Modern, Even Still

Jacques-Henri Lartigue's 1930 portrait of Renée Perle.



On March 13th Sotheby's Amsterdam will host its Photographs sale, featuring over 300 lots by some of the 20th century's most recognizable names - and not just the names of the artists, but the names of their subjects, as well.

In 1930 Jacques Henri Lartigue met Romanian model Renée Perle on a Paris street. A chance meeting that resulted in a two-year affair with a muse he would revere as an angel and document in countless images.

He was mesmerized and wrote in his diary, "She is beautiful...The small mouth with the full painted lips! The ebony black eyes. From under her fur coat comes a warmth of perfume. The head looks petite on her long neck."

The couple lived a glamorous life, enjoying the energy of the post-war years and blissfully yet unaware of the one that would follow. Their years together were a perpetual vacation in France's most decadent cities: for sunshine, Cannes and Juane-les-Pins and for skiing, the mountains of Biarritz.

Lartigue photographed many other fashionable women (and women he loved), but none so riveting as Perle, whose sleek hair and figure, trademark bracelets, two toned-manicured nails, and simple, sleeveless tops summed up '30s style. "Around her," he wrote, "I see a halo of magic." She was modern, sexy, streamlined and powerful. The very essence of Art Déco design.


Lot 26
Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986)
Renée Perle
Silver print, signed in ink with the photographer's blind stamp, 1930, printed later
Approximately 10 x 13 in.
3,000 - 5,000 €


www.sothebys.com

Big Ticket Items in the Big Easy

Oleander
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Oil on panel
Canvas: 35 3/4” high x 25” wide
$1.650


M.S. Rau Antiques has been a New Orleans institution since 1912 - an institution so deeply rooted in the city's French Quarter, not even the winds of a catagory 5 hurricane could topple it.

In a letter on the firm's website, Bill Rau, the shop's president and third-generation owner, writes, "these past months following Hurricane Katrina have been especially trying, not only for our gallery, but for our employees and for the city of New Orleans. Each day moves us closer to the rebirth and revitalization of our beloved city and the entire Gulf Coast and we are slowly, but surely, beginning to see the return of the visitors that are the lifeblood to this region. Now, more than ever, we will need to utilize the internet to stay in touch with our customers and offer them the remarkable works of art and antiques that grace our gallery. While we hope you will make a trip to New Orleans very soon to see us in person, we know that our website is the best way to reach you."

And, while it seems a bit funny, at first, the thought of ordering a million-dollar painting online, its really quite logical. And incredibly smart. Not only for the survival of one of the country's most highly-esteemed dealers, but for you, the consumer, who receives not only a guaranteed and documented work of art, but the pleasure of knowing your purchase will help ensure the continuation of a very special, and historic, American institution.



Paysage du Midi
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Oil on canvas
Canvas: 8” high x 13” wide
$595,000



It Was Yellow and Pink, I
Georgia O'Keeffe, 1959
Oil on canvas
Canvas: 30" high x 26" wide
$850,000


For more information about the shop and to view the wide range of fine and decorative arts available in their online catalogue, please visit www.rauantiques.com.

M.S. Rau Antiques
630 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
504-523-5660, 800-544-9440

A Velvet Affinity

Italian textile designer, Mirella Spinella, has been producing glorious hand-painted and block-printed silk velvets from her Venice studio or over 30 years. Originally a painter, she moved into theater design and eventually found her niche with textile production.





Shown (from top): Ramage 2 and Giotto 1


From her workshop in the heart of the city, Spinella creates a wide variety of patterns and motifs, inspired by the history and unabashed beauty of the art and architecture that surrounds her. Textiles can be purchased as yardage, finished hangings, or pillows (greyhound and unicorn examples are below).









For more information visit www.mirellaspinella.com.

Tea, with a Twist

Sarah Ferguson, photographed by Brian Aris


This April, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and partner Slatkin & Co. will launch a line of tea-scented candles with American retailer, Bath and Body Works. The candles will only be available in US shops, as an agreement with the Royal Family bars the Duchess from any commercial ventures in the UK, though its likely Brits will eventually be able to purchase the products online.


This winter Harry Slatkin, founder and president of Slatkin & Co., hosted a tea party at Manhattan's Lowell Hotel to introduce the line. A few, rare images of the soon-to-be released candles courtesy of the New York Social Diary:









Scented candles are the first major step into the Duchess's new luxury-home goods venture, Duchess Originals, which will shortly include a line of linens and silverware. The brand name is a cheeky play Prince Charles's Duchy Originals, a collection of organic goodies and gardening items. The Duchess's holding company, which will oversee Duchess Originals as well as her books and jewelry line, is to be called Hartmoor, named after her historical-romance novel due out in 2008. Its an unexpected (and probably genius) Barbara Cartland-meets-Martha Stewart turn for the one-time contender to the throne. Who needs a hefty divorce settlement when you've got a glorious head of red hair and your own royal lineage? (The crest on the tea canister-shaped candles pays homage to the heraldry of her maternal line.)

