Aesthetic moments, anyone?

Maurice Sapiro  Saatchi Gallery

It's that moment when you forget the rest, when nothing else seems to matter but a 

certain intensity of feeling. You can't count these by dozens in your life but the very strength of the emotion makes these rare experiences memorable. I'm sure what triggers it is very personal and maybe related to a receptive state of mind.

Have you had at least one of these? With nature, art, music?

I remember having it happen as a young girl riding over a bridge at sunset. Unfortunately, that sounds trite and very picture postcard, but I still remember the wonder of the sun's low-slung light glowing on the metal structure and the way our car was becoming part of the blaze. 

I didn't say a word, not a whisper, 

there in the back seat.

photo: Le style et la matière 

It happened again at an exhibit I was enjoying but where I had in no way expected 

to stumble on something to make me feel like time stood still.

photo: Le style et la matière 

 But there it was, ready to spring from a gown I didn't really like -

photo: Le style et la matière 

 the delicacy of the flowers woven into the glowing orange satin made my heart sing. 

Obviously, no picture could reproduce the sensation.

Worth gown of historicizing style 

mutton sleeves and neo 17th century lace collar

for Mrs Franklin Gordon Dexter 1895

(collection Musée des arts décoratifs)

Help! 4500 years of textile history at risk

Félix Fontaine manufacturer, Nicolas Romain designer

In the proud city of Lyon, 

the fabric museum that contains 2.5 million works of textile history 

- many absolute master pieces -

is at great risk of closure. 

Despite the fact that it is recognized as one of the largest and most important 
textile collections in the world, its budget has been cut in favor of Confluences, the
new museum inaugurated in Lyon last year. 

Can you imagine the textile collections of the Met, the V & A, or LACMA 
left to sit inaccessable in some dark storage warehouse ?

And, the textile museum is not alone. 
It is linked to an impressive decorative arts museum which would equally be shut down.

The current exhibit at the Musée des tissus is called Le Genie de la Fabrique.
"The exhibition is a tribute to the city of Lyon and its silk working citizens who were able, through their incredible sense of perfection and inventiveness, to elevate weaving fabric not only to the rank of a remarkable craft but to that of a true art."

The exhibit is set to continue into June 2016. 
but if a solution is not found this Friday, January 22, 


the museum could close in March 2016.

Coptic funerary cushion
photo:mtmad

French textile technology and design is an extremely 
important part of  textile history, but the collection is not only French.

It contains world textiles that span 4500 years.

Regula Schorta, director of the Swiss Abegg Foundation confirms,

 It is one of the rare textile museums covering almost all fields, topics, regions. Its importance is global. I also want to emphasize the very important role of the museum in the field of restoration of antique textiles and training activities also concern international professionals.*

Lyon silk brocade 18th century
Chambre de la Reine Versailles
design Jean-Francois Bony 1786
image Le Point

At the Victoria & Albert Museum, Lesley Miller is in complete accord: The Textile Museum is one of the most important collections in the world both in size and quality and for its geographical and chronological scope. It is also unique for its silk collections of the local industry that had - and still has - international importance. It contributes to research worldwide through its reserves, its library, its and its permanent and temporary exhibitions.*

*quotes translated from an article by Didier Ryker of Le Tribune de l'Art

designer Agnan Kroichvili
source Marlie

Oh, irony! 

It's just when we are starting to experience 

a renewed interest for fabric design, that this happens. 

Of course, the management of cultural heritage should never be a matter of trends.

Isabelle de Borchgrave exhibit

Maison Lamy et Giraud designer Pierre-Adrien Chabal-Dussurgey  
 Lyon, 1867, presented at the Expositions universelles Paris 1878 

Sarabande   Edith Meusnier 2007

I  don't want to believe the verse from Joni Mitchell will come to pass -

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Til it's gone -

A good number of you have already signed the petition started by 
Daniel Fruman, textile specialist and collector, 
and I thank you.
For those who haven't yet, you can do so by clicking below.

Please help keep the Museum open 
by signing the petition here
before the last chance meeting of January 22.

Thank you!

It's a new day

ateliers de luxe

Marking time.

