| Admin/Biog History | Nicolson spent the first four months of 1938 continuing to the study pictures in public and private collections in Italy - first in Florence working at the Villa I Tatti, under Berenson (January-16 March); in Rome (17 March-12 April) and very briefly in Venice (13-20 April). He returned to England in May and, during the summer months, split his time between Sissinghurst and London, working at the National Gallery and socialising with friends before embarkaing on a visit to the USA in mid September. |
| Description | In which Nicolson continues to live in Florence spending his days studying at the Villa I Tatti; the Uffizzi; Pitti Palace and other churches and sights. Writes about his research methods and ideas, in particular collecting photographs. Socialises with a large group of friends including the Ottakars; Hagenmayer, Corsini, Maraini/Mariani, Fraunberg and Nicholson families; Fanca Pecori, Robert Trevelyan 'Trevvy', Carlo Placci, Muriel Gardner, Joan Haslip, Morra, Johnny and Margaret Walker, and Mrs Vavala. Briefly falls for Eleanora Thomasson, regularly writing about their meetings and feelings for each other, but breaks off their relationship in February.
Meets up with David Wallace in March, leaves Florence and spends a month studying pictures in the galleries and churches - and particularly the Vatican - in Rome. Stays with the Aldrich family at the Villa Aurelia and socialises with a large group of friends including, amongst others, Johnny & Margaret Walker.
Returns to England in April and spends the summer contemplating his lack of career/gainful work; arranging the postcards/photographs he has collected on his travels; working sporadically at the National Gallery and revisiting his research on Seurat. Socialises, during this time, with old friends including, in particular, the Asquith, Margesson and Bonham Carter families.
Also includes discussion of the political situation in Europe following Anthony Eden's resignation from the post of Foreign Secretary and Hitler taking control of Austria. The second half of the journal, when Nicolson was in England, contains regular references to his close family, in particular his father & his father's activities as a member of Parliament.
The inside front cover includes the following inscription: 'To Ben with all good wishes for his first Italian Christmas from Nicky [Mariano], Xmas 1937'
Of particular note:
January
-1st-7th: skiing in San Vigilio di Marebbe
-8th: returns to Florence
-10th: meets Robert Trevelyan
-12th: lunches at the Villa Medici with Sybil Cutting
-19th: dines with Baron von Fraunberg and his wife Countess Adriana Pecori-Giraldi
-20th: meets Reginald Turner
-22nd: lunches with Lanfranco Rasponi; meets Joan Haslip
-30th: views the private collection of Leo Stein; attends a concert in Florence conducted by Igor Markeivitch
-31st: lunches with Mrs Loeser and studies the pictures at the Villa Gattaria; dines with Igor Markeivitch his wife, Kyra Nijinsky
February
-7th: meets Alberto Moravia
-8th: lunches with the Actons at Villa La Pietra
-10th: travels to Volterra with Sybil Colefax who gossips about Bernard Berenson, Mary Costelloe Smith (Mrs Berenson) and Nicky Mariano
-12th-13th: spends the weekend with the Guidotti's in Lucca
-16th: visits the house of the Director of the Pitti Palace to see his collection of paintings by Giorgio de Chirico
-21st: writes about the resignation of Anthony Eden
-24th: writes about his father's (Harold Nicolson) 'violently pro-Eden speech' in the House of Commons and divisions in Parliament
March
-3rd: views Contessa Contini's private collection
-7th: meets George Edgell, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
-10th: meets Ugo Ojetti; David Wallace arrives in Florence
-11th: final lunch at I Tatti
-12th: final dinner with the Maraini family
-13th: leaves Florence and arrives in Arezzo
-15th: visits Monterchi to view the fresco of the Madonna del Parto, by Piero della Francesca; travels to Cortona
