Tuesday 5 August 2014

Misia Sert / Reine de Paris




At age twenty-one Sert married her twenty-year old cousin Thadée Natanson, a Polish émigré. Natanson dedicated most of his time frequenting the haunts favored by the artistic and intellectual circles of Paris. He became involved in political causes, championing the ideals of socialism, which he shared with his friend Leon Blum, and was a Dreyfusard. The Natanson home on the Rue St. Florentine became a gathering place, a salon, for such cultural lights as Marcel Proust, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Odilon Redon, Paul Signac, Claude Debussy, Stéphane Mallarmé, and André Gide. The entertainment was lavish. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec enjoyed playing bartender at parties the Natanson's hosted and became known for serving a potent cocktail— a drink of colorful layered liqueurs dubbed the Pousse-Café. All were mesmerized by the charm and youth of their hostess. In 1889, Natanson debuted, La Revue blanche, a periodical committed to the discovery and nurture of new talent and to serve as a showcase for the work of the post-Impressionists, Les Nabis. Sert became the muse and symbol of La Revue blanche, appearing in advertising posters created by Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. A portrait of Sert by Renoir is now in the Tate Gallery. Marcel Proust used Sert as the prototype for the characters of "Princess Yourbeletieff" and "Madame Verdurin" in his roman à clef, the epic work, "À la recherche du temps perdu," ("Rembrance of Things Past").

Natanson’s La Revue blanche coupled with his political activism required an influx of capital, which he alone was unable to supply. Needing a benefactor, he connected with Alfred Edwards, a newspaper magnate, the founder of the foremost newspaper in Paris, Le Matin. Edwards had become enamored with Sert and had taken her as his mistress in 1903. He would supply money, but only on the condition that Natanson relinquish his wife to him.

On February 24, 1905, Sert became the wife of Alfred Edwards. Sert and her new husband took up an opulent lifestyle in their apartment on Rue de Rivoli, overlooking the Tuileries. Here Sert continued welcoming artists, writers, and musicians in her home. Maurice Ravel dedicated Le Cygne (The Swan) in "Histoires naturelles" and La Valse (The Waltz) to her. Sert accompanied Enrico Caruso on the piano while the opera star entertained the assembled listeners with a repertory of Neapolitan songs. Edwards proved an unfaithful husband, and he and Sert divorced in 1909.

In 1914, Sert married her third husband, Spanish painter José-Maria Sert, (Josep Maria Sert). This period began her reign and fame as cultural arbiter, which lasted some fifty years. Writer Paul Morand described her as a "collector of geniuses, all of them in love with her."  It was recognized that "You had to be gifted before Misia wanted to know you." It was in her salon, while listening to Erik Satie at the piano playing his iconic composition "Trois Morceau en forme en poire" — that the assembled guests were informed that World War I had begun.

The Sert marriage was an emotionally tumultuous one. Her husband became involved with a member of the aristocratic Russian Mdivani family, Princess Isabelle Roussadana Mdivani, known as “Roussy.” Sert tried to accommodate herself to the liaison her husband was having with another women. She herself also entered into a physical relationship with Rousssy. For some period of time the three—husband, wife, and Roussy—sustained a ménage á trois.


The Sert’s social set was made up of bohemian elites, and the upper echelons of society. It was a libertine group rife with emotional, and sexual intrigues—all fueled by drug use and abuse. She had an enduring association with couturiere Coco Chanel. The two met at the home of actress, Cécile Sorel in 1917, and thereafter were close friends. Sert provided Chanel with the emotional support the bereaved woman needed following the death of her lover, Arthur Capel in a car accident in 1918. It is said that theirs was an immediate bond of like souls, and Sert was attracted to Chanel by “her genius, lethal wit, sarcasm and maniacal destructiveness, which intrigued and appalled everyone.” Both women, convent bred, maintained a friendship of shared interests, confidences and drug use.

Sert was generous and supportive to friends in need. When the poet, Pierre Reverdy needed funds to retreat to a Benedictine monastery in Solesmes, she provided financial assistance. Sert had a long lasting association with Sergi Diaghilev, involved in all creative aspects of the Ballets Russes, friendships with its dancers, input on costumes, and choreography. Through the years she was the monetary ballast for the often financially distressed ballet company. On the opening night of "Petrushka", she came to the rescue with the four thousand francs immediately needed to prevent repossession of the costumes. When Diaghilev, the eminent ballet impresario lay dying in Venice, she was at his side. After his death in August 1929, Sert paid the expense of providing a funeral befit to honor the man who had been a seminal force in the world of ballet.

