An artist's layered and light-filled house, arranged with a painter's eye
From the moment you step into this Victorian house in north-east London, it is clear you have entered into an artist’s world. Canvases in various states of completion are stacked upright against one wall, frames dangle from above, and art snakes its way up the walls of the stairs. And this is just the hallway. This is the live-work home of Haidee Becker – a painter who, for the past 50 years, has been capturing the inner life of her subjects through exquisite, contemplative still lifes and portraits. Her work, especially that from the past five years, which is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at Patrick Bourne & Co, is serene and moving, touching on the fragility of life and featuring gently drooping irises and hunks of raw meat. ‘The paintings represent a moment in time,’ explains Haidee. ‘My work has always been about death really – but also about defeating it in that moment through paint.’
Although her layered and artfully conceived house might suggest otherwise, she has only lived here since 2019. ‘I arrived here like a snail, with all of my possessions on my back,’ she says, gesturing to the walls of her study, a charming room at the front of the house that is lined floor-to-ceiling with treasured books and paintings she inherited from her parents and collected over the years. Born in Hollywood in 1950 to American parents – her father was a civil rights activist and gallerist and her mother, a Hollywood actress and society star – Haidee moved to Rome at the age of two and grew up in a renaissance palace. ‘My parents have shaped me more than anything else, because they were really rather unusual,’ she laughs. The family moved to London in 1969, making a home in one of the spectacular artist-studio houses on Glebe Place in Chelsea. After her father’s death, it became Haidee’s studio where she remained until 2012.
From there, she moved into a beautiful Georgian Grade II-listed house in Canonbury, where she lived with her late partner, the writer Clive Sinclair. ‘It was spread across four floors, but it was really quite dinky because about a third of it was stairs,’ she explains. ‘We never felt it was a good idea for both of us to work from there.’ She rented studios, although never quite found the right one and ended up moving about 10 times. Her daughter, Rachel – a singer by profession but also a gifted artist – even created a miniature model out of card of what she thought was her mother’s dream studio, with soaring ceilings, windows aplenty and goats in the garden.
Everything changed in 2018 when Clive died after a battle with cancer. Haidee contemplated moving to a house where she could both live and paint, but it was a tough and painful time – in fact it was one of the few times in her life where she was completely unable to paint – and she felt a move might be too much. And then, in a case of improbable timing, an estate agent got in touch with a house in Newington Green that he thought might work. ‘I remember telling him that it was a ridiculous idea, and then I saw the house,’ recalls Haidee. ‘My daughter Rachel came with me and she looked at me and just said “I think this is it”.’ Lovingly cared for, it had been extended by its previous owners and was quite Bauhaus in spirit.
Haidee called on her architect friends, Johan Hybcshmann and Margaret Bursa, who run Archmongers Architects, to make a few tweaks. They had helped Haidee with her previous house, designing, amongst other things, shelves to cleverly accommodate what amounted to one-and-half miles worth of books. For this house, the ground floor remained largely the same, with the entrance hallway leading off to her study and a sitting room to the left and the kitchen straight ahead. The sitting room was rather dark, so a couple of windows were added.
The biggest change was upstairs where two bedrooms were knocked through to create what is now the beating heart of the space – Haidee’s magical, light-filled studio. Spanning the entire depth of the house, it is a remarkable space, with just about all the windows – including a couple of new additions – that her daughter had predicted in her dream-studio model many years before. Her bedroom, a small room off the studio, is strikingly modest in comparison, taking the place of the previous owner’s study. ‘For me, it has always been a place to read at night and sleep,’ explains Haidee.
Today, the house is layered with art, books and furniture. ‘It’s not about decorating for me; it’s about surrounding myself with objects that mean something to me,’ says Haidee, pointing out a canvas featuring a pair of boats on the sitting room wall that her son, the restaurateur Jacob Kenedy, painted when he was younger. ‘Both Rachel and Jacob painted from when they were young, probably because they saw me doing it and had all the tools they needed,’ she explains. Rachel’s linocuts crop up around the house too – in the hallway and also in the kitchen, where one of her designs has been printed onto the wooden fridge door. ‘That happened by chance when I accidentally ordered a built-in fridge rather than a standalone one, and needed to find a way to conceal the door,’ says Haidee, laughing. Another treasured piece in here is the 18th century American dresser – an entire kitchen in its own right, really, with a drawers, a pull-out worktop and a bin compartment – which belonged to her great-grandmother.