The new year never seems real to me until the regular schedule begins again after the holidays. A little night prowler in search of  crispy croquettes knocked over a porcelaine bowl of clementines during the night so I am not as fresh as I would like to be today after a sleep break to clean up the pieces that were all over the kitchen. There's so much to do without even considering resolutions. I need energy.

fabric from Lanvin gown 1936

 Cat food has to be rationed ever since two cats live under our roof. It's the slinky black panther who made mischief last night. Was he really hungry or just bored? These once reasonable eaters will gorge themselves just to prove to one another who can eat the most, but mostly it's the older tiger who throws his weight around to say who is boss.

Sharon Shalita and Maytal Barokas

So much for any true understanding of cat psychology. 

I do know that we humains have been eating a wee bit too much these days because of a delectable over-supply of festive foods that it would be a pity to waste --

Issy Miyaké

but that we will never get too much of  seeing beautiful things to lift our spirits. 

Enthusiasm and the downward-facing dog pose (the cat just isn't the same) are my two favorite antidotes for fatigue.

anonymous French gouache design

A happy and energetic new year to you!

Going somewhere, Monsieur Dufy ?

photo: Le style et la matière
Raoul Dufy Le départ pour la soirée 1935

Going out, of course. 

Half of the pleasure is in the anticipation. Getting ready, picturing the events. Not always easy after a long day at work and a full schedule with little time to change gears, let alone attire. 

photo: Le style et la matière
Présentation de mode chez Schiaparelli 1935

 But, in an ideal world , let's say it's the weekend - and you've made it there en beauté.

Just an ounce of imagination, and this scene is a dreamy foyer of a theatre filling up with lovely spectators dressed in honor of the evening, where you cross through and mingle in gentle effluves of perfume until the bell rings.

photo: Le style et la matière
Le cortège d’Orphée ou La musique

Take your places for a night at the opera - 

Orpheus could charm even a stone with his music.

photo: Le style et la matière

Boutonnière in place? 

Ladies and gentlemen, remember also that brooches are a handsome adornment.

This fabric is a jewel with its sumptuous warp dye work in the ground and the intricate play of weaves in the gold brocaded wefts like so much orfèverie. 

photo: Le style et la matière

photo: Le style et la matière

photo: Le style et la matière

Swish, swish

photo: Le style et la matière

photo: Le style et la matière

Maquettes for printed pattern, framed. 

It's all for art.

photo: Le style et la matière
of sextet of colors in a silk Lampas 

Flowers for the finale.

Can you tell I'm glad to have my opera tickets now?!
With sweaty palms, I waited for the precise minute the e-box office was to open, clicked on my date of choice in January and nothing was left. Strange and disappointing. An inside job, wouldn't you say? I chose another date, not nearly as convenient, but I managed to get my four tickets with grouped seating. Il Trovatore is for March. It's not easy to get tickets here in Paris.
On the bright side, I'll have plenty of time for anticipating the event!

I saw the exhibit: Raoul Dufy, tissus et créations at the MAM, Troyes and it is now in Carcassone until October 15.

In passing

all photos Le style et la matière

The wheel keeps turning but I'd promised myself to post more often 

and even when times are busy and exciting projects are at hand -

 I'd like communicate something of what I see - a slice of life, an ambiance, a little lèche-vitrine -

 in the whirl of the day.

I could give a quote

and hope to turn your head

but today is simply about beauty wherever it's found 

it's one of the things that makes my heart sing  most

in my twisting and turning paths through the city -

 in the  walk-by whizz of places to go -

lacquer screen at 

La galerie des laques 

velvets

at Lelièvre

and at Veraseta

color and cords at Christian Astuguevieille

all photos Le style et la matière

a golden moment -

in an ordinary day

The tale of the three beds from the château of Effiat

This is not a tale of cottages. No, the story begins in a certain château in Auvergne.

Wikicommons

It was a proud dwelling built between 1626-28 by the Marshal of Effiat, Antoine Coëffier de Ruzé, counselor to Louis XIII and close friend of Richelieu.
 His château held at three beds,
They were sold at auction in 1856, as were the rest of the furnishings that had managed to be keep intact until then.

