"capturing wonder" Victoria Thorne

It started with my request for Elsie de Wolfe.  An Elsie wearing green shoes, though the green shoes aren't visible, Elsie materialized!

Friend and fellow blogger-who I've found a kindred spirit in, Victoria Thorne, is sketching-making people I've long admired materialize before my eyes. When one has the gift to capture features- a gleam in the eye or an unturned corner of a grin from a photograph in line and shade, we can see something new-something lost in the image itself. Perhaps it is seeing something beyond, or seeing what the viewer misses, that allows an artist to bring a photograph to life-or at the least, add their vision. Zeroing in on that "thing" that makes a person memorable. This is what Victoria has been able to do. This is why her portraits are compelling, exciting.

AMY WINEHOUSE

WE only said goodbye with words

I died a hundred times

You go back to her-

and I go back to 

Black. ~Amy Winehouse

ELIZABETHS I & II

I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. ~"I"

I asked Victoria to tell me how this all started. Here's what she said:

I actually started college in the art department, but wandered over to the English building freshman year, fell in love with Andrew Marvell and stayed there. For many years after, I worked as an artist and copywriter, always freelance, fitting it around the schedules of our four amazing kids.

The art jobs sort became design jobs and, some time last year, I realized that not going back to art–drawing, painting, calligraphy, collage–was sort of like continuing a forced march away from my soul.

So I started again, which felt bumpy at first. I thank God for the support of my family. My kids received (and applauded, usually) regular strange texts with odd doodles, my husband was incredibly understanding as the house became 90% art studio, and my Instagram pretty much turned into a giant pad of newsprint.

The people who stuck with me through months of sketch after sketch after strange little collage followed by yet another sketch: I'm so thankful. Beyond grateful. And those I've meant who've become collaborators and friends: a true treasure.

One of my kids said, several months before I started putting the art out there: Commit. Treat this as a full-time job. Her advice was good. I am so thankful for the chance to do this. And so appreciative that you have asked me how it came about.

THE POETS

When Bliss disclosed a hundred Toes - 

And fled with every one ~ED 

In Fashion

Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress. ~GC

Women have always been the strong ones of the world. The men are always seeking from women a little pillow to put their heads down on. They are always longing for the mother who held them as infants. ~ Chanel

In mythology and palmistry, the left hand is called the dreamer because the ring finger on the left hand leads directly to the heart. I find it a very poetic idea. And that's why I only wear nail polish on my left ring finger. ~Gloria Vanderbilt

Bettina Ballard of Vogue called her "the most elegant and most talked-about woman in Paris, and Karl Lagerfeld called her, "the chicest woman I ever laid eyes on."

 IF I were seeking out great fashion icons it wouldn’t be my first impulse to search the rosters of Nobel laureates or members of the Academie Francaise. On the other hand, an examination of the lives of the greatest women of style generally reveals individuals of some cultural sophistication. I can’t think of anyone who is known for her stylishness to be stupid or purely instinctive. The memorable women of fashion have to be intelligent enough to understand the rules and codes, often nuanced, implicit in fashion, and how far they can go in testing the limits and boundaries of those accepted standards. I love the fact that when someone is perfectly put together they are said to look “smart.” That’s as intellectual as fashion has to be. ~Harold Koda




And then, after All -there is the utter charm in many of Victoria's pieces, capturing the whimsy- the wonderment -of a fleeting fashion idiosyncrasy, or the innocence of a child. 

Isn't that what draws us to anything worthwhile?
The inexpressible-the "we just know it" wonder of something that we may not remember indefinitely, but that we can feast on for a time. On Instagram, the essence of that same wonder, Victoria posts her portraits, compiles them, draws insta-ration from the images others post. 

Living in that childish wonder is a most beautiful feeling - I can so well remember it. There was always something more - behind and beyond everything - to me, the golden spectacles were very, very big. Kate Greenaway



If you've a notion to such a feeling, of such wonderment, follow Victoria here, & also on her blog- here.

I'm delving into Instagram too-& you can find me here posting daily. It's another avenue into what's inspiring me this instant.

Property of a Southern Lady

The recent auction of Mrs. Paul Mellon's personal property saw unprecedented publicity, and at auction, unprecedented realized prices. Not so in most auctions where a seller's possessions are heaped into an auction pile with those of others, along with museum deacquisitions-all seeking purchase.

