Juliet Greco (2009)

It has been said that her voice “encompasses millions of poems,” and at 85 years old the darling of Saint-Germain-des-Prés is still performing, appearing tonight and tomorrow at Théatre du Châtelet.

I think this tour of Paris is a nice way to celebrate with her.

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

(Photo: Harry B.P. Jaeger)

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Eugène Atget, Rue Lepic

Eugène Atget devoted 30 years to producing a photographic record of the architecture and daily life of Old Paris, more than 10,000 images that capture the capital as it was as it was then.

While doing some research for another project, I stumbled upon this  online feature from the National Gallery of Art (www.nga.gov) showcasing 32 works from the gallery’s collections, along with maps and information about the artist.

Check it out at http://www.nga.gov/feature/atget/. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

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Employing René Lalique’s lost wax technique and a special formula of copper and cobalt oxides to produce the color, — developed by Klein and known as IKB, or International Klein Blue — the sculpture is shown below. Read more…

Yves Klein, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Lalique

And what does this have to do with ARTS IN PARIS? Just that I’ve been immersed in the new site, with little time to blog here. I will do better. In the meantime, let me say the response to the site has been gratifying, So far this month, we’ve tripled the visits of last month. If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll visit and give me your feedback. And of course, if you see a trip in your future, I’d like nothing better than to share Paris with you.

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

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© 2011 Jane del Monte

In truth, I really love walking, having spent most of my adult life in world-class pedestrian cities. Need I say that Atlanta is not one of them? So I’ve renewed my acquaintance with public transportation.

One advantage of taking the MARTA (I almost never slip and call it “Métro” anymore) is that it’s boring — and so I read more.

Not long ago, I picked up an old friend, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. As with many friends who’ve been absent for a while, you find yourself taking up where you left off, rediscovering things about them you had forgotten while at the same time discovering things you had never before noticed.

I had forgotten that this one never fails to make me smile. So enchanting is it in its  innocence that you scarcely notice the depth of its wisdom. But you feel it.

It is generally accepted that the prince represents the author’s desire to return to his inner child; the rose, his beloved wife Consuelo. The book could be seen as a love letter, were it not so much more.

• The book was written in the United States and first published in English. Saint-Exupery, along with a number of French intellectuals, had quit France during the Occupation. It wasn’t published in France until two years later, after the author’s death.
• It has sold more than 80 million copies and  has been translated into 190 different languages.
• It has been adapted to stage, screen and opera.
• Before the euro became France’s official currency, the little prince and Saint-Exupery appeared on the 50-franc note.
• The airport of Lyon, France, birthplace of Saint-Exupery, is named in his honor.

The Little Prince is especially beloved by the Japanese. There is a Museum of the Little Prince in Hakone, Japan. The chapel is a replica of the one in the village of Saint-Maurice-de Remens, Saint-Exupery’s childhood home, with rose and fox motifs incorporated into the stained glass of the interior facade. A café, Le Saint-Germain-des-Près, is modeled on the Brasserie Lipp, one of his favorite haunts, and the more elaborate Restaurant Le Petit Prince offers the cuisine of Provence, prepared (according to the website) by “Monsieur Okabe, who defeated Iron Chef Sakai in a lamb battle on the Japanese TV program Iron Chef.”

And the book is eminently quotable:

• “You are responsible for that which you tame.”
• “All grownups have been children, but few remember it.”
• “Language is the source of misunderstanding.”
• “It is truly useful since it is pretty.”
• “One only sees well with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes.”

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance between Paris and Atlanta

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© 2011 Jane del Monte

 The portrait at left, a pastel realized in 1769 by Joseph Ducreux, depicts the 14-year-old Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna de Habsbourg-Lorraine, soon to be known as Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France and of Navarre. It was sent to the Dauphin (the future Louis XVI) so that he could make the acquaintance of his bride-to-be.

On this date in 1793, Marie-Antoinette was condemned to death for high treason and was executed by guillotine a few hours later at the place Louis XV, now the place de la Concorde. According to all accounts, the Queen conducted herself with dignity in the face of the jeers and insults of the crowd along her path.

