Tusculum, 1932 / watercolour by Matthew James MacNally

V1A/Pot P/5

fonds

1932

Graphic Materials, Watercolours

421331

Copy print : V1A/Pot P/5
Available on open access in the Mitchell Library Reading Room

Drawings - on sheet 40.5 x 45.7 cm., image 19.6 x 24.9 cm. - 1 watercolour drawing with pencil underdrawing

Owner occupation of the villa until 1927 saved it from the demolition trend of the 1920s and 30s. The villa and remaining land was bought as an investment, which the three owners then further subdivided into six lots. Two lots, including the lot containing Tusculum, were bought by a company titled Tusculum Ltd. In 1928 Tusculum was leased as a private hospital to Isabel Christine Renwick Christie, nurse and spinster, for ten years. Extensive internal alterations were carried out at this stage to suit its new role. The constricted site that Tusculum now occupies dates from 1934, with the block of flats obscuring the front of the villa being built.
During the second World War the building was leased to the American Red Cross as an officers club and convalescent home. In 1945 the villa still had its 'porch by the front door under which carriages drove up to discharge their 'freight'- supported by columns, and stretching across the driveway.
Reference: Villas of Darlinghurst exhibition catalogue / State Library of New South Wales. Sydney : State Library of New South Wales, 2002.

Titled by artist at lower left corner. Signed and dated "M. J. MacNally 1932" at lower right corner.