I follow many of the regional auctions from their catalogs, most of which can now be seen online. No travel, or purchase necessary. It certainly has its advantages. So easy to be caught up in bidding, just to banish the angst of a lost bid, or the boredom that  arises from the endless waiting til that particularly special piece comes along. Alas, there's always the other piece that ends up in your possession you're bewildered by.
How did I ? ( see any of the above for the answer)

In practice, perusing an auction catalog tells us where the auction is-and who we are. In the upcoming Charlton Hall Auction we know just where we are most of the time. An occasional-" Landscape of Monterrey" intrudes, but for the most part we are in the South. Dark pieces of mahogany parade past us, pine tables with the just perfect lean-prerequisite with rings and watermarks, and art in the vernacular abounds. The offerings of Charlton Hall are always steeped in the rich traditions of the South.

Some of the pieces in the  December 12 and 13th captured my imagination.

Lot 419

Hans Holbein the Younger (manner of) (German/British, 1497-1543)
LADY JANE GREY
oil on canvas, framed, unsigned

Frame bearing caption on top: BEHEADED Feby 12 1554; on bottom: LADY JANE GREY

I can just imagine this painting of the young fated Lady Jane Grey in a great room. 

I see her holding court over a room with dark polished floors and bright white starched slipcovers. Lady Jane is all else needed. 

Imagine the surprise of a young child (with jelly toast) sitting in a chair just learning to read, gaping up at Lady Jane and asking- "What does BEHEADED mean Mommie?" (see text in BOLD above) 

But aesthetically speaking, the Lady Jane Grey conjures up just such a room, with Yes,furniture of mahogany & pine, and lots of bright light for the tragic Jane.

Lot 794 

 Continental three-panel screen early 19th century, 

pictorial wallpaper panels mounted on arched green painted wood frames

One could easily plan an entire room around this screen with its cerulean and pompadour pink pastoral scenes. 

I love the wide marble wainscoting. 

A room of pinks & blues? 

I think not.

Rather I see a small sitting room in shades of gray and charcoal that play to the screens real strengths-that marble wainscoting. The screen rests over a charcoal linen sofa with white appliques picked out in all over trimmings of white-cushions, backs, arms & skirt. Startling emerald green features somewhere in the room along with a bizarre toile-maybe of the Timorous Beasties ilk.

Easily convincing, Margaret Fothergill (possibly), hangs over a tight little mantle and fireplace flanked by bookcases.

Lot 417
Sir Godfrey Kneller (follower of) (British, 1646-1723)
PORTRAIT OF A LADY, POSSIBLY MARGARET FOTHERGILL (1665-1697)
oil on canvas, framed, uns

 If Margaret (possibly) slips through your fingers there's still Lot 422 as consolation-

British school, 18th century PORTRAIT OF A LADY IN GOLD DRESS
oil on canvas, framed, unsigned

There's always a surprise amidst these auctions. Someone who loved the Aesthetic Movement, or else wise inherited a "monster" from someone who loved the Aesthetic Movement. 

I just happen to love the Aesthetic Movement.

 Lot 235

 Aesthetic Movement bird's-eye maple and faux bamboo bedstead late 19th century

It puts me in mind of one of my favorite bedroom decorations Thomas Jayne created for Town and Country magazine. The room is just one of the many Jayne decorated in a newly built house at Ford Plantation in Savannah years ago. In fact the house's decorations are still picture perfect and many of the antique pieces Jayne used could easily be picked right out of the current Charlton Hall auction catalog.

 see the entire house at Thomas Jayne's website here

As is typical with clients, (always shopping outside of your designer's trusted eye), I'm sure Mr. Jayne will not scold if I were to purchase Lot 51

A Collection of studies and sketches by
Conrad Wise Chapman (South Carolina/Virginia/Mexico/Italy, 1842-1910)
LADY IN CLASSICAL DRESS, ROME, 1875
POSING LADY
PROFILE: WOMAN IN A SMALL HAT
FIGURE STUDIES, PARIS
FIGURE STUDIES, PONT DE SURESNES 

I'd frame these beautiful studies and hang them in around the mirror on the dressing table.

 Lastly, there is this:  

Lot 647

 Diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire Tutti-Fruitti bracelet 

95.0ctw leaf- carved rubies, blue sapphires and emeralds, and 8.5ctw round diamonds in articulated design with enameled accents, L8" 

Shades of Daisy Fellowes?  Mrs. Cole Porter? Cartier? There's no mention of these ladies, or of Cartier, but the bracelet surely fits them.