-16th: arrives in Orvieto & visits the Duomo
-17th:: arrives in Rome
-18th: meets Jean-Louis Fallot; receives a telegram from his father (Harold Nicolson) concerning the possibilty of a role as Junior Assistant at the Tate Gallery
-19th: visits the Capitoline museum; visits the Mostra Augustea exhibition; dines with Johnny Walker
-21st: visits the Vatican and lunches at the British Embassy
-22nd visits the Vatican; lunches with Johnny and Margaret Walker and other guests and hears 'unpleasant stories afoot about the confiscation of goods belonging to Austrian Jews'
-23rd: separates from David Wallace
-27th: lunches with Johnny and Margaret Walker at Ninfa with the Princess of Bassiano, and others
-28th: moves to the Villa Aurelia to stay with 'the Aldriches'
April
-1st: visits to the Palazio Venezia
-2nd: visits the Borghese with Frederick Hartt
-3rd: is taken, by the Walkers & Aldriches on a trip to the country with several Academy students
-6th: visits churches with Miss Aldrich and Frederick Hartt; has tea in the Palazzo Farnese; attends a reception at the American embassy
-7th: views the private collection of Marchese Giovanni Visconti-Venosta
-8th: visits the Doria Palace; has tea with Frederick Hartt
-9th-10th: visits Naples and an exhibition of 17th-19th century Neopolitan painting
-13th: leaves Rome & arrives in Venice; meets Lauretta Hope Nicholson who is working at the Courtauld and has 'discovered Tom Boase knows nothing about art'
-14th-20th: meets his bother (Nigel Nicolson) and together they visit the churches, galleries and sights in Venice
-20th: returns to Florence, studying at I Tatti; writes about preparartions being made in advance of a visit by Hitler
-26th-27th: studying paintings with John Pope-Hennessy
-30th: travels, with his father (Harold Nicolson) on the Orient Express back to London
May
-1st: returns to Sissinghurst; writes about his propsects of a job at the Tate Gallery
-3rd: visits London and lunches with Jeremy Hutchinson; visits the National Gallery and dines with Laura Bonham-Carter
-5th: dines with Kenneth Clark, writes about the Directorship of the Tate and his own hopes for a position there
-11th: lunches with, amongst others, Virginia Woolf
-13th: father (Harold Nicolson) meets with Konrad Henlein
-14th-16th: spends the weekend in Oxford, socialising with - amongst others - his brother (Nigel Nicolson), Isaiah Berlin, Maurice Bowra, Francis Graham-Harrison and Stuart Hampshire. His father (Harold Nicolson) joins an All Souls discussion group where 'young politicians collected round him to discuss Henlein and Lord Swinton'
-18th: writes about his sexuality
-22nd: writes about receiving news of German troop movements againts Czechoslovakia; Charles Lindbergh and Victor Cazalet visit Sissinghurst
-23rd: attends a dance organised by Lady Baillie in Grosvenor Square with, amongst others, Jan and Gay Margesson
-26th: visits the National Gallery and talks to Kenneth Clark about work; attends Laura Bonham Carter's pre-wedding party
-31st: attends Laura Bonham Carter's wedding to Jo Grimond; views Guy Branch's flat in Dean Street; attends a dinner party thrown by Mary Asquith with various guests including Philip Toynbee
June
-1st: dines with his father (Harold Nicolson) and various others
-3rd-6th: spends the weekend in Clovelly, with the Asquith family and a party of guests
-8th: laments his lack of proper occupation writing '2 years is about the limit to which one can work alone'
-9th: lunches with Cynthia Asquith in Sussex Place
-13th: moves into an attic flat in Dean Street
-15th: visit from John Pope-Hennessy who 'pours scorn on my history of art criticism' (see also entry for 12th June)
-17th: attends a sherry party hosted by his brother (Nigel Nicolson), in Oxford
-21st: attends a dinner party hosted by the Asquith's; attends a party hosted by Kenneth and Jane Clark
-25th: gives a tour of Knole to some of his father's (Harold Nicolson) Leicester constitutents; dines with Cyril Joad at Sissinghurst