She weathered the World War II Nazi occupation of Paris without serious condemnation of her character, unlike some of her social set whose wartime activities and allegiances were questionable if not damning.


Misia Sert died on October 15, 1950 in Paris.




Misia Sert et Coco Chanel

"Egérie, muse, Misia Sert fut une femme incontournable du milieu artistique du début du XXe siècle. Modèle des peintres Renoir, Bonnard, Vallotton, elle fut mécène d'avant-garde pour Serge Diaghilev et ses Ballets russes, proche de Max Jacob et de Pablo Picasso. Misia a aimé, croisé, aidé nombre de figures marquantes de cette période d'effervescence créative, dont La Revue blanche s'est faite l'écho. Amie de Coco Chanel, elle a su, comme elle, séduire et prendre des risques pour jouer de la vie. Ces deux figures emblématiques de leur temps vont parcourir un long chemin d'amitié, tapissé de roses et d'épines, scandé d'escapades à Venise. De quoi sceller des destins incomparables dans une époque inouïe." Présentation de l'éditeur
(date de publication : mai 2009)




Misia Godebska (1872-1950) est une figure de légende de la vie artistique française de la Belle Epoque aux Années folles. Elle commence à se faire connaître par son talent de pianiste. Son mariage en 1893 avec Thadée Natanson, le directeur de La Revue blanche, la propulse au centre d'un groupe de créateurs défendant un art symboliste et décoratif.

Au sommet de son influence, elle devient l'une des femmes les plus portraiturées de son temps, posant pour Bonnard, Vuillard, Vallotton, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir. Amie de Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Stravinski, Cocteau, Chanel, elle finance les Ballets russes pendant plus d'une décennie.

Cette exposition pluridisciplinaire se propose de réunir des portraits de Misia et de son entourage ainsi que des oeuvres, des documents et des témoignages d'artistes contemporains illustrant le foisonnement de la création au temps où Misia était la Reine de Paris.


Misia n'a rien créé par elle-même mais ses rencontres successives et sa présence magnétique aux côtés des artistes ont fait d'elle une muse, un mécène et un arbitre du goût pendant plusieurs décennies.
Née dans une famille de musiciens, elle est initiée très jeune au piano et poursuit sa formation sous la direction de Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924). Excellente interprète, elle donne son premier concert public en 1892 mais refuse de faire carrière, jouant pour son seul plaisir et celui de ses amis.
Plusieurs portraits d'elle la représentent devant son clavier, entourée de ses proches, dans le salon de son appartement de la rue Saint-Florentin. Cadrés en plan serré ou large dans une vision panoramique englobant le décor, ces portraits présentent la facette la plus intime de Misia pour qui la musique est un refuge et un partage.
Ses goûts musicaux sont étendus. Fervente interprète de Beethoven, Schubert et Chopin, elle s'enthousiasme pour Debussy, au temps de son amitié avec Mallarmé, et pour Ravel qui lui dédie, en 1906, Le Cygne d'après Les Histoires naturelles de Jules Renard et le poème symphonique La Valse en 1920. Avec le changement de siècle, les goûts musicaux de Misia évoluent vers une nouvelle esthétique représentée par Satie, Stravinski, Auric et Poulenc.

En 1889, les fils d'Adam Natanson – Alexandre, Thadée et Alfred – fondent à Bruxelles une publication culturelle et artistique, La Revue blanche (1889-1903), blanche comme sa couverture. Creuset d'opinions progressistes, elle attire les meilleures plumes et les artistes les plus novateurs de l'époque. Son champ d'investigations s'étend à tous les domaines – politique, artistique, social – offrant une tribune aux grands débats qui agitent la société au tournant du siècle.
Misia, devenue Madame Thadée Natanson en 1893, ne participe pas directement à cette effervescence intellectuelle mais accueille à bras ouverts les collaborateurs les plus proches de son mari : Coolus, Vuillard, Bonnard, Vallotton, Toulouse-Lautrec, tous amoureux d'elle. Elle incarne alors l'idéal de la Parisienne élégante, lectrice de La Revue blanche.

Les maisons de campagne des Natanson, La Grangetteà Valvins et Le Relais à Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, deviennent l'annexe des bureaux de la revue. Des idées et des idylles y naissent et s'y dénouent comme en témoignent de nombreuses photographies et des tableaux dans lesquels Misia est omniprésente.




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