This beautifully illustrated book, both scholarly and accessible to all, provides an intimate and discerning insight into the private world and intellectual passions of the renowned philanthropists Paul and Bunny Mellon through the two trompe l'oeil paintings that they commissioned for their main residence at Oak Spring, Virginia. The book's design exquisitely showcases the lives and interests of two sophisticated connoisseurs who nurtured one of the great private art collections of the late twentieth century.

The Mellons were avid collectors of art and rare books who also enjoyed and understood the genre of trompe l'oeil. Their two Visual Biographies reveal their personal tastes and interests, as expressed through their collaborations with Martin Battersby and Fernand Reynard, two gifted European trompe l'oeil painters. Through the lens of trompe l'oeil longtime friend of the Mellons, Professor Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, superbly articulates these creative partnerships, while also placing the art in context within the history of trompe l'oeil.

Tongiorgi Tomasi demonstrates how the works allude with wit and grace to the Mellons' shared dedication to the history of culture, and to their particular interests in humanism, the history of art, and garden history and design.

"The elegant simplicity of the book's design reflects Bunny Mellon's exquisite aesthetic, and its clarity connotes the intellectual acumen that she and her husband shared," Amy Meyers, Former Director of the Yale Center for British Art, said. "A marvelous double-portrait in its own right ... reflecting the marriage of two minds—and hearts—through which the Mellons were able to shape the world of culture in the most magnificent ways."

Tongiorgi Tomasi's readings of the Oak Spring trompe l'oeils are richly augmented by superb biographical sketches of the Mellons by Tony Willis that illuminate the lives of Paul and Bunny Mellon and the background to the paintings that they commissioned. His essays assess Mr. Mellon's stellar career dedicated to philanthropy and the arts, while also elucidating the flowering of Mrs. Mellon's love for the history of gardens and her own gardening achievements. For decades, Willis served as the librarian of Mrs. Mellon's superb collection of rare books, manuscripts, and art related to the history of gardens and horticulture, and since her death in 2014, he has continued in this position for the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

Meyers said, "Spending many years working side-byside with Mrs. Mellon and coming to know Mr. Mellon within the precinct of their home, Willis is unusually well-positioned to tell their life stories, and he does so with eloquence."

The book is available to purchase in hardcover and paperback at oak-spring-garden-foundation.square.site