Tina Ramchandani Designs Modern Spaces with Old Masters Paintings for Sotheby's

Tina Ramchandani

It's many an art-loving designer's dream: Peruse a list of some of Sotheby's most valuable paintings and select a few to use in your interiors. For Tina Ramchandani, this fantasy became a reality when the auction house enlisted her to give its Old Masters a bit of a modern flair ahead of its sale later this month. In a campaign shot in her own home, Ramchandani marries 14th- to early 19th-century European paintings with modern, comfortable interiors to prove the versatility of the paintings, whose popularity has lagged in recent years due to the collecting buzz around modern and contemporary art.

"They were trying to show their Old Masters in a different way to get people to better understand how to use them in different spaces," explains Ramchandani. "These works are really underestimated right now since people are so into buying modern art." It's a reality that has caused purveyors of what was once the most valuable art in the market to get creative with their marketing and strategy: TEFAF New York looked to lure younger crowds with an opening-night party and lively talks this year, while Sotheby's has previously enlisted AD100 designer Victoria Hagan to create livable vignettes showing the work; earlier this year, the company also acquired the e-commerce site Viyet, giving it access to a new group of digital-savvy customers.

Jans Frans Van Dael's Still Life of Flowers in a Vase with a Pineapple, Peaches, and Grapes on a Stone Ledge hangs in the living room over her own sofa, a coffee table by Patrick Weder, side table by Materia, and ottoman by Moses Nadel. "The summer flowers are so vibrant in person that I thought, if I owned it, I'd want to have it in my living room where I could see it every day," explains Ramchandani of the placement.

Ramchandani became connected with Sotheby's through the founder of Sugarlift, an online art-advisory service Ramchandani has used to source work for several of her projects. "He told me that his wife works at Sotheby's, that they were wanting to work with modern designers, and maybe they would want to work with me," Ramchandani remembers. At first, she was incredulous—"I was like, 'Okay, sure they do,'" recalls the designer—but soon enough, a call came. Ramchandani and the Sotheby's team briefly toyed with setting up an installation at the D&D building or another designer-focused space but eventually settled on one a little more—pardon the pun—close to home.

"We eventually came up with the idea to show them in the home environment," explains Ramchandani. "I thought it should be something livable so you can actually see how they look in people's homes." More specifically, the designer's own home, where she redesigned spaces around nine Old Masters paintings.

A Michael Robbins chair and Chuck Moffit table complement Claude-Joseph Vernet's A Mediterranean Port at Sunset.
A Michael Robbins chair and Chuck Moffit table complement Claude-Joseph Vernet's A Mediterranean Port at Sunset.

"They gave me a short list, then I picked from that, and we got to have a viewing—which was just so cool," says Ramchandani of the selection process. So how did the designer make the final selections?

"I really just pick art that I like, even if it's for my client," she says. "There's a lot of emotion that goes into it. So I first went with what I was most attracted to and then narrowed that down into a story." Though it might sound oversimplified, to Ramchandani, it best approximated the real process. "I didn't want to force it because, really, that's not how people buy art," she says. "Especially art like this."

Andrew Finnigan's Offset Pedestal table, Michele Quan sculptures, and an FK 6720-1 easy chair by Fabricius & Kastholm under Giovanni Battista Cima's Madonna and her Child Before a Landscape.
Andrew Finnigan's Offset Pedestal table, Michele Quan sculptures, and an FK 6720-1 easy chair by Fabricius & Kastholm under Giovanni Battista Cima's Madonna and her Child Before a Landscape.

To complement the art, Ramchandani looked to Brad Ford's FAIR showroom, borrowing several modern pieces whose form provides a stark contrast to the antique art—but whose material and craftsmanship evoke a surprising harmony. "I went to FAIR because I wanted it to be even more modern than what I have in my own home," Ramchandani explains. "FAIR is so amazing, and I love all their furniture. The clean lines and the craftsmanship was just a good complement to the art."

She also selected a few pieces from Sugarlift to round out the art collection. "Even if you have four Old Masters, you don't put them all together," reasons the designer. "That's how I tried to place them, so that the Old Masters aren't overpowering the modern and the modern isn't overpowering the art."

All told, she thinks, it's a believable representation of an art-collecting success. "We have the Old Masters, we have supporting art from Sugarlift; we have my own furniture and the items from FAIR. I got the flowers at Union Square Market. Everything feels like it came together really organically, which is how I think people actually live in their homes."

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