Arles: Join us as François Halard offers a visual tour of his property

A word about my childhood: For a long time I had difficulties with language. Most of the time I was alone in my room. The rare contact I had with the outside world was through books, photographs and paintings. And yet, the enclosed space of my room became a space of liberation from the moment I began photographing it with my father’s camera. That was how I opened myself up to the world. I could not have taken the photographs I take today had I not experienced that period of introspection. I shot my first personal photographs when I was 16, in the Giardino Giusti, an Italian garden near Verona. That’s when I discovered that photographing something I like gave me a great sense of peace.

Arles is my chosen city because of its secret side. I try to lead an anachronistic life in Arles. I enjoy being alone at home or in my studio. I’m like a bubble within another bubble, a little circle inside a larger one…. Italy has always had a very strong influence on me. For obvious visual reasons—the architecture, the gardens, the sea —Arles is the most Italian, the most Roman city in France. It’s where I discovered antiquity—and how it can be modern. Indeed, the works of Cy Twombly, or Umberto Eco, show that the themes of Italian art are incredibly modern.

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François Halard’s bathroom in his Arles home is inspired by painter Henri Matisse’s series of colourful artworks of Morocco.

Halard’s interpretation of Cézanne’s studio—featuring a print by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an antique Chinese helmet, an Egyptian sarcophagus mask and a Roman tombstone.

The kitchen with “handmade style”

I bought this house because it reminded me of Cy Twombly’s Bassano home in Teverina, north of Rome. When you’re under that Italian spell, it never lets you go! I wasn’t even 30 then, and spent many years restoring it. I didn’t have any money, so I slept in a bed right in the middle of the rubble. But, alas, I can’t resist things that tell a story, so the house quickly filled up. A gift from Miquel [Barceló] here, something from Julian [Schnabel] there.… I’ve had many houses and at one point everything was shipped back to Arles, so many items remained there because I had nowhere else to put them!

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Halard shot this photograph of Cy Twombly vases in the guest bedroom.

A picture of artist Giorgio Morandi’s studio in the library.

A mask from the Fang tribe.

The Athenas drawing room with Halard’s collection of African masks and antiquities.

In 1935, Walker Evans was commissioned to put together a portfolio for MoMA’s African Art exhibition. He created a kind of repertoire of nearly 500 African works shot in a 20- by 25-centimetre format against an almost grey background. I wanted to honour this work. My African masks are like my good luck charms, I take them everywhere. Some have protective qualities, others are more serious.… Certain objects tell stories of past travels: my wife, Isabelle Dupuy Chavanat, likes Japanese ceramics from the 18th century, and those objects remind us of our trip to the land of the Rising Sun. All these objects speak to one another, do things together. I photograph them with delight, with pleasure, as if they were beautiful women. They bring me the same sense of gratification.

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The entrance features a Julian Schnabel artwork and Halard’s portrait of Cy Twombly.

Detail of Halard’s photo of Picasso’s hand by Brassai.

A collection of plaster vases with Roman antiquities.

The drawing room.

A German tapestry hangs behind the bed.

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