his wife Olga rented the Palazzo Balbi-Valier, a crumbling palace he used as a studio for light, staging and early colour. He was only renting, and still did it up until gondoliers put it on the tour. You get Olga reading the paper in the garden, De Meyer at his piano, the window view of Palazzo Barbaro. Eight themes cover his Vogue work, interiors, collecting and his marriage of convenience to Olga (both were gay). The 1916 Vogue issue that named the show is on display.
Entry is €12.50, free for under-18s and Museumkaart holders, and Thursdays run until 9pm. The galleries are up the stairs of two canal houses.
Editor's pick
Seventy-five photographs Adolphe de Meyer took of his own life at Venice's Palazzo Balbi-Valier, a rediscovered set in a European museum for the first time. Vogue hired him later; this is the private world before the fashion.
Look for
De Meyer posing on a balcony
Look for the host himself on a balcony of the Palazzo Balbi-Valier in 1905, a picture attributed to his guest, the photographer Gertrude Käsebier.
Olga reading the paper
Olga de Meyer, the muse of Sargent and Whistler, sits in the palazzo garden around 1905 with a newspaper.
Self-portrait at the piano
De Meyer photographs himself seated at his piano inside the palazzo, around 1904 to 1905.
A bedroom chest of drawers
Personal belongings and framed portraits crowd the top of a chest in one of the palazzo's bedrooms, a look at how the couple actually lived.
The 1916 Vogue issue
Huis Marseille recently bought the copy of Vogue in which De Meyer looked back on his Venice years, and it gave the show its title.
Good for
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
With kids
Under-18s get in free. The galleries are spread over many stairs in two canal houses, so prams have to be left at reception.
Also at Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography
On now nearby
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Image credits
9
- Adolphe de Meyer: The Substance of a Venetian DreamCourtesy of Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography
- Glass, Made in AntiquityCourtesy of Allard Pierson
- Cabinet of Stories: Change the World, Not UsCourtesy of Allard Pierson
- Do It Yourself! On CassetteCourtesy of Allard Pierson
- Huis Marseille, Museum for PhotographyHmamsterdahm, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- Allard PiersonAndy Li (Onthewings), Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Museum Van LoonRijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Foam Fotografiemuseum AmsterdamDqfn13 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL
- Royal Palace AmsterdamC messier, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0