French artist Paul Marny lived in this impressive Victorian house for sale in Scarborough

The six to seven bedroom house on Royal Avenue has been home to a host of artists and designers over the years

By Sharon Dale

Published 2nd Jul 2021, 21:59 BST

As property credentials go, they don’t come much better than being the former home and painting studio of renowned 19th century French painter and lithographer Paul Marny.

Marny had an eye for beauty and quality of light, both of which are apparent in this large Victorian townhouse on Scarborough’s South Cliff, which is on the market for the first time in 60 years.

As ever in Scarborough, you get a lot of bang for your buck and the period six/seven bedroom home on Royal Avenue, which is newly renovated, is for sale at offers over £300,000 with CPH Property.

Artist Paul Marny who lived at worked at the house. Picture from “Scarborough and Whitby Watercolourists” by Colin Bullamore, courtesy of Scarborough Library.

A highly prolific artist, Marny was especially noted for both his landscape and town scenes and his work was exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy. Whilst working for a French architect in Belfast, the Paris-born artist was persuaded to come to Scarborough by the pioneering photographer and gallery owner Oliver Sarony.

He and his French wife Claire lived in the 15-room house at 12 Royal Avenue during the 1890s, with the north-facing top floor front bedroom serving as the painting studio. Further adding to the property’s creative provenance, in the early 1970s, this same room was also the first studio of international graphic designer Dave Clark. He is best known for his New Zealand All Blacks logo and now runs a design consultancy in Auckland.

In later years, it was used by Mr Clark’s developer-architect brother Jeremy as his design studio. He was later part of the London team that redesigned the Queen’s Galleries at Buckingham Palace.

Purchased in 1960 by the Clark brothers’ forbear – Merchant Naval Master Mariner Captain George Vickers Clark – the house became the family home for him, his Viennese wife Greta (a refugee of the Holocaust), and their five children. All seven members of the Clark family actively engaged in drawing and painting.

One of the upstairs rooms with north light, where Paul Marny had his studio

Marny, who spent half his life in Scarborough, created some of his best work at the house and is buried in Dean Road cemetery. The property has been sensitively and comprehensively renovated with a new roof, new plumbing and electrics and replastered walls but it still retains its period features.

There are six/seven bedrooms, three bathrooms and three reception rooms, a kitchen and a basement cellar. Outside is a front garden and a south-facing courtyard garden to the rear.

The house is a few minutes stroll from Scarborough’s South Bay, Esplanade and Spa complex and from the Ramshill Road shopping area.

Picture of Paul Marnt from “Scarborough and Whitby Watercolourists” by Colin Bullamore, courtesy of Scarborough Library.

The property is on the South Cliff within a few minutes walk from the beach

Contact: CPH Estate Agents, tel. 01723 352235, www.www.cphproperty.co.uk

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