Beatrice The Book Hundreds of guests at Cliffside Inn have read the fascinating story of former owner Beatrice Turner. Many more have followed her enigmatic story from accounts in the likes of The New York Times, LIFE magazine, on TV's Good Morning America, among many other sources. There are even two Off-Broadway shows being written about her life now.
The most detailed account we have of her mysterious life and her artwork, comes from the book, "Beatrice: The Untold Story of a Legendary Woman of Mystery" by Sheldon Bart, which is really the story-behind-the-story, as then Cliffside owner Winthrop Baker Jr.,(patriarch of the family who owns and operates Cliffside Inn), began his quest to find out "the rest of the story."
The book puts it like this: "The wealthy and hauntingly beautiful Beatrice Turner (1888-1948) had Cliffside, her fabulous Newport home painted black. No one knew why. As styles changed, she continued to dress in Victorian clothes. No one could guess her reasons. She painted over 3,000 works of art, including more than 1,000 self-portraits, nearly all of which were destroyed in a huge Newport bonfire after her death. No one wanted them..."
We will be continually posting passages of Beatrice here, in our ongoing efforts to tell Beatrice Turner's mysterious story. As you may know, Cliffside Inn serves as a "living museum" of our collection of her artwork as well.
Beatrice: The Untold Story of a Legendary Woman of Mystery By Sheldon Bart. Buy the book.
EXCERPT: CHAPTER TWO
Beatrice was educated at private schools and by governesses. At 16, she entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and showed promise... Beatrice Turner had aspirations of going to Europe and becoming a portrait painter. But at 18 she was forced to discontinue her studies because her parents would not allow her to behold nude models. About this time -- 1907 -- the Turners bought picturesque Swann Villa, a twin-towered, three-story Newport manor house, as a summer retreat.
The Villa -- modest by Bellevue Avenue standards, the boulevard of Vanderbilts and Astors -- was built in 1876 and occupied in 1877 by Congressman Thomas Swann of Maryland, a former governor of Maryland. It later served as the first campus of St. George's School, one of New England's most prestigious prep schools [from 1897 to 1901 while a new campus was built]... Modern owners have trimmed the building somewhat, lopping off a tower, a ballroom and other architectural flourishes, but even in its edited form the composition retains an engaging sweep.... In those days, the grounds ran clear down to the Cliffs, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The Turners renamed the estate "Cliffside." Andrew Turner, apparently something of a neoclassicist, privately called it "Arcadia."
There was trouble in Arcadia. Andrew's relationship with his daughter was curious and disturbing. He did not allow Beatrice to have boyfriends, reportedly punished her for taking a stroll along Newport's famous Cliff Walk with a beau, and entertained some rather unfatherly thoughts, which he expressed in verse:
When look at thy form devine
Perfect in each curve and line
And gazing at they silken hair
And basking in they orbits rare
A misnomer 'twas in naming thee
Aught else but Venus
Trouble in Arcadia & the "House of Black" . . . (Beatrice Continued)