Castaing in AD 1977

8/14/2019 Castaing in AD 1977

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esove: The d6cor of a long Callery sets thedistinctive tone of Mme Madeleine Castaing'smain floor apartment in Paris. Lightly scaledantique furnishings are arrangedsymmetrically along a wall whose windowsare covered by 19th-century French floral-painted shades. nrorr The Salon exemplifies lestyleAnglais revival, for which antiquarian/designer Castaing is noted. An 18th-centuryEnglish settee, a Victorian fringed pouf and anAustrian Schcinbrunn-style canap6 provideinteresting shapes. Paintings on the walls bySoutine; painting on th e easelby Paolo Vallos.

PHOTOGRAPHYY PASCAL INOUSTEXTBY VALENTINE AWFORD

rN HETNTERNATToNALoRLD f lhe antiquaire nd theinterior designer there are a few men and womenwho have achieved a legendary status, a statusbasednot on talent alone but on a flair that almostdefies definition. One of this elite is surely MmeMadeleine Castaing of Paris, though she herselfwould no doubt be the first to deny it.

Her house forms the northeast angle of the rueBonaparteand the rue Jacob,and the ground floorlies slightly below street evel. Like many compa-rable corners on the Left Bank in Paris he place isself-evidentlyan antiquesshop n part, but the viewthrough the windows has such an intriguinglyintimate quality that one almost hesitates o pushopen he streetdoor-for fear of disturbinga houseparty of amiable ghosts n the midst of a conversa-tion, or interrupting the plot of a long-forgottennovel.And perhaps he odd presentiment s not all


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MadameCastaing hezElleTheT amed arisian ntiq uaireandD esigner


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that absurd.For h e talentof MadeleineCastaing sindeed an exceptionally rivate and personalone.Th e world that her imagination has created orherself and her clients has an undeniableaffinitywith the le isurely background of nineteenth-century European ountry-house iction.

The furniture in the ground floor shop is ar-ranged n a seriesof seemingly ived-in rooms' Onthe second floor, however,an enfilade of high-ceil inged tall-windowed reception rooms is fur-n ished sanapartment. ut Mme Castaing ctual lylives n a suiteon the entresoletween he shop and


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opposrrE: n the Living Room, a balancedensemble of design elements surrounds thefireplace.On the 19th-centuryFrenchmantelarepairsof Russianmalachitecandlesticksand 18th-century French porcelain vases.English Regencycabinets with Neo-classicpainteddetails lank the fireplace; he bench and pouf are also Regency. ernspaintedan d gilded on a 1gth-century mirror look like three-dimensional eflections. eovr: An18th-century porcelainstove warms the Gam e Room. A rare blue enamel Directoirebilliard lamp hangs above a pair of elegant Vienna porcelain swan figures. Thel9th-century Viennese mahogany chairs have brass ns ets and emperor med allions.

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the second floor, from which she emerges n theafternoons o work and receive isitors.Madeleine Castaing s one of those remarkableand rewarding women of a certain age-are theyespeciallyndigenous o France?-whose entalan dphysical charms seemonly to increaseas the yearscontinue.Success, venprofessional uccess,eemsto make them more human-not less so. Charac-teristically, hey are not conventional respectersofpersons.They ar e too intell igent and too experi-enced o pontif icateor feel th e need o impress."M y first memoriesar e of a country houseandit s garden,"sh esays, my grandfather's roperty ofSt. Pr6,nearChartres. t was nfinitely more Prous-tian' than Ill iers. There were sti l l a lot of historiccharacters round. My godfatherhad founded laPresse,ith EmileGirardin,and asa child I remem-be r being dressedup for th e visit of the actressMarie Laurent,among many interestingpeople."After I married Marcell in Castaingwe boughtour own property, four kilometers away, where Idesigned he gardens an d planted thousandsofwillows, an d poplars, th e cypresses f the lle-de-France.' ur friends n thosedays ncludedsomeofthose who have become known as th e greatestartistsof the time: Modigliani, Picasso, uil lard-and, above all, Soutine. He stayed with us veryoften from 1925until World War II, and painted nthe garden,and sometimes e used me as a model.Otherwise we lived far from th e world and weremore than huppy to do so ."Then th e war came, an d a second,very dif-ferent, part of my life began.Ou r country housewas taken over, and we couldn't go there anymore.It was so sad n OccupiedParis hat I decided hat Imust do something. Three years earlier we hadconsidered uying a R6gence ouse n the rue duCherche-Midi that had once been th e laundry ofMme Sans-Gne, ut we had abandoned he idea,on the advice of our architect. However, since weha d goneso far as o acquire he ease, thought ofthat house again, and decided-against my hus-band'swishes-to go aheadand do somethingwithAn EnglishVictorian luster 6pergneserves s he centerpiece oran elegantlydraped Dining Room table. Coquillage candlesticksan d silver figures holding shells; Coalport china and shell-shaped Wedgwood saladplates comprise he setting.The chairsare Regency, the small 6tageres are Russian. The subduedorganization ocuses ttentionon the paintings of Chaim Soutine.

