Right: Whitestone, Tangier, c. 1945-6
© Courtesy Kettle's Yard.
WHITESTONE
In November 1935, Ede bought a plot of land outside Tangier, looking
towards the Rif mountains, and engaged a local architect to oversee
construction of the house he designed.
28
This was Whitestone: a
dazzlingly modernist white cube, on a hill, with a terrace supported
by pilotis. Ede resigned from the Tate on 26 September 1936. On
1 December, he and Helen arrived in Tangier with 38 packing cases
but without their daughters, who remained in London with Donald
Winnicott and his wife. Only one room was complete.
29
Ede, not surprisingly, had paid particular attention to light. The
windows stretched from ceiling to floor, and the building was painted
white inside and out. As at Elm Row, there were window seats, corner
cupboards, a brick and tile fireplace and a low white sofa. The few
key items transported from England included a gate-legged table, on
which Ede wrote his lectures, Helen's grand piano, fabrics by Ben
Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, and paintings: Christopher Wood's
Le Phare (1930), Snowscape (1926), Boy with Cat (1926), Mermaids
(1929) and The New Boat (1930), David Jones's Lourdes (1928), and
Ben Nicholson's 1933 (musical Instruments) and Study for Massine
ballet (1934).
30
Ede recalled in his diary the succession of flowers
that flourished at Whitestone, many of them, such as violets, irises,
geraniums, sweet peas and larkspur, familiar from English cottage
gardens.
28 Fisher, p.189.
29 Freeman, p.162.
30 Fisher, pp. 189–190.
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