The Queen was buried in the common grave of la Madeleine. In 1815, her body and that of Louis XVI were exhumed and reinterred at Saint-Denis.

Jane del Monte

© 2010 Jane del Monte

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When the final curtain falls on a life comprised of such a melange of talent and complexity as that of Tony Curtis, the reviews and anecdotes are never far behind.

For those of you who may have missed it the first time around, I republish here an account of my brief encounter with him in Paris in the spring of 2008.

Best of all, it will give you a chance to view some of his paintings.

Jane del Monte

© 2010 Jane del Monte

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Willy Ronis, one of the giants of French photography in the 20th century, died on Saturday in Paris at the age of 99.  He is credited, along with Robert Doisenau and Henri Cartier-Bresson, with inventing humanist photography.

The son of a Ukrainian photographer and a Lithuanian pianist who fled the pogroms and settled in Paris, Ronis was born at the foot of Montmartre.

His first passion was for music and drawing, but he later turned to photography. Willy Ronis saw the poetry in Parisian daily life, and with his camera captured the scenes that form a part of our collective memory.

(Photo, Willy Ronis)

 Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

© 2009 Jan del Monte

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Madeleine Vionnet was a feminist before the hour. In 1896, she left her husband and her native land to cross the Channel on the pretext of learning English. Upon arrival, she was hired by a London fashion house. Returning to Paris, she perfected her technique at such prestigious houses as that of the Callot sisters and Jacques Doucet before opening her own on rue de Rivoli, then on avenue Montaigne.

Her designs were nothing less than revolutionary in the years before the Great War. She created gowns of a rare architectural purity based on geometric forms, employing the bias cut (used before in linings, but now for the entire garment) and draping, inspired by ancient Greece. She personally created each model on a small doll of the type used by art students. Women were liberated from corsets and stays and allowed to move freely while revealing their bodies. Scandalous! Her models walked down the runway barelegged and wearing sandals.

Vionnet is recognized as a pioneer in the world of fashion, but who knew about her social innovations? Her workers enjoyed benefits that were unheard of at the time:  the traditional stools of the seamstresses were replaced by comfortable chairs, and there were a canteen, a daycare center, and a doctor and dentist on site. More unusual still, she introduced paid holidays and maternity leave, even before it became the law of the land.

For Jean Pierre Gaultier, “Madeleine Vionnet symbolizes the apogee of Haute Couture.” Balenciaga took apart her creations so as to understand their construction. John Galliano cites her as “my principal influence,” and Tom Ford calls her (along with Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent) ”one of the three great couturiers of the last century.”  Christian Dior, Valentino, Vivienne Westwood, Azzedine Alaia – her influence is indisputable on a list of designers too numerous to mention.

Although Vionnet is revered in her profession, her work has been largely forgotten by the general public. The ongoing retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs is sure to change that. Vionnet liked nothing better than to transmit her knowledge, Upon her death in 1975 at the age of 99, she bequeathed to the museum her archives, containing 73 volumes of copyrights, 13,000 photographs, 725 patterns and 127 articles of clothing.

The museum is to be congratulated on the brilliant choice of designer Andrée Putman for the mise en scène. I suspect that Vionnet would have been pleased, one iconoclast creating a setting to display the work of another. Putman’s trademark sobriety in the decor of the rooms — subdued lighting, black walls, simple vitrines – provides an effective background to set off Vionnet’s designs. 

If I were allowed one complaint, it would be this. At the beginning of the exhibition, the dresses are posed in front of mirrors, a capital idea that afforded a three-dimensonal view. However, about halfway through, the practice was abandoned, and we were forced to rely on the reflection in the glass of the vitrine to try and discern the details. One is left to wonder what rationale prompted this decision, as many of Vionnet’s creations are even more interesting when viewed from behind.

The lighting in the room (not to mention the guards, who seem to be getting more and more picky about this) prevented taking photos. However, if this whets your appetite, a visit to the site of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs may satisfy it. There you will find a slide show (Diaporama) featuring 35 of her works.

The exhibition continues through 31 January 2010. Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli (Métro Tuileries or Palais-Royal).

