On my final trip through England, I visited Charleston, the Sussex farmhouse once shared by Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and their circle of artists, writers and thinkers.

The house is not beautiful because its furniture is particularly refined. Its colours occasionally clash, and many of its objects began as ordinary tables, doors and fabrics. Bell and Grant simply painted, repaired and altered them over many years, turning domestic life into a continuing act of authorship.

This may explain why copying the appearance of an interesting home so often fails. A vintage chair, a muted wall and a patterned textile can reproduce a style, but not the conditions from which it emerged.

A home needs time, security and permission to change. It requires stable tenure, freedom from constant relocation, and enough energy left after work to experiment, maintain and care for one’s surroundings.

The presence of John Maynard Keynes at Charleston makes this argument more complete. He understood that worthwhile art does not always receive immediate market support, and later helped establish Britain’s public arts funding system.

Whether one becomes an economist, architect or artist, work should ultimately serve the same purpose: the freedom to live well.