On the occasion of the launch of Villa Wintrebert, author Penelope Curtis (former Director of Tate Britain and Gulbenkian Museum) will give a reading from her new book, published by Les Fugitives.
Copies will be available for purchase in our Shop.
Please note, our galleries will close at 6pm. If you wish to see our exhibitions, please arrive in advance.
‘A tender and exquisite novel, Villa Wintrebert’s evocation of place, character and female friendship entranced me – I felt I could see the beautiful French villa and its garden and the charmed world enjoyed by the children and their mother.’ Amanda Craig, author of The Three Graces
Banyuls-sur-Mer, French Catalonia: one hot summer in the 1970s, the lives of three generations of women converge in the long tropical garden hidden behind the Villa Wintrebert, named after the biologist who lived there with his wife. As in her debut, After Nora, Curtis deftly weaves fact and fiction in this moving story of childhood and adult complicity. Harmony between la belle Eugénie and the young Monique is disrupted when a well-intentioned commission to the renowned local sculptor, Aristide Maillol, brings to light the fundamental fragility of the women’s relationship, a bond on which the vitality of the villa and its garden had depended. Decades later, Monique invites Eva and her two little girls into the villa, where traces of the past imprint themselves on the present.
Penelope Curtis grew up in Glasgow. Over the course of a distinguished career in the arts, she has directed the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, Tate Britain in London, and, most recently, the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon. As an art historian, she is especially known for her work on Barbara Hepworth, about whom she has written a best-selling biography, and for many exhibitions on the materials and meanings of sculpture. She was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres by the French government in 2014, then an Officer of the same order in 2018. Her most recent books are her first novel After Nora (2024) and The Pliable Plane (2022).
