Two US ambassadors have displayed Van Goghs in their London residence—but Donald Trump’s pick for the job can’t quite follow suit – The Art Newspaper

Few Londoners know Winfield House, which boasts the capital’s second largest garden (after Buckingham Palace), because it is behind tight security in Regent’s Park. Since 1946 it has been the residence of US ambassadors to the UK, accredited to the Court of St James’s.

What is even less widely known is that, in the past, two ambassadors have brought their Van Gogh masterpieces with them to enhance the house’s reception rooms: John Hay Whitney (in residence 1957-61) and Walter Annenberg (1969-74). Their important Van Gogh paintings were later donated to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Walter Annenberg

Walter Annenberg (1908-2002) was a businessman and owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Along with his wife Leonore, they funded and organised a major renovation of Winfield House during his period as ambassador in London.

In the green (or garden) room they lined the walls with some of the finest early Chinese wallpaper, which had been removed from Townley Hall, a country house north of Dublin. Dating from the 18th century, the paper epitomises the early taste for chinoiserie. Above the fireplace in the green room the Annenbergs hung La Berceuse (February 1889), one of five versions of the portrait of Augustine Roulin, the wife of Van Gogh’s friend, the postman Joseph Roulin. The Annenbergs had acquired their painting in 1967, two years before their move to London.

On another wall in the green room the Annenberg couple displayed Van Gogh’s Olive Trees (November 1889), hanging it above a piano. They had owned the landscape since 1954. On the other side of a doorway they hung Paul Gauguin’s Two Women (1901-02), painted in Polynesia. Other Annenberg works elsewhere in Winfield House included paintings by Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Both of the Annenberg Van Goghs that had hung in Winfield House were later bequeathed to the Met, along with five of their other paintings by the artist.

John Hay Whitney

A slightly earlier ambassador with his own Van Gogh was John Hay Whitney, a venture capitalist and owner of the New York Herald Tribune. He was also the president of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (1941-57), resigning when he went to London.

While living in Winfield House (1957-61), Whitney hung his Van Gogh Self-portrait (September 1889) above the mantelpiece in the family dining room (one hopes a fire was never lit). He had acquired the painting a decade earlier, in 1947. 

Whitney brought 55 other paintings to Winfield House, including works by Gustave Courbet, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent and Henri Matisse. In 1998 his widow Betsey bequeathed the Van Gogh and seven paintings by other artists to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The self-portrait has been back in London twice in recent years, for Van Gogh exhibitions at Tate Britain (2019) and the National Gallery (2024-25).

Warren Stephens

The current US ambassador in London is Warren Stephens, an investment banker who was appointed by president Donald Trump last year. He was the most generous donor to Trump’s 2025 inauguration, giving $4m.

The Stephens family is also a supporter of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA) in Little Rock, and plays key roles on the museum’s Foundation and Board of Trustees. They made a major contribution for the Harriet and Warren Stephens Galleries, which opened in 2023.

Stephens and his wife Harriet have brought their own art to Winfield House. We can name some of the pictures from their personal collection hanging there: Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Three Partridges (1880), Edgar Degas’s pastel Seated Man Reading (1881), Monet’s Setting Sun on the Seine at Port-Villez (1883) and Georges Braque’s House on the Hill (1907). Very appropriately for a London residence, they also have Camille Pissarro’s Kensington Gardens (1890), which was previously on loan to AMFA.

Winfield House is therefore well stocked with some of the leading Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists – but the distinguished Stephens collection does not yet include a Van Gogh.

Martin Bailey is a leading Van Gogh specialist and special correspondent for The Art Newspaper. He has curated exhibitions at the Barbican Art Gallery, Compton Verney/National Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.

Martin has written a number of bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013, UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016, UK and US), Starry Night: Van Gogh at the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (2024, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (2024, UK and US) are also now available in a more compact paperback format.

His other recent books include Living with Vincent van Gogh: The Homes & Landscapes that shaped the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US), which provides an overview of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Friend Van Gogh/Emile Bernard provides the first English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UKand US).

To contact Martin Bailey, please email vangogh@theartnewspaper.com

Please note that he does not undertake authentications.

Explore all of Martin’s adventures with Van Gogh here