Henry Clews Jr.

Who was Henry Clews Jr.?

Henry Clews Jr. was an American-born artist who moved to France in 1914 in search of greater artistic freedom. He is known for the reconstruction of a Mediterranean waterfront chateau on the French Riviera a few miles west of Cannes, known as the Chateau de la Napoule, which today is operated by a trust and is open to the public. Together with his American wife, Elsie Whelan Goelet Clews, renamed “Marie”, Clews began rebuilding the medieval fortress in 1918 and continued the fantasy-themed construction for the rest of their lives.

The main building included an artist’s studio for Henry and an adjacent seaside castle tower enclosing a lover’s tomb where both Henry and Marie are laid to rest in side-by-side stone caskets.