(Photo Credits: (1) Wikipedia Commons, (2) Harper’s Bazaar, (3) and (4) Madame Figaro.

Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

© 2009 Jan del Monte

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“Pride goeth before a fall, and a haughty spirit before destruction.” Proverbs, 16:18

If only Nicolas Fouquet had heeded that admonition, we might not have today one of the most splendid monuments in all of France. For, you see, it was his château, Vaux-le-Vicomte that inspired Versailles as we know it.

Fouquet was the minister of finance and faithful to Louis XIV. His loyalty did not go unrewarded, nor did it prevent him from skimming the Treasury. That, coupled with two successive “good” marriages, allowed him to amass an impressive portfolio of real estate; the jewel was Vaux-le-Vicomte. For this property, he called upon upon a trio of brilliant stars of the epoque — Louis Le Vau, first architect of the King; the painter-decorator Charles Le Brun, who essentially controlled the arts during Louis’s reign; and André Le Nôtre, the noted landscaper. 

The work was completed in 1661. The result was a château that was innovative at the time and remains one of the finest examples of 17th century French architecture. It is surrounded by a moat and connected to the grounds by drawbridges. Nor did the grounds disappoint. Le Nôtre had created the first jardin à la française, with boxwood hedges in the form of arabesques, echoing the motif of an Oriental carpet, lagoons and canals, grottoes and fountains.

To inaugurate his property, and at the urging of the King, Fouquet hosted a grandiose celebration on 17 August 1661. The 3,000 guests (including the court of France, with the King as guest of honor) enjoyed a spectacular visit that included pieces of theatre, fireworks, and even the sight of a whale in one of the ponds. At nightfall, thousands of candles lighted their way as they discovered the interior and enjoyed a sumptuous dinner.

As the evening progressed and evidence of Fouquet’s wealth became more and more evident, the King grew increasingly annoyed. How could this upstart live in such grandeur, when the King’s palaces were in shabby disrepair? Louis wanted to arrest Fouquet on the spot, but was dissuaded by the queen mother. Two weeks later, Fouquet was siezed at Nantes, far from his Parisian supporters. After a trial, he spent the last 15 years of his life in prison.

The arrest of Nicholas Fouquet cannot be solely attributed to that evening, as the King had for some time (and not without reason) suspected him of diverting funds.

While Fouquet’s pride in his domaine was justifiable, one might argue that it was the haughty spirit of his King that led to his destruction. In the words of Voltaire, “The 17th of August at 6 o’clock in the evening, Fouquet was the King of France; at 2 o’clock in the morning, he was nothing.” There could be but one King of France.

As for Louis XIV, he engaged the trio, Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Nôtre, to undertake the renovation of Versailles. It incorporates many characteristics of Vaux-le-Vicomte, but on a much grander scale. Finally, the King had the most magnificent house in all of France.

Every Saturday night until the 10th of October (excluding the 12th of September), the château recreates its 17th-century splendor, offering visits by candlelight. More than three hours of preparation are necessary to light some 2,000 candles that illuminate the château.

 Vaux-le-Vicomte is open to visitors daily from the 14th of March until the 8th of November from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (closed on Wednesday, except in July and August). Acess by SNCF or RER ( Ligne D, Châtelet) from Paris to Melun; shuttles are available from the station in Melun to the château. Details are available (in French and in English) at www.vaux-le-vicomte.com.

(Photo credit: Direct Matin)

Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

© 2009 Jan del Monte

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Yves Saint Laurent was a French national treasure who belonged to all of us.  Le Parisien called him “the little prince of fashion.” The little prince with a gargantuan talent is too soon gone.

His work informed our style choices for 50 years. Walk past the window of a store, and chances are the styles, which we have come to take for granted, originated with YSL. Look into your own closet. Is there a pantsuit? A tuxedo (le smoking)? A safari jacket?

Consider his designs. Can anyone doubt that this was a man who loved women, this gentle revolutionary who accompanied us on the journey, through our changing roles, and who dressed us for our appearances on the stage that was newly open to us?

I have not seen a more simply moving tribute than that on the official site of the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent. What more is there to say?

Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

© 2008 Jan del Monte

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