Through my various explorations this way and that, I realized that I had seen all three of these beds and had photographed them, although my pictures aren't all of the same quality. I thought I would reunite the beds here and supplement better pictures where needed.
My story is a simple one. A document really. There are no indignant bears or sassy little girls  - unless Time itself could be said to hold the role of Goldilocks!

photo:RMN Louvre

The most famous of these beds is today in the département des arts décoratifs at the Louvre. It is the perfect example of the bed à la française or the lit en housse (covered bed) of the mid 17th century and one of the few beds to come down to us from the period with its original textiles. With its hangings of Genoa velvet down, it makes a cube and has the solemn air of a catafalque. Underneath all that exhuberant fabric, the bed posts are said to be uterly simple. The luxurious aspect of beds of this time owed entirely to their upholstery and trim. In fact if few of these marvelous beds have survived, it is because the precious textiles wore out and the plain wood, usually of no value in itself, was probably burned.

Abraham Brosse

This engraving by Abraham Bosse shows the cords for raising the curtains - the 17th century gradually left the expression courtines behind for rideaux.
Otherwise tie backs were used to attach the curtains to the posts.

photo Cluny via Chest of books

An early image shows the hangings parted but we don't see the headboard.

photo: jpbraud decoration

It may have been like this one, Effiat bed No. 2  at the chateau of Azay le Rideau whose hangings have been beautifully reconstitued here.

photo Marc Walter

These seem to be the original bed textiles found in Jacques Anquetil's book La Soie en Occident.

photo: Le style et la matière

To quote Bill Pallot,

"Beds were greatly prized pieces of furniture in the 17th century 

and as such described very precisely in inventories. Louis XIII had one 

covered with purple damask and adorned with large gold embroidery, Richelieu 

owned another with tapestry of white satin and gold embroidery and Mazarin 

possessed several. Beds accompanied their owners in their travels. They were 

taken apart and placed in leather trunks. Often monumental in size, they 

were set in a corner of the bedchamber. 

Abraham Brosse

The space between the bed and the 

wall was called the 'ruelle' (narrow street). This was where private 

gatherings were held as it was customary to receive company at home while 

lying in bed."

photo: Le style et la matière

photo: Le style et la matière

photo RMN

Finally, my visit to the Musée de la Renaissance at Ecouen a few weeks ago permited me to see Effiat bed No. 3. Made in the late 16th century, it is the oldest of the trio but retains some 19th century modifications.

photo: Le style et la matière

The hangings are not original and the curators plan to restore it to its 19th century state as it was presented by Sommerard at the Hotel de Cluny in what was called the
chamber of Francois I.

photo: Le style et la matière

This ornately carved bedstead
has fine detailing on the foot posts

photo: Le style et la matière

and military cariatides at the head of the bed.

image: RMN

This engraving of the Musée de Cluny depicts the brimming cabinet d'amateur atmosphere that reigned in 1840. There must have been some indecision as to how to assemble the posts. Here the cariatides have been installed at the foot of the bed rather than at its head. 

 I have seen other beds with four cariatides or atlantes, never only two as we see here. 

© Léon et Lévy / Roger-Viollet

Here, somewhat later but still at Cluny, the columns have been switched around in the way 

which is today believed to be the correct assembly of the bed.

Cluny is now specialized in art and artifacts of the middle ages, Ecouen is the place to go for the 

15-17th centuries which is why this bed is located there now.

photo: Le style et la matière.

No pomme , no panache naturally, on this 16th century bed from Effiat at Ecouen, 

but nearby in the textile department is displayed a vase-finial which looks very much like those on the later Effiat beds in the Louvre and at Azay. 

From this angle, in a case, we get a good close look at its construction 

and next to it is a charming miniature bed, once considered to be part of a doll house.

(C) RMN-Grand Palais Gérard Blot
(musée de la Renaissance, château d'Ecouen)  

It is now recognized as an upholsterer's or embroiderer's maquette. 

 This is a model of  a Duchesse bed 

which really only became popular at the end of the 17th century.

 Louis XIV himself prefered four posts.

****

For another article on beds and my own 17th century bed - 

look here

 It is carved with a commemorative date of 1601 and the initials I.V. and C.G.. 

The date probably refers to a wedding date.

One day I may find out just who I.V. and C.G. were...