Miguel Flores Vianna probably doesn't know this, but I first became familiar with him thanks to the Barefoot Contessa. It was the airing of the first or second episode- A Moroccan Feast- and Miguel was working his design magic on one of Ina's parties. I remember thinking that Miguel seemed like an awfully nice person, and his decor for the party was gorgeous. But what I realized not too long after this was that I had been familiar with Miguel's work for some time. It was he who had styled and produced some of my favorite interior stories in magazines like House Beautiful, Veranda, and Elle Decor. And when my sister and I were in Los Angeles a few years ago and we saw Miguel across the room at Nathan Turner's shop, well, I got as excited as I would have had it been George Clooney! (I'm serious. I think I got the shakes.)
Miguel has now branched out into photography, an artistic endeavour which obviously suits him to a tee. He has shot for World of Interiors, Domino, and most recently Lonny. I encourage you to spend some time looking through his online portfolio as you will certainly come away with loads of inspiration. But in the meantime, I think you'll find Miguel's list of his favorite books to be most interesting. Miguel finds inspiration in auction catalogues, books on interiors and history (my kind of guy), and fiction. And if you're wondering, those are indeed Miguel's photos of his favorite books.
"The two bibles: Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, People
The Artist in His Studio
The Chinese Pavilion: Dream and Reality
"Catalogues are a great source of knowledge and also provide with priceless voyeurism some of the places where very few go. On the top of that list is Sotheby's catalogue of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sale. I loved the rooms in her apartment, the faded gentility, the footprints of history in the making. On a grander scale, perhaps less poetic but certainly inspiring were the objects at the Alexis de Rede sale. These two are my favorites."
"A house without art is like a man with no soul. My favorite artists are Caravaggio and Cy Twombly. I can only afford books on them, no oils by them for me just yet. But I own almost every single book and catalogue on both of them. My favorite Caravaggio book is one published by Rizzoli, which contains reproductions which open up to poster size. Love it. The closest I can have in my apartment of his grand visions. My favorite Twombly book is almost an opposite in concept. It is the book published to accompany an exhibit on his flower paintings and photographs at Inverleith House in Edinburgh. Not only do you see the paintings and photos, but also there are pictures of the way they were hung. Lovely, gentle spaces full of the power of Twombly's art."
(Cy Twombly At Inverleith House Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
"I love ethnic paintings. Both the schools that were born in the different corners of the globe and the schools that show the view Europeans developed as they began to discover the world. A favorite book is King of the World (Azimuth Editions- Sackler Galleries). It is a 17th Century manuscript of courtly life in India, filled with drawings and paintings, which reproduce the color and richness of that culture. The original, today housed at Windsor Castle, was sent by the Moghul emperor Shah-Jahan to Charles 1st. Another book is Casta Paintings, by Yale University Press. In the 18th Century, Spaniard and Mexican artisans began painting representations of the new emerging ethnic groups in Mexico as European, Native Mexicans, Africans and Asians began to form multiracial families. The paintings are of great beauty and also depict in great detail the interiors where these families lived. "
"I grew up in a house where travel was a daily topic of conversation. Behind my father's chair at the dining table was a trolley with two atlases and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Those books were indispensable at meal time as it was then that most of our trips were planned. I love atlases and I have the catalogue of an exhibit that I saw at Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris on Encyclopedias and Libraries from Sumer to the 21st century. I think I went about six times in less than four days!"
Voyages : Trois Siècles d'explorations naturalistes
"Russia... I love Russia, with all its contradictions, the mightiness of Petersburg, the grimness of its poverty. The vastness of the landscape, that rich and turbulent history. I am fascinated by all of the photographic work done before the fall of the Czar in 1917. They show a country that I cannot sense anymore when I visit it now, but those brooding photos never cease to give flight to my imagination. My favorite book is one of photos taken by Tolstoy's wife Sophia; they show a quieter side of her turbulent marriage to the author of War and Peace (Song Without Words: The Photographs & Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy
Landscape And Memory
CATHERINE II ET GUSTAVE III . Une Correspondance Retrouvee
Italian Journey: 1786-1788
"Of course no library can be complete without prose and biography. My two favorite novels are Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace
Speak, Memory
