The Davenport Family of Provence

The story begins with this photo.

While writing about Mr. and Mrs. Debenkorn, I came across this photo taken by Mr. Debenkorn himself on the foundation’s website, and was deeply attracted by the house, the car, and the mountains.

The description of the photo was simple:

In 1966, Mr. and Mrs. Debenkorn stayed at the home of William "Bill" and Roselle Davenport in the countryside of Provence, France, with a view of Mont Sainte-Victoire.

According to information on the website, the Debenkorns visited here many times, even staying for over four months in 1978 and producing many paintings. However, there is little information available about the Davenports, except that William was a writer and Roselle was an artist, and there is almost nothing about them on the internet.

Who were these two? What is the story behind this beautiful house? Is it still there? Where is it?

With these questions in mind, I spent several months finding bits and pieces of information, and the story of this house and this couple slowly emerged.

The house in 1978

The house in 2004, and its current state

Bill (William) and Roselle were both born and raised in New York. Roselle was born in 1914 and Bill in 1916, and they married on June 15, 1940.

Bill received both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Art from Columbia University. During World War II, he served in the Marine and was stationed for training in Hawaii, where he met Mr. Debenkorn and became lifelong friends.

After the war, he stayed in Hawaii, teaching at the University of Hawaii at Honolulu, working for a newspaper, and beginning to write about human geography. During this time, Roselle also began her artistic career in Hawaii, participating in several group exhibitions.

Their son Tony (Anthony) and daughter Anne were born during this time.

In 1957, the family moved to Paris, France, and Bill mentioned that the newspaper he worked for had an opportunity in Paris.

Perhaps accustomed to the sunny climate of Hawaii, they found the damp and gloomy winters in Paris very uncomfortable, so they traveled to the sunny south of France every holiday season, along with other Parisans.

During this time, Roselle was diagnosed with cancer and given only a few years to live. So they spent more and more time in the south of France, even wanting to have their own house there. After traveling to many places, in 1965, they found their dream house in Provence, which is the house in the beginning photo.

It was an abandoned farmstead that had been empty for a long time, built around the 18th century. In addition to the two-story main villa, there was also a small separate house, and it included ten acres of land. The estate was called Saint-Martin, pronounced "sang-martang" in French, located between the villages of Moissac-Bellevue and Régusse in Aups, surrounded by vineyards and overlooking Mont Sainte-Victoire, the same view as in Cézanne’s paintings(in fact, Cézanne’s painting location is only 70 kilometers away).

Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire and Château Noir 1904–05

In 1966, Mont Sainte-Victoire as seen from Saint-Martin

In 1966, a distant view of Saint-Martin

I found several articles written by Bill in National Geographic from 1973 to 1980, introducing the culture and lifestyle of southern France, as well as a large number of letters exchanged between them and the Debenkorns. In these scattered writings, he described their life in Provence, which was almost identical to the hugely popular book "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle twenty years later, except that the Davenport family’s stories have been almost completely forgotten.

He wrote that the process of buying the house was quite tortuous. The house was jointly owned by 14 heirs of a family, and they had to sign a pile of documents with each of them, while the efficiency of the people in Provence was famously low.

The more difficult job was the renovation of the house. The house had been abandoned for a long time and was even used as a livestock pen before. They found Fernand, the only stonemason in town, and after a few rounds of drinks, Fernand promised to spend several months repairing the house. Months later, the Davenport family returned from Paris with great excitement, only to find the house smoking and almost no progress made. Bill later wrote that another Provençal, Albert, advised him, "You have to be patient. The pace here is slower than in Paris. It took us 25 years to fix our house." Fortunately, Saint-Martin was renovated in just ten years.

He wrote that the house initially had no phone, and they could only communicate by writing letters. The only female postman in the village who rode a motorcycle had a head injury from a fall, and began to forget things, so they often lost touch with others.

He wrote that they wanted to dig a swimming pool and decorate the exterior walls, but they had to go through a lot of approval paperwork and deal with the extremely inefficient government, which was so troublesome that it made them want to give up.

