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Showing posts with label courtesans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label courtesans. Show all posts
~Cherry Blue Corset~
Maya Hansen Corsetry has won my heart! What girl (or guy) wouldn't love these confections?
~Calippo Corset~
Madrid born Maya Hansen dreamt up this incredible cake collection. Cakes and candies inspired this frivolous and whimsical collection. Colorful brocades and supple suede combine to make an incredible statement. A colorful bang of trimmings and patterns that evoke the fantastical and lavish court of Versailles.
~The Marie Antoinette~
I dream of a Lingerie closet full of the most decadent and beautiful pieces...Just like these. A little piece of heaven!
~Mint & Chocolate Corset~
HappyValentine's Day!
All images via Maya Hansen Corsetry
If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
Bonjour mes amis, what a chaotic and busy time it has been. I love to grab a great book and a cup of tea to unwid a bit in the evenings when the baby is asleep and the husband has gone to bed. Lately, I have found myself immersed in novels by that racy and saucy author Colette (Best known for writing Gigi).
I just finished reading a number of the Claudine books, I'm starting Chéri when I finish this post, and I can't wait to get my hands on La Naissance du Jour. I find myself getting lost in this Belle Epoque world she writes about so vividly and so wonderfully! It makes me even more excited to know that she wrote about personal experiences and the people around her so these amazing, larger than life characters could have at one point been living, breathing, people.
Her life was very racy and very interesting. Her marriages and lovers were often scandalous and salacious. A woman before her time and a wonderful writer.
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette
Bonjour Friends,
Whew! What an incredibly busy (but great) week, it is so good to get back to the blogging world. I have been just aching for Paris lately (what's new, right)! I always get a pang to go when I read your beautiful blogs, see gorgeous photos, and look at fine art.
During a conversation with my husband over dinner tonight, I thought a lot about the painter Jean Beraud and his subtle and elegant paintings. Here is a little bit about him and some of his work. Enjoy!
La Soiree
Born in St Petersburg in 1849, the son of a French Sculptor, Béraud moved to Paris to complete his law studies at the Lycée Bonaparte. Béraud exhibited his paintings at the Salon for the first time in 1872. However, he did not gain much recognition until 1876.
Béraud's work was greeted with great enthusiasm and he was welcomed into Parisian society receiving many commissions for portraits from famous figures such as the Prince d'Orleans and Prince Troubetskoy. He attended many of the evening soirees arranged by the popular hostesses of the time and frequently depicted these scenes in his paintings.
He frequented the same cafés, restaurants and theatres as Dégas, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec and was close friends with Manet.
La Modiste Sur La Champs Elysees
He exhibited with the Society of French Watercolorists at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris. He painted many scenes of Parisian daily life during the Belle Époque in a style that stands in between the academic art of the Salon and that of the Impressionists.
He received the Légion d'honneur in 1894.
Béraud's paintings often included truth-based humour and mockery of late 19th century Parisian life.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Béraud dedicated less time to his own painting but worked on numerous exhibition committees, including the Salon de la Société Nationale.
Béraud never married and had no children. He is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery beside his mother.
La Bal Mabile
The work of Jean Béraud is represented in museums in Liège, Lille, Tours and Troyes, France.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend!
XOXO
Judith~
The legend of Maxim's began in 1893 when Maxime Gaillard, a simple waiter, opened a bistro, small as a cork, at number 3 Rue Royale in Paris. He could have simply remained there if it wasn’t on a lucky day, a charming young Parisian, Irma de Montigny, hadn’t passed his way. Charmed and fuelled with enthusiasm by what she had discovered, she assured Maxime Gaillard: “I’m going to pop your little cork”. And she kept her promise!
She came back again and again with many of her friends, her admirers, guardians, and soon Maxime found his bistro filled with fabulous clients, the fashionable, elegant and brilliant. But, unfortunately the bills often remained unpaid and Maxime Gaillard eventually handed the keys over to Eugene Cornuché. Cornuché then went on to create the legend that Maxim’s is today.
