How the Peruzzi Salon Began

The first Salons were led by high society French women starting in the 1600s.

Image: Jean François de Troy (Paris 1679 - Rome 1752), ''Reading from Molière'' around 1728, Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 90.8 cm; Collection late Marchioness of Cholmondeley, Houghton

Imagine you could go back in time to any era of the past. What era would you choose?

I’ve always imagined myself in Paris in the 1910s, attending Gertrude Stein’s Salons in her parlour on 27 rue de Fleurus. I’d be hobnobbing with Braque, Picasso, Matisse…. Or I’d like to be in New York City in the 1920s, with Dorothy Parker and her “vicious circle”, meeting at the Algonquin Hotel with writers, actors, art critics… I always imagined the excitement and intensity of the discussions, the connection to topics meaningful and exciting, deep, intellectual, philosophical…

Gertrude Stein’s Salon in the early 1900s

Photo credit: https://curatorsintl.org/collaborators/salon-de-fleurus

After a Friday night art history lecture at the Florence Academy of Art in December 2017, 9 months after I moved to Florence, my teacher Richard Greathouse had just finished a talk about Metaphysics and Art. I realised I was living in my modern day Salon. I couldn’t imagine being surrounded by more interesting, sensitive, inspiring and deep individuals. So with a little encouragement from some friends, I started my own Salon, in my apartment on Via Arnolfo 33, in January 2018.

Dorothy Parker with her Vicious Circle of writers (Portrait of Art Samuels, Charlie MacArthur, Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott)

Photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquin_Round_Table#/media/File:Algonquin_Round_Table.gif

The apartment was perfectly designed to host a big group of people – high ceilings, a big living room with lots of furniture and two single beds that could be used (and were used) as day beds. I did a little bit of research and discovered there was a woman called Emilia Peruzzi who used to host Salons in Florence, Turin, Viareggio, Antella and Paris in the 1800s. Her husband was a leading politician, and she would bring together political and cultural members of society to her various homes to host salons. 

I was inspired to be following in Emilia’s footsteps by creating my own Salon in Florence almost 150 years later.

I discovered the Peruzzi family was very prominent - there are piazzas and shops all around Florence in their name. One I discovered on a morning cycle around Florence.

My friend Alice – a fellow art student and South African (the only other South African at the school) – and I naturally developed a rhythm of creating a theme for the Salons each week, sending out the theme to the Salon What’s App group, and then co-facilitating the evening. The Salons typically followed a pretty consistent order. Everyone would start to arrive around 7pm, and over the course of the next hour, people would arrive, help themselves to a glass of wine (we always had lots of bottles of red wine – one of the many joys of living in Chianti!), add the food they had brought to the spread, and hang out until about 8pm. Then Alice and I would introduce the theme, we’d go around the circle (we always formed a circle) sharing something about ourselves by way of an icebreaker (and giving everyone a chance to at least speak once – having their voice be heard), and starting the flow of the conversation. And then we’d get into the main conversation. Usually we’d talk until 10/10.30pm, take a break to swap the savoury for sweet, and more often than not, we’d continue for a second round, building on the conversation from earlier. Alice and I would take turns guiding the conversation, bringing in new ideas, ensuring people who wanted to talk had a chance to talk, facilitating how long people did talk for….

Alice and I enjoying a dairy free sugar free chocolate cake Alice baked for one of the Salons - March 2018

There were many things that made the Salons unique. One was the openness and sharing. The sense of safety – you could be vulnerable, share what you were feeling or thinking, and it would be welcomed, accepted, celebrated. There was no “wrong”, only acceptance for where you were at. I discovered that for some people, the Salons were the first time they had a chance to express their feelings and thoughts with people from school, with the result that on Monday morning, school felt like a much friendlier, welcoming place. Friendships were formed, connections made, depth built. It became a special club, a close bond, and also really fun!

What did I get out of the Salons? A sense of community. A sense of togetherness. A sense of connection. And also, I learnt a great deal about what it means and what it takes to be a professional artist.