Daisy Fellowes photographed by Cecil Beaton wearing her Cartier Tutti-Fruitti necklace

I've perused other auction sites and it seems the signature of Cartier can be worn off  bracelets over time-say circa 1925? Cartier had exhibited the first of their famous Tutti-Fruitti jewels at the 1925 Paris Exhibition. Heavy on the era's allure of India, the ruby, sapphire and emerald stones were cut and engraved in naturalistic leaf, flower and berry shapes echoing the influences of Mughal jewelry. This Lot I'd have to see and hold, maybe strap it on the wrist, and imagine myself wandering through that great room, or that petit sitting room, or the bedroom with that kooky Aesthetic bed I adore. 

Somehow amidst all the chaos of an auction there often emerges a quiescent consciousness of putting it all together- room by room, and making it fit-just like that Tutti-Fruitti bracelet. 

 Charlton Hall's Auction takes place in Columbia South Carolina, December 12th & 13th Here

Links to all these auction Lots are in BOLD typeface.

Read more about Cartier's Tutti-Fruitti history Here

the long & short of it

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"I am afraid that...uneven hemlines, short in front, dropping down at right angles in the back,were a mistake. There are maniacs in London who go about in buses and the tube cutting chunks out of other people's clothes. These skirts look rather as maniacs had been at them."  Daisy Fellowes said of the Mainbocher 1933 Fall Collection.

 Christian Dior Couture Spring 2014

Fashion keeping up with the times, the same as it ever was...

as Daisy would have it

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I've been have some fun with Daisy Fellowes of late.

Though she is known in aesthetic circles as one of the most well dressed women of all time-her candle has flickered in the 21st century. Blogs have served to put her back in the spotlight somewhat- with much of the current information coming from the great book The Power of Style, by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins. I've past along copies of this book and have held on to at least two-and upstairs-downstairs sort of thing.

The challenge is-what's new? That's what I'm looking for. The book Custom and Characters, by Peter Quennell has added rich detail to the world of Daisy. Quennell knew Daisy personally and some of the supposed horrors of Daisy as the tyrant pirate of her yacht-Sister Anne-are tamped down in his memoirs.
She emerges as a bit more human-and he posits she may have been a successful business women if she'd not had the enormous wealth of the Singer fortune.

Beaton showing Daisy up in the best of light, she wears Schiaparelli

Cecil Beaton adored her and loved photographing her and her "studied simplicity."

She wore lots of Schiaparelli's Surrealist pieces-and somehow pulled it off with -that studied simplicity that fascinated Beaton. Schiaparelli's new Couture designs put me in mind of Daisy.


New designer, Marco Zanini said, “I love the personality of Schiaparelli so much that I wanted to reference her as an extremely cultivated, irreverent, and daring woman.”

I think Daisy would have been right at home in Zanini's designs.

Daisy as drawn by Sargent, and below Stella Tennant in Schiaparelli Couture

Jean Cocteau said, Fellowes “launched more fashions than any other woman in the world."

Daisy, at left wearing tailored day clothes-photographed by Beaton, and below right wearing Schiaparelli, 1933


Fellowes loved pairing jackets with evening dresses-a look Zanini put out on the runway a number of times last week at Schiaparelli's show.

Wearing Schiaparelli, at left,1933.

She wore jewelry and heels while sunbathing on her yacht-Sister Anne, photographed by Beaton.

She adored Schiaparelli's tailoring paired with embroidery and beading. Zanini included pieces with the same sense of ease-yet impeccably tailored & elaborately embroidered.

Daisy at bottom left, again photographed by Beaton in Schiaparelli wearing her "Tutti Frutti" Cartier necklace

top left, in repose photographed by Maurice Tabard, below r. drawn by Cecil Beaton

She wore mega watt jewelry with nonchalance- and wasn't afraid of feminine ruffles and a flounce or two, and still there was that appearance of ease- and simplicity Beaton spoke of.

Hoyningen-Huené photographed her with her sleek Antoine coiffure wearing a Jean Patou green velvet dress and a peacock-feather toque.She's wearing a pair sapphire and diamond pigeon's wing brooches, by Rene Boivin, 1936.

  Bettina Ballard of Vogue called her "the most elegant and most talked-about woman in Paris, and Karl Lagerfeld called her, "the chicest woman I ever laid eyes on."

I've no reason to doubt Daisy would have been showing up in Schiaparelli today-and showing them up in it too.

all pictures of Schiaparelli Couture are at Vogue.com, as well as a review of the collection by Hamish Bowles-and the quote by Zanini that is linked in the story.

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Daisy roars

Daisy Fellowes at The Beistegui Ball in the Tiepolo Room of the Palazzo Labia, Venice

A tapestry inspired Daisy Fellowes costume for the Beistegui Ball- fashioning herself  “America, 1750.” 

She wore Christian Dior. 

Made from chiffon and satin in yellow, the gown was theatrically draped in leopard along the shoulder, bodice and front. 