The candles, inspired by the idea of a traditional high tea, will be available in five scents: Bergamot Tea (Royalty), Rose Ginger Tea (Honesty), Mandarin Green Tea (Dignity), White Tea Ginger (Loyalty), and Green Tea & Mint Leaves (Tranquility). The names associated with each scent are also a bit cheeky, but true to the Duchess's plain-spoken approach. Each candle, packaged to resemble a tea canister, will retail for $16.50, or a boxed set can be purchased for $49.50. Its not a limited edition affair, as was the Slatkin-produced Elton John candle that Bath and Body Works retailed for $250 in support of John's aids foundation, but the volume of sales in this instance is sure to make it a profitable endeavor.



Elton John's prettily-packaged Fireside candle, designed by the legendary musician himself.



The Sarah Ferguson Foundation, established in New York last year, will receive all proceeds from the Duchess's portion of the sales. According to their website, www.sarahfergusonfoundation.org, the foundation is “dedicated to making a difference in the lives of families and children throughout the world" and their sole purpose will be the management of funds generated by the Duchess's ventures. The foundation "adheres to the founding principles of Children in Crisis (CiC), the London-based international charity founded in 1993 by The Duchess of York to alleviate suffering and create opportunities for the world's forgotten children."

Its an ideal cause, so easy - and enjoyable - to support.

For more information on Duchess Originals and the foundation's work, visit the website (above); for information on the candles, keep an eye on www.bathandbodyworks.com for the official launch at the end of April.

Unlikely Companions: Hapsburgian Courtly Splendors and Modern Italian Design

Vienna's Hofmobiliendepot, or Imperial Furniture Collection, was founded in 1747 by the Empress Maria-Theresa, the only female Hapsburg to rule during the family's 650-year long dynasty, as a means of saving luxurious court furnishings that had gone out of style and were destined for dispersal or destruction. Rather than cast out the old pieces, the Empress began to curate a very special collection, acknowledging the historical importance of the furnishings and assuring their survival for future generations.



A portrait of the Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria, c. 1745/1750, by Martin van Meytens II (Swedish, 1695-1770, active in Vienna), round about the time she founded the Hofmobiliendepot. The painting is in the collection of the Ringling Museum of Art in Florida.



The Hapsburgs had many palaces and hunting lodges that were continually updated to reflect the latest fashions, and the incredible foresight of the Empress, which has been continued since her death in 1780, has resulted in a collection of some 160,000 objects, ranging from every-day items used by the court, to the thrones from which the family ruled.


The depository, shown prior to their recent renovation, illustrates the old fashioned, and rather charming, means of storing objects, so different from the scientifically-monitored vaults of today:







The Hofmobiliendepot provides a unique study of a family, Austria's imperial history, and nearly 300 years of Viennese cabinet-making and period decoration. To represent the post-imperial commissions that have continued to define Austrian taste over the last century, the collection also includes works by 20th century architects and designers including Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann and Ernst Plischke.

The museum, which relocated to a renovated-warehouse complex in 1998, is a very modern structure, which makes an interesting juxtaposition to the historical nature of the collections. It also provides an ideal venue for small take-shows, especially those focused on modern design.


The Hofmobiliendepot's Modernist inner courtyard (below) and Hoffmannesque entrance hall (bottom):







The current exhibition, Italian Design 1945-2000, features 100 objects from the permanent collection at Milan's Triennial and is primarily focused on five defined periods of Italy's design history: the post-war years (1945-1960); the plastics boom of the 1960s; the social unrest of the 1970s; 80s Postmodernism; and the search for a new identity in the 1990s.


The Pratone chair, 1966
Gruppo Strum's Pratone seat, designed 1966, and manufactured by Gufram
© Triennale di Milano


Gaetano Pesce's 1987 Feltri chair, manufactured by Cassina
© Triennale di Milano


For more information the Hofmobiliendepot's collection and exhibition programming:

Hofmobiliendepot
Möbel Museum Wien
7., Andreasgasse 7
Vienna, Austria
Tel. 524 33 57-0
www.hofmobiliendepot.at

January 25 – April 25, 2007
Tue - Sun 10am-6pm