THE GRETA GARBO COLLECTION

Sotheby's, 1990. Hardcover. Very Good/Good. 10x8x0. Includes a foxed sheet on Dorothy Draper & Company, Inc. Letterhead to Joann Carmel. The letter is signed by Carleton Varney, President. Jacket edges are worn, and creased, binding tight, pages clean and unmarked. Color! Color always was the essential component. Other criteria did matter. Quality, condition, proportion, history, practicality - all were important, but colors - shades of rose, salmon, pink and a mossy green - were paramount, In her home there was a riot of color everywhere. The works meshed and flowed in a wondrous explosion of enveloping hues that lifted the mood. Nothing was black or white. During the almost four decades when the New York apartment was her only home, she tried to create a harmonious setting where nothing jarred the senses. Always, continually, she sought out those with particular expertise in art, furniture and decorations. Many became her lifelong friends.She chose those objects which pleased her with slight regard for the current fashion. She was imaginative in combining them: the expensive and the more modest. A. Renoir and a David Levine, the modern and the old. An Atlan and a Lemaire, the conservative and the daring – a Thierriat and a Jawlensky. Nothing was static. There was a plan, a logic, but within it, refinements and changes would occur. Sometimes a new color or a new artist would capture her, creating havoc until a new order would emerge. This is a very personal collection. It reflects totally one person's taste, vision, preference. One day, some years ago, we were sitting in her living room and she told me: "I love color. I want the room to sing. How can one not understand? With me it's inborn. I just know. I didn't have to learn it. This room is my creation and I think it's pretty good. You must learn to trust yourself."Gray Reisfield , New York, August 1990