"l just ollow myinstinct-mix up all sortsof things like."734


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ABOvr: NDopposrrEABO\E:Mntc Castaing's charming p.rstel- toned Bedroonl cont.r ins gi l tLrronze/r l ,rr-b.tmLrOofurniturethatbelongedtOasisterof Napoletnl l l .Duors:rrdeei lrngl t . r t ,ea p.r intccl cloudl ike op.rci tr ,. The Lrronzedord charrdel ier an d gi lded fire screetl ar eLroth Igth-centlrrr ,. In the i i rcside vignette trvo additional Soutine p.l inti r lgs.rre visiblc. AnIBth centurv m0thcr-oi-pe.tr l clock sh.rrcs the m.i l r tel rvi th Russian malachite objectsrncl c.rrrdlesticks bv Nast ; .rbove thcm is.rn Adam gil trvood nl i rror. orposlte: MnleCast.i ing's v.rrr l tccl B.tthrOrrm is el .rbor.r telv dr..rped, an d aptlv appointecl rv i th gi l tL.r .,nze ir tures. Rest.r ted bv the ir i l r r-banboo mirror is a scorrcc rvi th l i t l i r l ' /r ,rrrrr h.rde.

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i t . I had alwaysenjoyed urnishing an d decoratingmy own home,asa form of self-expression. o nowI begangradually o create seriesof showrooms-Iitt le more than uitrines,eally,an d very simple."

In spite of the diff icult iesof the time, MadeleineCastaing'smodest busines s venture became in-creasingly ucce ssful nd shewa seventually ble oacquire he housewhere she ivesand works today.

He r clientsar ean infinitely varied human collec-tion, but in her own words,"they haveone thing incommon-sensibil ity-and they tend to be veryfaithful." Pastclients have ncluded JeanCocteau,for whom shedecorated houseat Milly, and MmeFrancineWeissweiller,or whom shehas worked atSaint-Jean-Cap-Ferratnd in Paris.More recentlysh eha sworked on townhouses nd apartments ndsmallhouseswith gardens, n Belgiumand Swrtzer-land, as well as in many parts of France.

Her remarks about her general echnique as adecoratorar e spontaneousan d direct: "l have toknow the people,and I have o l ike them. I look atth e houseor the apartmentand the surroundings-and wait for inspiration. f the peopleare worth thetrouble, nspiration nvariablycomes. havepickedup quitea litt le psychological en se n the courseofth e last thirty-five years. don't l ike to work forpeople who want an interior to improve theirstanding n the eyes of others. But, fo r a certainkind of people, do like to create mirror in whichthey can recognize hemselves.On e must let theheart have ts say n all matters."M y work isn't signed.The essential uality-thevibration-always depends on the clients them-selves. don 't think there are any rules except hatthe desire o surprise or shock takes a decoratornowhereat all. Personally, just follow my instinct,amusemyself creatingan atmosphere,mix up al lsortsof things I l i ke. It is important to be inspiredby things. bviously a good decoratorneedssoundprofessional nowledge,and I myself havea greatrespect or the profession.But for me th e realpointof departure s poetry, a stroke from some magicwand. La uie,c'este coup ebaguette.'Even a total stranger,watching Madeleine Cas-taing as s he moves about the apartment, inds itimpossible no t to fall under the spell. Perhapsbecause hese rooms serve her principally as aprivate theater or experimental workshop, theyseem to partake of the endearingly amateur an dunpremeditatedquality of a charade. nstead ofasserting hemselves s potentially pricelessworksof twentieth-century rt, he powerful Soutinecan-vases n the walls assume he statusof pictures n afamily album. Although Mme Castaing s an out-standingdoyenneof the decorating rofession, heca n stil l call to mind a litt le girl of years ago-blissfullyabsorbed n "playing at houses." r

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Castaing in AD 1977