Arts and Letters
Art Adventures
Year-round On-site
The Arts at Ocean House
Art Adventures & Experiences
Art is a pivotal part of the Ocean House experience. Museum-worthy exhibits, an art exploration for kids, lecture series, seasonal events and more together create a cohesive curated portfolio. Our hotel art experiences have been enjoyed by countless guests and community members throughout the years. We invite you to join in.
The Bemelmans Gallery At Ocean House
The curated Gallery collection, owned by the historic hotel’s proprietors Charles and Deborah Royce, includes original works, architectural commissions, illustrations of product campaigns, and illustrations of the beloved Madeline series. It is the largest permanent, private collection of work by Bemelmans on public display in North America, and showcases select pieces which have never been seen by the public before. The Gallery also features detailed didactics to bring meaning to various pieces in the collection.
Bemelmans Gallery Highlights:
“Farewell to the Ritz” (aka Adieu to the Old Ritz series) – These 21 story-telling drawings recount Bemelmans’ personal experiences from life at the Ritz in New York, including employee mentors, his taste for music, and his eventual own car as he became assistant banquet manager. When the hotel closed its doors in 1951, Bemelmans wrote and illustrated his now famous, “Farewell to the Ritz” in commemoration. It was this collection that sparked the Royce’s interest in Bemelmans work, when it was on display in a window at Bergdorf Goodman in NYC.
La Colombe Murals – Bemelmans created these murals for the beloved La Colombe bistro in Paris, which he purchased in 1953. His Fresco mural paintings were done with wet lime plaster, where he re-created life at the Ritz on the walls of his bistro. After La Columbe closed, the murals were removed and stored in a barn outside of Paris. Fortune turned again for the art of Bemelmans when Charles and Deborah Royce flew to Paris, assuring the current owners that they would be lovingly restored and enjoyed by guests from around the world.
Madeline – Illustrations in the Gallery follow the 12 young schoolgirls as they stroll the streets of Paris. Bemelmans captures the city’s parks, gardens and L ‘Arc de Triumph in “One Nice Morning,” and a depiction of young Madeline perched on a Seine River bridge from his book, “Madeline and The Bad Hat.” Also in the Gallery are two tall Madeline paintings, original pieces from the 15 panels Bemelmans created for the children’s dining room aboard Aristotle Onassis’ yacht “Christina O.”
About Ludwig Bemelmans
Ludwig Bemelmans left a lasting impact on modern day culture and children’s literature with his whimsical and witty style. Although he was most widely known for his Madeline series, he was a notable artist and relentless “connoisseur of life,” and he drew with a child’s eye and wrote with the wit of an adult. What few people know is Bemelmans deep connection to hospitality and travel. He was born into a hotel family and began his career in the industry, arriving in New York from his homeland of Austria at 16 and landing a job as a busboy at the Ritz Hotel in New York. He went on to become a banquet manager there, and his drawings and books offer a candid glimpse of the lives of individuals in the hospitality business and experiences in travel and dining. His legend lives on in hospitality through notable establishments like Bemelmans Bar in New York, and now Ocean House in Rhode Island.
