Exhibition Details

David Gill Gallery is delighted to present Villa Giulia, a new collection of furniture by Francis Sultana and Roberto Ruspoli.
When interior designer Francis Sultana re-imagined Hotel La Palma in Capri, a creative collaboration with artist Roberto Ruspoli began. Sultana commissioned Ruspoli to create a series of whimsical figurative frescoes in the hotel’s vaulted foyer. Three years later, and David Gill Gallery is delighted that the partnership has been reignited, with the launch of a capsule collection of furniture and accessories, designed by Sultana and painted by Ruspoli.
With Mediterranean-inspired elegance, and drawing from iconic modernist villa interiors, for both Sultana and Ruspoli, it is the work of Jean Cocteau at Villa Santo Sospir and Pablo Picasso’s murals at Château de Castille in Provence, as well as Henri Matisse’s drawings on the walls of his studio near Nice, that have provided much of the inspiration for this new collection.
“This collection encapsulates that sense of magic that Roberto captured for me at Hotel La Palma. His drawings are so timeless, with an innate sense of romance and whimsy that I so love. I wanted to create a capsule collection of furniture and accessories that meant that everyone could have a little piece of Mediterranean magic in their homes, wherever they are in the world!”
Sultana has created a collection of tables (side, coffee and gueridon), a series of mirrors and several box designs in oak and vellum with bronze detailing. Each piece features inlaid drawings of Ruspoli’s signature silhouettes of young men and androgynous figures, inspired by Ancient Greece and Rome with clean, graceful and fluid lines. The inlays come in a series of Graeco-Roman inspired colours of azure blue, turquoise and oxblood.
Roberto Ruspoli says, "For this collaboration with Francis Sultana, I have inspired myself from the collection of Etruscan engraved mirrors of the archaeological museum of Villa Giulia in Rome, interpreting them with a modern twist."