Villa Olivella
Slim Aarons · 1985
From € 250.00 Including VAT
About this work
Villa Olivella, Naples 1985
A white neoclassical villa with a double, curving staircase fills the middle of the picture; two figures stand on the landing at the top, and two young people walk down the left staircase. On the paved square in front, a man in a jacket and a woman in an ochre dress with a green parasol face each other, with long shadows on the stones.
The Conte and Contessa Paolo Gaetani dell'Aquila d'Aragona posed in October 1985 in front of their Villa Olivella in Naples. Slim Aarons keeps the couple small in the foreground and lets the house carry the portrait. The staircase opens like two arms around the central doorway, and the pair stands almost exactly on its axis. Their posture is relaxed, as if they were chatting; the villa behind them is anything but.
- Photographer
- Slim Aarons
- Collection
- Slim Aarons
- Country
- Italy
- City
- Naples
- Year
- 1985
- Reference
- 155761252
The photographer
Photographing attractive people who were doing attractive things in attractive places.
George Allen Aarons, born in New York, served as a military photographer in World War II and subsequently transitioned to print journalism. Whereas he previously documented the war, he deliberately chose the opposite subject: the leisure time of the rich and famous, in breathtaking settings.
His most famous photograph, The Kings of Hollywood (1957), encapsulates what he sought in all his portraits: glamour, charisma, and celebrity, captured in a relaxed manner.
Aarons won the trust of the people he photographed, thereby gaining access to some of the most intimate and candid portraits of the twentieth century. In 2007, Getty Images published the book Poolside With Slim Aarons , crowning his legacy.
- Born October 29, 1916 , New York
- Died May 29, 2006 , Montrose, NY
- Hulton Archive / Getty Images
