Jeanne-Françoise Julie Adélaïde Bernard, known after her marriage as Juliette Récamier, was born on December 4, 1777—240 years ago yesterday. Had she lived during modern times, I believe one of her favorite design events of the year would be The Salon Art + Design exhibition because it holds such exceptional furnishings by the world’s finest […]
Tag: salonniere
I take my self-described title as a modern salonnière very seriously, mining history for details of other salonieres for fodder for my explorations.
One of my favorite salonnieres is Catherine de Vivonne, or Marquise Rambouillet, who turned The Chambre Bleue into one of the most famous salons in history. I read about notorious figures like her in order to understand what it is they were trying to achieve so I can integrate their values into the literary adventures I create here on The Diary of an Improvateur. One such evening was a fictive salon during which she held court with her salonieres in Ally Coulter’s space at the Holiday House NYC.
After she had settled herself near the fire, Madame Rambouillet listened “intently as poet François de Malherbe, a central figure within her inner circle, read from his poem ‘To Cardinal Richelieu.’ The coterie of intellectuals gathered around her would be quietly engrossed in the verses honoring the powerful clergyman as the poet’s words wafted toward the ornate ceiling, a spate of lively applause echoing after them in the statuesque space.
Her smug expression would signal she had yet again pulled off a sublime evening of titillation, the mix of jealousy and awe on the faces of the shrewdest women surrounding her—Madame de Sévigné, Madame de La Fayette, the Duchesse de Longueville and Comtesse de La Suze, among them—the only sign her trendsetting heart required as confirmation.” All of the details of this evening are make-believe, of course—straight from my imagination—so please treat it as such.
My Porcelain Bucket List
When I am planning literary design adventures, I look for experiences that give me the feeling of transcendence—encounters during which I am conscious of having one foot in the past and one in the future. One of the strongest examples of this I have had to date took place during a trip to the […]
A Conversation on Trends in Textiles
I’m thrilled to announce that I am producing the first in my Modern Salonière series of events during High Point Market next month. With this and every salon to follow, I will explore subjects relating to graceful living, which French salonières during the 17th and 18th centuries elevated to an art form. I will […]
The Sensuous Delight of Place
Like Katherine Mansfield’s enigmatic stories, the book Place by Tara Bernerd feels like “a thread with a subtly woven texture embracing ecstatic feeling, sensuous delight.” The quote is from an essay by Angela Smith in a remarkable book titled The Modernist Party. Edited by Kate McLoughlin, the collection of literary explorations surveys the dinner party through […]
Hail Django, Gypsy of Jazz
Strolling along Main Street in Sag Harbor one summer day, I spotted a rosary wound around the frozen reach of a large, crude cross. It was like a magnetic pull as I passed the window, drawing me into one of my favorite boutiques through the door just beyond it. The shop owner lifted it […]
The Secret of Happiness
Nestled into her chateau in St. Brice, France, during the summer of 1924, Edith Wharton wrote in her diary, “The secret of happiness is to have forgotten what it is to be happy.” As a writer, I interpret this sentiment as being so absorbed in work that no feelings register at all. Whether she meant it […]
A Meditation on Age and Romance
I turn 59 this week and knowing I am about to enter the last year of my 50’s has me thinking a great deal about age, particularly as it relates to independent women and romance. Did you know Peggy Guggenheim had a crush on Beat Poet Gregory Corso when she was my age—feelings he […]
Seeing with New Eyes
Day two of my Parisian literary adventure follows a foray I wrote about last week. It turned out to be a long excursion because I decided to walk all the way from my hotel, Le Meridien Etoile in the 17th arrondissement near the Périphérique, along the spine of Avenue de la Grande Armée, past the Arc de Triomphe, onto […]
A Backward Glance on rue de Varenne
The narrow sidewalks push their black iron batons up out of the ground to protect the buildings hemming them; the rain turns the cobblestones to muted mirrors of damp light—I’m visiting her again on the anniversary of her 155th birthday, and it dawns on me that I’ve never seen the statuesque green door with […]
Henry VIII’s Cult of Cloth
A trip to Frankfurt to attend Heimtextil a week from today has inspired me to share one of my favorite anecdotes about Henry VIII and his court, as it describes how the Tudor King doted on textiles. I came across the depictions of his wanderlusting ways in Nicola Shulman’s book Graven with Diamonds: The Many […]