Curated colour

Reminiscent of a bygone age of gracious living, the Cape Town apartment of artist Christopher Peter is a glorious celebration of colour, art and a life well lived

- DEBORAH RUDMAN/BUREAUX

What would you expect the home of an artist and former art curator to look like? The apartment of Christopher Peter, long-time curator-director of the Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town, more than lives up to expectations: within its compact frame, it reflects something of his enduring passions, as well as his art-immersed past. It’s a bijou space with a big heart.

Christopher’s artistic sensibility was shaped from childhood, which was spent between the family farm in the Eastern Cape and school in Qonce (formerly called King William’s Town) and Queenstown. ‘I used to love looking at the fashion plates in fashion magazines,’ he says. ‘I devoured them – that lavish style, the beautifully coiffed women with hats and gloves, the dresses…’