The artists invited to decorate the walls of the Villa Kérylos: the painters Jaulmes and Karbowski.

Vue du péristyle de la Villa Kérylos avec les fresques

Théodore Reinach and his architect Emmanuel Pontremoli surrounded themselves with the best craftsmen but also with artists. Among them, the painters Jaulmes and Karbowski have brought a major contribution to the decoration of the monument. Let’s discover those colourful characters together !

The duo Jaulmes and Karbowsky

Gustave-Louis Jaulmes was born in Lausanne on April 14, 1873.

Trained as an architect, he studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris from 1895 to 1902. Then, he chose to focus on painting while still keeping in touch with an important circle of architects and, in 1913, he founded with some of them, but also with other artists, the Compagnie des Arts français. They all shared the same belief that an alliance between tradition and modernity brought clarity and unity to interior design.

It was Emmanuel Pontremoli who brought him to the Villa Kérylos, where he would work for 4 years.

Adrien Karbowsky, was born in Paris on December 15, 1855. From a Polish family, he first studied at the Polish school in Paris, then became a student of Puvis de Chavanne.

He achieved the decoration of the Nogent-sur-Marne’s city hall as well as the decoration of the breakfast room of the Lutetia Hotel in Paris.

Vue du péristyle de la Villa Kérylos, avec les fresques de Gustave Louis Jaulmes et Adrien Karbowsky
© Colombe Clier / Centre des monuments nationaux

The project of the Villa Kerylos

It is Jaulmes who called on him to help him make the frescoes of the Villa Kérylos. He would also create patterns for the making of numerous fabrics in the Villa, especially curtains and hangings.

Théodore Reinach himself chose the subjects of the frescoes of the peristyle. Among the various books on his shelves, he owned the German collection of Paintings on Greek Vases 1902, which inspired him to create the models for the wall paintings of the villa.

To accompany those mythological scenes, Jaulmes appealed to the Ancient classical repertoire (waves, checked pattern, ivy leaves, olive branches, ect…) but also to motifs taken from the Cycladic and Minoan art. The tones vary between ochre, ligne and dark Sienna colours, and even black. The technique of Ancient frescoes had been rediscovered by the artist: the pigments are applied on fresh primer, mixed with marble powder, a fresco. After it has dried out, the fresco is smoothed and polished. This technique, precisely described by the Roman architect Vitruvius (1st century), involved applying a thin layer of hot wax on the paint, then to polish the whole.