Villa Medici, Rome

Lloyd Rees travelled to Europe several times, first in 1923-24 when he acquired a particular love of France and Italy, and subsequently during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

From Paris (during his first visit) Lloyd Rees, Daphne Mayo and Richard McCann, a Melbourne artist, took the train to Rome. 'It was the most magical day's travel I ever knew. After lunch, as we were speeding along, I became aware of the plains of Italy with their ochre-coloured cubistic buildings. We went right through Turin and on to Milan. We travelled by night down to Rome and our excitement was mounting when in the morning light, we saw fantastic towns built on hilltops - sometimes even mountain tops. I felt a great welling up within me - the awakening of the architectural sense which Rome gives you' (Lloyd Rees, 'Peaks and valleys: an autobiography', Collins, Sydney, 1986, p 138).

'This beautiful villa on the Pincio above the Piazza di Espana was built in the 16th century, when the rich and powerful Cardinal Giovanni Ricci di Montepulciano commissioned the architect Annibale Lippi to undertake the thorough conversion of a small property here. …Napoleon moved the Académie de France to this site in 1803. ('Brigitte Hintzen-Bohlen 'Art and architecture Rome', Könemann, Cologne, 2001, pp 226-227).