Notable Residents

Nelly Harjes

The history of Villa Angeletto reaches back to the 19th Century when the estate was purchased by John Harjes, an American banker and philanthropist. He had arrived in France by 1865 and was working in Paris in the family bank Drexel Harjes. John wanted a family home in the sunshine of the Cote d’Azur hence his purchase of a plot of land just outside the town of Grasse. Villa Angeletto was at the time a small farmhouse beside the grand family home, he had this extended, and it became the residence of his daughter, Nelly, who went on to marry Jacques Cartier.

Drexel Harjes played a significant role in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War becoming a major lender to the new French government as it repaid its massive war reparations. Drexel Harjes supervised the transfer of the $50 million, which the United States paid to France to acquire its interests in the Panama Canal allowing the United States to begin work on the canal in 1904.

In 1895, after Drexel's death, J. Pierpont Morgan assumed control of Drexel, Morgan & Co. and renamed the firm J.P. Morgan & Co.. Similarly, Drexel, Harjes & Co. was renamed Morgan, Harjes & Co.

In 1909, John H. Harjes retired from Morgan Harjes and his son Henry Herman Harjes, who became a partner of the firm in 1898, took over responsibility for managing the firm. Again in World War I, Morgan Harjes was actively involved, helping the Allied nations secure loans in order to purchase military supplies from manufacturers in the United States.

Mary Cassatt

The villa's greatest claim to fame is arguably that by 1910 it was home to Mary Cassatt, the American Impressionist painter, and friend of Nelly Harjes. Mary's friends included the Impressionist Berthe Morisot, as well as Renoir and Degas.

The covered terrace provided a superb backdrop for these two gentlemen to while away the hours, no doubt setting the painting world to rights. Mary spent the majority of World War I in Grasse and a collection of her correspondence from Villa Angeletto can be found at the Musée d’Impressionisme in Giverny. She's best known for her tender depictions of mothers and children, and even if you do not recognize her name, you probably have seen her work.

Mary Cassatt is widely considered one of the greatest American artists. She achieved fame in the art world at a time when this was very difficult for women. Many of her paintings are exhibited today in museums such as the National Gallery of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Portrait Gallery.

Germaine Tailleferre

By the 1940s Villa Angeletto had become the home of Germaine Tailleferre, a famed composer and harpist. A member of the ‘Groupe de Six’, she became renowned for her eclectic musical and artistic salon. Attendees included Ravel, Cocteau, Picasso, Modigliani and the famous actor Gerard Philippe who found the tranquillity allowed him to immerse himself in his most complex roles.

At the outbreak of World War II, she was forced to leave the majority of her scores at her home in Grasse, with the exception of her recently completed Three Études for Piano and Orchestra. Escaping across Spain to Portugal, she found passage on a boat that brought her to the United States, where she lived the war years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After the war, in 1946, she returned to her home in France, where she composed orchestral and chamber music, plus numerous other works including ballets.

Many of Germaine’s works were lost due to the gross underestimation of her music, but they are now being revived by French and British recording companies, orchestral programmers and broadcasters. As her compositions are beginning to be restored, Tailleferre is starting to get her rightful place in music history.

Post war the Villa Angeletto assumed the role of home and laboratory to a well-known Grasse perfumer.