He turned the bistro into an Art Nouveau masterpiece by calling upon the artists in vogue from the ‘School of Nancy’. But the magic card in the pocket of the maitre d’ of Maxim’s were his lovely courtesans, Cornuché was accustomed to saying : “An empty room… Never ! I always have a beauty sitting by the window, in view from the sidewalk”. And it is in this way that he received the finest elite of the French gallantry.
Jean Cocteau during a conversation in 1913 said about these wonderful evenings: “I dined with Otéro and Cavalieri at Maxim’s, it was an accumulation of velvet, lace, ribbons, diamonds and what all else I couldn’t describe”, he continued, “to undress one of these women is like an outing that necessitates three weeks advance notice, it’s like moving house”.
Crowned heads, the wealthy and great names from all over Paris crossed paths at Maxim’s at the turn of the century : Edouard VII, Boniface de Castellane, Marcel Proust, Ernest Feydeau who wrote “The Lady of Maxims”, Mistinguett who sang “My Man”,the exquisite Yvonne Printemps, Sacha Guitry with his lovely spirit and temperament, Tristan Bernard, Greta Garbo, Marlène Dietrich… all made the evenings delightful.
However the most ostentatious period remains the decade of the 1950’s. Every evening influential people like Onassis,La Callas, the Windsors, Martine Carol, the playboy Porfirio Rubirosa, film director Max Ophuls, the fabulously rich heiress of the Woolworth store chain, Barbara Huton, who was married to Cary Grant, and the rest of Hollywood dined on the banquettes in the great salon.
The very banquettes which would, years later, reveal a treasure chest when they were changed at the end of the 1950’s. The workmen who were in charge of dismounting them were dumbfounded when they discovered, trapped down between the cushions and the wooden base, gold coins, rings, diamonds, rubies, that had slipped out of the pockets of the wealthy at the turn of the century. Those affluent customers never even made the effort to dig the gems out knowing that the next day they would easily double their loss! In the seventies, Brigitte Bardot would create a scandal when she entered the restaurant with bare feet. Sylvie Vartan danced with John Travolta, one could spot Jeanne Moreau, Barbara Streisand, Barbara Hendrix, Kiri te Kanawa or Pierre Cardin.
One evening in 1981, Maxim's owners, Mister and Mrs Vaudable, pleasantly invited Pierre Cardin to dine with them. During the meal, they proposed that Pierre should buy their restaurant without further ado. It seemed that the following day, they were going to sell the restaurant to a rich Asian and they were very upset at the idea that Maxim's would be held in foreign hands.
Pierre Cardin, slightly tipsy by the end of the evening, listened to their plea and then agreed.The following day, he honoured his word and signed. From the 1980’s on, Pierre Cardin gave Maxim's a brilliant and new international radiance.
He multiplied the number of events and organised evenings for the young. But in the end, his greatest decision was to create an Art Nouveau museum on three floors of the building and to install an authentic 1900 cabaret which he filled each night with songs from the turn of the century and the recited history of Maxim's of Paris.
Maxim's will remain a legend of former times and of today. For proof, in 1992 on the night before Christmas, the room was packed, a table was reserved for an Arabian emirate and his family for a late night dinner. The emirate arrived, protected by two bodyguards, they carried with them a small bag which they refused to leave with the cloakroom.
Then at midnight, the twelve strokes of the clock began to sound - and on the twelfth, the emirate rose and made a sign : the two bodyguards brought over the bag to him, the emirate opened it and spilled out watches covered with diamonds, bracelets, earrings, a river of jewels onto the table, like in the ‘Thousand and One Nights’, and then distributed them as gifts to all who were present in the room. ..... At Maxim’s, fairy tales still exist.
Bisou Mon Amis!
All info via Maxim's de Paris official site
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