-27th: starts work at the National Gallery, compiling a catalogue of the collection with Kenneth Clark and Philip Pouncey
-29th: has tea with Logan Pearsall-Smith; dines with Eleonora Thomasson
-30th: attends a party at the Courtauld organised by Tom Boase and attended by, amongst others, Giles Robertson, Isaiah Berlin, and Maurice Bowra; attends Clarissa Spencer-Churchill's birthday party
[A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
July
-1st: lunches with Anthony Blunt [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
-2nd: lunches with Stuart Hampshire; travels down to Sissinghurst with his brother (Nigel Nicolson) and James Pope-Hennessy [A digital copy of this entry can be found below]
-6th: learns from Isaiah Berlin about Stuart Hampshire's affair with Grace Isabel Renée'; attends the Cannes Ball, hosted by Cynthia Asquith
-7th: dines with James Pope-Hennessy and his father (Harold Nicolson)
-8th: takes Eleonora Thomasson out to dinner and the ballet
-9th: views an exhibition of 'Decadent German art' at the Burlington Galleries; spends the weekend with the Margessons at Boddington
-11th: dines with Lanfranco Rasponi
-12th: attends a dinner hosted by Clarissa Spencer-Churchill
-13th: hosts a dinner party for Isaiah Berlin and Laura & Jo Grimond
-14th: visits Virginia and Leonard Woolf in Tavistock Square
-15th: hosts a dinner party for Francis Graham-Harrison and John Pope-Hennessy; attends a party hosted by Philip Toynbee
-16th-17th: spends the weekend with the Asquith family and other guests including Isaiah Berlin and Cressida & Jasper Ridley, at Mells, Somerset
-19th: visits Catherine Sinclair at her studio in Baron's Court; dines with the Margesson family
-21st: attends Lady Desborough's annual party at Taplow Court; spends an evening at H.G.Wells' house
-22nd-24th: spends the weekend with the Giles Robertson & his family in Cambridge; visits the Fitzwilliam museum; socialises with Mrs Vavala
-26th: dines with Lady Cynthia Asquith and Lady Violet Bonham Carter
-30th: Peter Quennell lunches at Sissinghurst
-31st: visits Victor Cazalet's house
August
-3rd: dines with Christopher Davies
-4th: dines with Bill Davies, notes that 'He, Philip, Derek, Stephen, Anthony , Guy Burgess have no more right to call themselves communists than I have'
-5th:-has tea with Isaiah Berlin
-6th: attends a fireworks display at Victor Cazalet's house
-7th: lunches with Eddy Sackville-West and Eardley Knollys
-9th-14th: holidays in Scotland with his father (Harold Nicolson) and brother (Nigel Nicolson) visiting the Shiant Isles and the Isles of Skye
-15th-17th: visits the Empire exhibition in Glasgow; arrives in Edinburgh
-18th: visits the Art Gallery in Edinburgh
-19th: spends a day in St Andrew's with Jo Grimond's family; visits Lady Novar at Raith house near Kircaldy
-20th: returns to Edinburgh; dines with his brother (Nigel Nicolson) and Douglas Young
-21st: returns to Sissinghurst
-28th: lunches with Kenneth and Jane Clark at Lympne; returns to Sissinghurst and meets Christopher Isherwood
-29th: dines with his father (Harold Nicolson), brother (Nigel Nicolson) and James Pope-Hennessy
September
-4th: Robert Boothby (Lord Boothby) visits Sissinghurst for tea
-5th: dines with Julian Sorbie and visits Desmond Shaw-Taylor
-6th-9th: spends a few days in Clovelly, with the Asquith family and a party of guests; muses on his sexuality 'I fear all this wholesome heterosexuality on my part is sheer bogus conventionality' [A digital copy of these entries can be found below]
-10th-14th: sails on the Europa for America; writes about the political situation in Europe
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| Image Caption | Journal entry for 2-3 February concerning studying pictures in Italy and Nicolson's relationship with Eleanora Thomasson, 1938 |
| Journal entry for 30 June-2 July concerning various social engagements, 1938 (2pp) |
| Journal entry for 8-10 September concerning a weekend at Clovelly, 1938 |