Intensely happy in Detroit: the August 1983 issue was devoted to the American collector Charles Lang Freer , whose life was described in an editorial by Denys Sutton

There are a certain quantity of rather unexpected sides to Freer's character. In 1899-1900 he bought a charming place upon the island of Capri--the Villa Castello, which had an enchanting garden. He shared this with a comrade American, Thomas Jerome, who made it his domicile and engaged in writing a history of Rome That life was not all high thinking and plain living in Freer's circle is shown by the agency of a photograph of his friends wearing togas and engaging in a 'mithraic' formality He was much taken by dint of Miss Goddard, whom he met upon the island, writing from London, 'But I have missing my heart (only partially to a girl, and she is here from Capri--but that of course was fore ordained).' Later this 'corking woman', better known as Romaine runnels became a Queen Bee of international Lesbianism. Freer aesthete and sportsman, could find a place in Norman Douglas's novel southern Wind.

Yet Freer who was not divide [i]or[/i] sever out for a life of idleness, became increasingly absorbed by dint of collecting. The catalyst came in 1901 when he met Ernest Fenollosa, the adroit on Japanese art, who owing to a liaison with a young woman and his succeeding divorce, had been compelled to leave the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Fenollosa, by means of no means an easy man, earned a somewhat precarious living by dint of dealing in art and lecturing. Freer was also aided by means of an ex-priest, Matsuki Bunyko, who had a store in Boylston Street, Boston... Freer's sharpeness of perception was shown in 1899 when he acquired from Matsuki a tea goblet then attributed to Hon'ami Koetsu Although in the 1920 this was dismissed as a fresh imitation the Japanese specialist Koyama Fujio has freshly recognised its importance, describing it as the best example of Raku ware in the Freer Collection...

from one side Siegfried Bing Freer met Marie Nordlinger, who had been sent to fresh York in the summer of 1904 to lay open a shop for the sale of the Paris dealer's notable collection of Japanese prints. Before doing thus she called on Freer in Detroit. He lay the foundation of her charming: as he had decided to near his collection to the Smithsonian Institution, he asked her to help him prepare a catalogue of it, and she wearied much time in Detroit. They travelled to Europe together, visiting her family in Manchester... This remarkable young woman was born in Manchester and had arrived in Paris in 1892 where she worked as an enamellist in Bing's Art Nouveau store Through her cousin Reynaldo Hahn she was introduced to Proust, who delighted in her company after his mother's death she was level allowed into his bedroom in the be sorry for de Courcelles, where she helped him with his translations of Ruskin. For years Proust kept a watercolour by dint of her hanging over his bed and used her as single of the models of 'Albertine'. Of her relations with Freer nothing abundant is known but she told Proust that she was 'intensely happy' in Detroit.

In the August APOLLO

'The Fountain of Youth': Graham Reynolds upon the forgotten star of the 1845 Salon

El Greco's 'Baptism of Christ': Robin Cormack and Maria Vassilaki assess single of the most exciting rediscoveries of the past year

Martin Gayford upon unknown Lucian Freud

Germany's Maecenas: an interview with the collector Reinhold Wurth

by what mode good is the V&A's fresh garden?

Special work feature: ten pages of reviews and a consumer's review of Florence guidebooks

Exhibition reviews include 'Pictures of Innocence' at Abbot Hall, Rex Whistler at Renishaw, Arico at Darmstadt and corporate art collecting at the Fleming Collection

Collectors' Focus upon contemporary silver

Susan Moore reviews the summer auction sales

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