America’s new ambassador to Britain, Warren Stephens, has turned Winfield House, the official residence in Regent’s Park, into something closer to a private museum.
Stephens, a financier from Little Rock, Arkansas, and a long-time Republican donor, arrived in London this summer with his wife, Harriet, and a portion of the family’s art collection, according to The Times. The couple have installed several Cézannes, a Renoir, and a Degas across the house. The centerpiece is Monet’s Effet de soleil couchant sur la Seine à Port-Villez (1883), hung above the drawing-room mantelpiece. A Pissarro canvas of Kensington Gardens has also been placed on the walls.
“It almost looks like it was commissioned for this room,” Stephens said of the Monet, noting that his father began assembling the collection in partnership with the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts. The family later expanded into Abstract Expressionism, though the works now on view in London emphasize Impressionism.
Winfield House, a 1930s neo-Georgian mansion with the largest private garden in London after Buckingham Palace, has long been a stage for American soft power. Past envoys have used art to set the tone of their diplomacy. The Annenbergs displayed Van Goghs during their tenure in the 1970s; more recently Jane Hartley favored post-war American masters such as Ellsworth Kelly and Willem de Kooning. Most ambassadors have relied on loans from the State Department’s “Art in Embassies” program. Stephens stands out for drawing directly on his own holdings.
The new display coincides with a busy summer of official and social duties. Stephens presented his credentials to King Charles in May, arriving at Buckingham Palace by carriage. He and his wife have since been seen at Wimbledon, Royal Ascot, and Trooping the Color. They share the house with their spaniel, Mamie, who now has 12 acres of lawn to roam.
Stephens, heads Stephens Inc, the investment firm founded by his father and uncle. Forbes estimates his fortune at $3.5 billion. Like Donald Trump, the president who appointed him, he owns a private golf course—the Alotian Club in Arkansas—and is a regular at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland. His $4 million contribution to Trump’s 2021 inauguration festivities cemented his role as a party supporter.
In London, the ambassador is keen to emphasize family ties and cultural connections. Harriet Stephens traces her ancestry to England and Scotland; her husband cites his grandfather’s service with the Allied Expeditionary Force in the First World War. “We already feel a bond,” the ambassador said.
For visiting ministers, business leaders and foreign dignitaries, the more immediate impression may come from the art on the walls. The Monet, Cézannes, and Pissarro are unlikely to be permanent fixtures, as the collection is privately owned, but their presence underscores a long tradition of America’s representatives in Britain using paintings to signal taste and status.
Whether Impressionism can smooth trade negotiations is another question. For now, Winfield House offers its guests a familiar backdrop: gilt rooms, manicured lawns, and the brushstrokes of 19th-century masters—diplomacy by other means.
