Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Valerian Rybar in Portugal




One of my favorites of the late, great decorators is Valerian Rybar. Rybar's clients were the swellest of the swells, and they hired him to decorate their Tyrolean schlösser, Parisian hôtels particuliers, and Manhattan triplexes. One of his clients, the American Mrs. Graham D. Mattison, even hired him to decorate her Portuguese villa, seen here.

The Mattison villa, located in Cascais, was designed to resemble an 18th century patrician Portuguese villa. With the help of French architect Pierre Barbe, Rybar chose polished brick and stone for many of the floors, Portuguese blue and white tile for the pool house, and ornate tray ceilings throughout. But just because this was a villa in the country, Rybar didn't forsake his noted high style decor. There were dressy rugs, elegant antiques, and even a mirrored oval bath. After all, even when Rybar's high flying clients wanted to relax, they wanted to do so in luxurious surroundings, and I can't think of many country houses more luxurious than this.




The Entrance Hall. Look at that wonderful rug with the rope motif border.






The Library also had a unique rug, not to mention that grand tray ceiling.





Another view of the Library which shows Rybar's use of symmetry.





The Dining Room with a patterned tray ceiling. The brass chandelier was Dutch.





Mrs. Mattison's bedroom was a vision in Chinoiserie. A Portuguese hand-stitched rug covered the polished brick floor.




The oval Master Bath. This ceiling was painted to resemble a cloudy sky.





The Swimming Pavilion. The interior walls were covered in blue and white Portuguese tile; their Chinoiserie design was meant to resemble Pillement's work.



All photos from Architectural Digest Chateaux and Villas.

15 comments:

  1. This is one of my favorites of Mr Rybar's projects. The later ones tended to be very Brutalist and Dramatic for the Sake of Drama.

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    1. I absolutely agree with you. Some of his later New York projects had quite an edge to them- a far cry from this project!

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  2. Why don't they build houses like this anymore?

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    1. Good question! I really don't know. Is it cost? Is it the style? To me, the house looks timeless.

      I would be perfectly happy simply living in the pool house.

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  3. The antique Portuguese furniture is of the highest quality. WE don't see many Portuguese antiques, but they are of the highest order. With colonies in asia and India and influenced by Spain, England, France and Italy 17th and 18th century Portugal took furniture to new heights. The chinoiserie is to die for.
    Thanks for this great post.
    Mary

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  4. One of my favorites also Valerian Rybar + the swimming Pavilion is divine! Stunning work! xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

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  5. The Swimming Pavillion is amazing! Love!

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  6. The house is an exquisite essay in elegance and perfect massing. Pity the nouveau riche of today (or any era really)forsake good design and require so many expensive and gimmicky doodads that end up becoming dated and vulgar in such a short time.

    I LOVE that blue and white tiled mural motif pool house. I have seen that image before (possibly on your blog) and have always wondered what firm made the tiles so I could contact the manufacturer about them. Anyone have any ideas? Any info. from the article?

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    1. Rodrigo10:19 AM

      The tiles were probably made by Viuva Lamego (http://www.viuvalamego.com/vl_ns.html), the same firm that was used by the Patiños in their Portuguese "Quinta" and for whom Rybar also worked, and the designs were drawn from Pillement's frescoes for the dinning room in the Palácio de Seteais, currently a hotel (http://www.tivolihotels.com/en/our-hotels/sintra-hotels/tivoli-palacio-de-seteais/the-hotel.aspx) but drawn in blue over white.

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  7. Just beautiful!! And yes, I could live in that stunning pool house as well!

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  8. What a stunning house.
    The furniture and the lamps makes me remember this brand:
    http://www.bocadolobo.com/home.html (which is also a Portuguese brand, by the way!)

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  9. It's unfortunate that one doesn't see much of Valerian Rybar's work. He seems something of a forgotten figure, certainly not as familiar as a Mark Hampton or an Albert Hadley.

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    1. J.Y., I agree. He was such a talent. There were quite a few talented designers of that era whose work has, unfortunately, been lost to time.

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    2. There's a marvelous French book called "Decoration" from 1973 published by Hachette that features a lot of these designers whose names have been lost to the past. I'm sure you know the book as it's something of a bible for design buffs; the price on used book sites certainly reflects its presumed desirability.

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