The Collier Hindou adorned her neck,created by Cartier-it was reminiscent of a maharaja's jewel she had admired.

 

Tapestries of the Continents reached their pinnacle in the early part of the seventeenth century. 

Europe, Asia, Africa and America in the feminine form show up in paintings, frescoes, ceilings-and tapestries.

from Apollo and the Continents (America)
the Frescoes of Tiepolo, 1752-53 along the Stairwell of the Residenz, Würzburg

 The Palace Labia Ball Room was plastered with scenes by Tiepolo of Cleopatra and Anthony. 

Daisy's Dior may have been paying homage to Beistegui's Tiepolos- by way of Wurzberg Palace.

 

Had Daisy had Jean Paul Gaultier's leopard Lesage embroidered gown to wear-things might have looked a little different.

"Everything she did was a grand entrance." Norman Norrell

Robe peau de panthere, from Gaultier Couture 1998

read about the symbols in the Continents tapestries here
read more about Daisy Fellowes here


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Ann Getty, Degas, the Divine Sarah & A TREE

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the prettiest tree-has to be in Ann Getty's  Music Room-
the prettiest book under the tree this year-Ann Getty Interior Style.

the Christmas tree in the Getty Music Room is filled with thirty years of ornaments collected and made reflecting the Getty's love for the opera

The beauty of what's inside the book is No Surprise. I've long followed the style and design elegance of Ann Getty. Her passion for Art-Design-& her Work is evident in the book's pages. Accompanying Getty on her opulent design journey is writer-Diane Dorrans Saeks- purveyor of all things beautiful-and beautifully distinctive to the West Coast and of far flung places beyond.

The book is a sliver of perfection-a exotic taste of  Getty Opulence. Attention to detail and understanding of Getty's style and her pursuits are handled by author Diane Dorrans Saeks with finesse.Both women know themselves and each other-that is what makes the book one of those you will want to reach for time and again. Saeks moves through the homes of the Gettys with golden tales of history-art and design-in a language that reflects the mood created by Ann Getty's assemblage of lavish textiles and furnishings.

The Getty home in San Francisco is inhabited by the great-Artists, as well as the famous names of their day:

tiered ormolu chandelier originally owned by the famed fashion maverick Daisy Fellowes

Read more: Dining Room Chinoiserie Panels - Pictures from Ann Getty's San Francisco Home - Harper's BAZAAR

tiered ormolu chandelier originally owned by the famed fashion maverick Daisy Fellowes

Read more: Dining Room Chinoiserie Panels - Pictures from Ann Getty's San Francisco Home - Harper's BAZAAR

Degas and Matisse paintings in the Getty Living Room

Moreau, Renoir & Pissaro make appearances here as well

A Chandelier in the Dining Room belonged to Daisy Fellowes
Chinoiserie Panels were designed for the King of Poland

the Dining Room table set for the Holidays

Ann Getty poses for Harper's Bazaar in her Russian inspired Music Room

(the color and textiles Getty used in this room are amongst my personal favorites)

Curtains in Patchwork are from Nureyev's Paris Apartment

Caneletto and his pupil's work hang on a raspberry damask wall

(another of my favorite things- Patchwork)

Jacques Emile Blanche paints Nijinsky, the painting hangs in the Living Room

(I adore the works of Blanche)

Getty's signature colors are reprised in Peter Getty's Music Room  

(the finish and walls in this room echo some of my own in a previous home)

A Lepage portrait of the Divine Sarah Bernhardt hangs in the peacock blue Living Room of the Getty's Temple of Wings estate

 ( Sarah Bernhardt and I share a birthday)

 The Temple of Wings is dedicated to the Aesthetic Movement Collection amassed by the Gettys

(another favorite of my own is the Aesthetic Movement)

 Frederick Leighton paintings hang in Temple Study

 & what's equally revealing and another thing I like is Getty's easy going style-it's obvious she is at home in her formal surroundings dressing simply & with ease.

I believe it's as easy to relax in a formal room as it is in any.

Ann Getty 

Personal Style

to Note: Getty in jeans-a white shirt-and could it be Minnetonka moccasins?
& the decrepit tufting on the cut crystal chair-(another of my favorite things "If...don't fix it.")


once again-I say-get this book-destined to be a page worn Classic.

The Style Saloniste-Diane Dorrans Saeks wonderful blog- HERE. Diane has her top ten book selections for the season published this week too.

Anne Getty Associates HERE

(thank you to Rizzoli for the beautiful collection of photographs given by permission to use- with principal photographs by Lisa Romerien)