The art gallery at the beginning of the 20th century

Joachim Carvallo and his wife, Ann Coleman, were avid collectors of ancient paintings, with a particular fondness for the golden age of Spanish painting: the 17th century. When they bought Villandry in 1906, it was with the intention of having somewhere to display their collection. Their collection had gained great notoriety before the war, but was then broken up for inheritance purposes. Despite this, Villandry still has a superb collection of paintings that Henri Carvallo, Joachim’s great-grandson, is trying to rebuild. The vast majority of these works are from the Spanish realism movement, born of a fusion of Flemish and Italian styles. Many of the works on display in this gallery and hanging in the château’s other rooms are religious paintings.