Art Shopping at the Willard with Evelyn Avery

I blogged about Evelyn Avery for Washington Spaces last fall, and was pleased to see her — and her huge suite at The Willard — back again this month. When you step into Suite #510, you’ll see rooms and rooms full of antique oils, works on paper, handmade frames and mirrors, and other curiosities scattered everywhere. I especially loved this charming box of intaglios, placed on a table below a window looking out toward the Washington Monument:

More than 200 people have already made appointments to come visit the suite while Evelyn is here through March 18. Sip on cucumber-flavored water and nibble from nuts and candies as you browse — even the wet bar and powder room are filled with her wares. Not a single speck of wall is bare. And there is something here for everyone, from these incredible Japanese textile prints, to intricate colored drawings of planets and maps (framed just right, I might add): to 18th-century oils from the Barbizon School of French landscape painting. In keeping with that era, there are the most enchanting mini period mirrors in the suite’s foyer: I was most obsessed with a huge stack of reproductions of Picasso drawings. MUST HAVE some!

Note the hidden "Chien" in the black dog...

Even when she’s not in town, you can see her handiwork on every wall of the newly renovated Jefferson Hotel, where the architecture firm working on the interiors, ForrestPerkins, hired her to handle the entire hotel’s art and framing.

Designers call on Avery when they want only the best framing available, and they are willing to ship works to her to be framed in her shop in Atlanta. That’s why it’s a treat that she becomes local twice a year, so the shipping costs aren’t added on.

You don’t have to be a designer to make an appointment, however. Just call The Willard at 202.628.9100 and ask for her suite. But if you can’t go, that’s perfectly fine. Evelyn has a new service called Avery Housecalls — she’ll come to your house, look through your stuff, and determine what’s worth hanging, what might need to be rematted or reframed, or what might need to be rehung. Who knows, you might have a masterpiece in your basement and not even know it.

But do call her. Besides being an astute art dealer and brilliant framer, she’s delightful company.