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The Vernon Lee Collection at the Fonds de dotation André et Berthe Noufflard
On 4 June 2012, the Vernon Lee Collection presented here was discovered in the Noufflards' family manor-house at Fresnay-le-Long (Normandy), in the attic where it had been hidden from the German occupation in 1944 by the manager's son, Jean Marais. Following his instructions, Gilles Pasquet, Sophie Geoffroy and Geneviève Noufflard (1920-2016), younger daughter of French post-Impressionist painters André Noufflard et Berthe Noufflard (née Langweil), unveiled a literary treasure which is under study at the moment.
A first inventory unveiled an important corpus of documents and objects testifying to the close connection between Violet Paget and the Noufflard family, painters Berthe and André Noufflard and their two daughters Henriette and Geneviève, who were Vernon Lee's guests at Villa Il Palmerino in January 1925, and at whose home at Fresnay-le-Long or in Paris (61, rue de Varenne) the writer would stay every year for a few weeks from 1925 to her death in 1935, on her way from Italy to England and back home.
Berthe Noufflard edited and translated some of Vernon Lee's writings on art, and the resulting anthology was published as Etudes et réflexions sur l'art (Paris: Corrêa, 1934). See Sophie Geoffroy, "Vernon Lee et ses amis français: 1925-1935, Violet del Palmerino; Aspetti della cultura cosmopolita nel salotto di Vernon Lee: 1889-1935, Firenze: Regione Toscana, Edizioni dell'Assemblea, 2014, p. 43-71.
In June 2018, a second research campaign at the Noufflard Paris archive brought to light a number of paintings, sketches, art objects and archival material being inventoried.
The Vernon Lee Collection itself comprises hundreds of letters and postcards written by Vernon Lee or received by her from Berthe and André Noufflard; Vernon Lee's 25 notebooks dating from 1914 to 1919 (partly copied in 1925); Berthe Noufflard's diary containing her memories of Vernon Lee's conversations (8-30 July 1934); Berthe Noufflard's diary starting from Miss Paget's death (15 février-23 septembre 1936); copies (by Berthe Noufflard) of some 80 letters from Vernon Lee to Mathilde Hecht or to the latter's daughter, Suzanne Pontremoli, and of letters from Irene Forbes-Mosse to Mathilde Hecht.
To this must be added André Noufflard's notebooks chronicling the family history and the history of the family's friends; André Noufflard's films from 1926, featuring Vernon Lee and other members of their circle; a collection of letters to Mary Duclaux (typescript by Berthe and André Noufflard); books owned by V. Lee (with marginalia) or written by her (with inscriptions) and two autograph manuscripts: "Oke of Okehurst" and "Einfühlung". This interesting literary, artistic and intellectual collection in a very rich family archive also contains a plaster cast of Vernon Lee's left hand and several portraits of Vernon Lee by Berthe Noufflard.
Comment citer cette page
Sophie Geoffroy, "The Vernon Lee Collection at the Fonds de dotation André et Berthe Noufflard"Site "Holographical-Lee (HoL)Vernon Lee (Violet Paget) : Letters, notebooks and manuscripts - Lettres, carnets et manuscrits"
Consulté le 20/07/2025 sur la plateforme EMAN
https://eman-archives.org/HoL/le-fonds-de-dotation-andr-et-berthe-noufflard