Some of Haidee’s own pieces hang on the walls, alongside pieces by her friends and teachers, including the sculptor Uli Nimptsch and the painter Adrian Ryan. As a child, Haidee had never thought of being a painter – on the contrary, she had always wanted to do something ‘quite different’ to her parents – but a change of heart came in the glorious long summer after she finished secondary school and started painting. ‘What drew me to paint was people – it was a way of relating and making connections,’ she explains. She enrolled on an art course at East Ham College, but soon realised it wasn’t the sort of education she was looking for. ‘I wanted to learn a craft,’ she explains. She shadowed a number of painters, before finally meeting the Prussian sculptor Nimptsch in 1970 who became her teacher until his death in 1977. ‘I’d spend six hours a day, seven days a week painting life models with him at his studio on Fulham Road,’ she recalls. ‘I learnt how to learn – how to sit and work.’ Nimptsch introduced Haidee to the painter Adrian Ryan, who she continued to paint with for many years, while carving out her own style.
When I visit, the walls of Haidee’s studio are lined with the works that are now on show in the exhibition at Patrick Bourne & Co. Many are still lifes: there is a pomfret fish on a white oval platter, a table strewn with raw meat, quails eggs and a knife, and a strikingly large canvas called The Dreamers, featuring a sleeping woman – her daughter Rachel – and a whippet. Many were produced in lockdown and reflect a certain tension, a restlessness. ‘I would like to work a lot more with people now but that’s been problematic with Covid,’ explains Haidee. ‘Really what I’d like to do is go on the street and invite people in.’ It is this spirit that feeds into the paintings she made of the cast of Jerusalem during its original run in 2010. ‘I spotted this curious man with the most alive eyes I’d ever seen in Soho and when I saw him the next day, I followed him and saw him heading into the Apollo Theatre,’ Haidee explains. She left a note asking if he’d consider sitting for her and two hours later Mark Rylance was in front of her. She ended up painting the entire cast backstage. Now, six of the paintings are on show and for sale in her son Jacob’s restaurant Bocca di Lupo (until May 31), with proceeds going to Global Empowerment Mission, which is relocating Ukrainian evacuees.
Haidee’s home is a testament to her welcoming and creative spirit. It is a calm and comforting space, which feels entirely in keeping with Haidee’s approach to art. ‘It is a house arranged with a painter’s eye,’ she concludes.
Mark Anthony Fox1/19In Haidee’s study, a large blue canvas of hers, featuring spring blossom, hangs behind her desk. Haidee found the rush-seated chair to the right of her desk on a street local to her a couple of weeks ago.
Mark Anthony Fox2/19Haidee’s daughter Rachel, a singer by profession but a talented artist, made this paper model for Haidee when she was looking for a new studio. It represents her dream studio, with lots of windows, high ceilings and even goats in the garden.
Mark Anthony Fox3/19One of Haidee’s treasured possessions, this charming childrens book, New Feathers for the Old Goose, was created by Haidee’s parents, John Becker and Virginia Campbell.
Mark Anthony Fox4/19The kitchen and dining area had already been extended by the previous owners and look out onto the garden.
Mark Anthony Fox5/19The wooden dresser in the kitchen belonged to Haidee’s great-grandmother, and is from the 18th century. It came from Virginia. The fridge was a happy accident: Haidee accidentally bought a built-in fridge rather than a stand-alone one during lockdown and so her daughter decided to make it work by creating a wooden panel for it, which features her linoprints. Much of the artwork on the walls is by Haidee’s friends and children.
Mark Anthony Fox6/19
Mark Anthony Fox7/19Haidee’s kitchen. Her son Jacob Kenedy runs Bocca di Lupo, and Haidee is also a keen cook. Her salad, dressed simply with good olive oil and lemon, is a particular favourite of her son and friends.
Mark Anthony Fox8/19A view out of the kitchen window. The taps were a huge investment, but something Haidee enjoys using daily.
Mark Anthony Fox9/19The hallway, looking through to the kitchen. The stairs lead up to Haidee’s studio, with walls lined in artworks including a lino print by Rachel, Haidee’s daughter.
Mark Anthony Fox10/19Canvases stacked upright in the hall.
Mark Anthony Fox11/19Stairs leading up to Haidee’s remarkable, light-filled studio. The walls feature works by Haidee’s daughter, Rachel, as well as her own works.
Mark Anthony Fox12/19Haidee’s bedroom, which is just off her huge studio and is strikingly modest by comparison. ‘For me, my bedroom has always been a place to read in at night and a place to sleep.’
Mark Anthony Fox13/19Haidee’s bedside table. The painting above is by Haidee’s mother Virginia Campbell.
Mark Anthony Fox14/19The bathroom, set off the studio, is also lined with art, as well as plants. The hanging paper mobile was created for Haidee by her daughter, Rachel.
Mark Anthony Fox15/19
Mark Anthony Fox16/19Haidee and her dog, Lobos, in the studio. The small painting above the window forms part of the new exhibition at Patrick Bourne & Co. and features radicchio.
Mark Anthony Fox17/19Haidee sorts through a collection of the props – a mixture of shells, plates, jugs and fabric – on a large table in her studio.
Mark Anthony Fox18/19A small studio, created by the previous owners of Haidee’s house, is reached through the garden. It is a calm space, featuring a wooden-panelled interior.
Mark Anthony Fox19/19The garden.