…

In the second year after buying the house, the Debenkorn couple visited France for the first time and came to this house that was still under renovation. This is how the beginning photo came about. According to Bill’s letters, the blue first-generation 911 (released in 1964) in the photo belonged to Mr. Debenkorn, and although I knew that Mr. Debenkorn owned a 911 at the time, it was still a mystery how the car was transported from California to southern France for their road trip. Before the visit, Bill wrote several letters to the Debenkorn couple, eagerly helping them arrange their itinerary, introducing nearby Michelin-starred restaurants, and thoughtfully selecting a better route for their sports car.

In the first few years after buying the house, they still lived in Paris and Provence. Later, they moved here permanently. Bill started writing many articles, collaborated with schools on human geography research projects, and traveled around the world for research and writing. Roselle’s condition had worsened at one point, but she gradually got better here. She set up a studio for herself, read books and painted constantly, made many friends, and learned the Provençal dialect from the locals.

They raised several dogs and many pigeons, and constantly invited friends from near and far to visit. They also celebrated every holiday seriously. Bill wrote that to celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary, he secretly spent his "life savings" to buy Iranian caviar, which scared Roselle, but they were very happy.

Roselle, who had been sentenced to a limited life, lived happily here for decades until she passed away in Bill’s arms at the age of 83 in 1997 after being bedridden for a few days due to a fall. Three years later, Bill passed away here too. I guess they were buried together somewhere nearby.

Roselle’s painting

Today, Saint-Martin still preserves the Davenport couple’s book collection.

In 1978, they were taking a walk in Saint-Martin.

Their son Tony and daughter Anne both chosed to return to the United States for education and career development, but they often vacationed in Provence. They both became university professors later, and Tony also worked as a ceramic artist. He also had an interesting part-time job as a tour guide in Europe.

After Bill passed away, Tony and Anne inherited Saint-Martin, and for a time, the house was listed for rent online:

The archived webpage of provencerentalservices.com from 2004 on the Internet Archive.

Unfortunately, in 2004, Tony passed away at the age of only 53 due to illness. A few years later, Anne sold Saint-Martin. Today, we see this beautiful house with its new owner, Joëlle, on Airbnb. On social media, someone talk about growing up near this house at their grandmother’s house, and the locals all know the Davenport family.

In the process of researching, I also felt the value of digital materials. The National Geographic Archives, which saved all magazine content from 1888 to the present, allowed me to read Bill’s article from over fifty years ago. I found Roselle and Tony’s short obituaries in various digitized newspaper archives. The Diebenkorn Foundation organized all the artist’s saved letters (fortunately, most of Bill’s letters were typed, as I couldn’t recognize his handwriting at all). Ancestry.com also has detailed passenger manifests for flights from eighty years ago, allowing me to know their specific travel times between the two oceans…

I pieced together the fragmented information from various sources, and the story gradually became more complete. Perhaps this article is the most detailed record of the Davenport family on the Internet, and their story may soon be completely submerged.

Bill and Roselle in Saint-Martin in 1978

Bill and their dog

In 1982, Mr. Diebenkorn with the Davenport couple in Saint-Martin

The panoramic view of Saint-Martin now

Appendix:

Information about the people:

• Bill, William Wyatt Davenport, April 26, 1916 – June 26, 2000
• Roselle, Mary Roselle Riggin Davenport, March 22, 1914 – August 15, 1997
• Tony, Anthony Wyatt Davenport, June 17, 1950 – January 6, 2004
• Anne, Joëlle, and the current situation of Saint-Martin, specific information not provided due to privacy concerns

Sources:

• Photos and letters mainly come from the Diebenkorn Foundation
• References: National Geographic Magazine Archive (May 1973, May 1974, May 1975, June 1978, and August 1980), Airbnb, Internet Archive, Ancestry, newspapers.com
• Roselle’s art collection
• Tony’s art collection