"An
eighteenth-century gentleman, a figure from another era, one of a breed of
decorators that is extinct today,” remembers couturier Hubert de Givenchy,
Geffroy was a purist. He never accepted more than one job at a time—that way he
could devote himself entirely to each assignment. Moreover, he guided his
clients in buying art, assisting them with the polite authority of a
connoisseur. In the appraisal of antique furniture, he had an especially
unerring eye. The designer was a prominent society figure in postwar Paris, and
his clients were invariably personal friends. In the afternoons he could be
seen making the rounds of the dealers with millionaire socialite Arturo
Lopez-Willshaw, and later he would escort Gloria Guinness through the
galleries.
His own
beginnings as a fashion designer left Geffroy with an abiding taste for
fabrics. “He draped the folds of his curtains like a couturier,” says Antoine
de Grandsaignes of Decour, where the art of upholstery has been handed down
from father to son since 1840. When Geffroy became an interior designer, he had
his taffetas, silk satins and failles made to measure by Prelle, one of the
last great silk manufacturers of Lyons. He was demanding, insisting on the
highest standards of workmanship.
“du
Geffroy”
What was
meant by “du Geffroy?” A certain brand of ostentation? Perhaps. More likely,
people were talking about his unique gift for selecting textiles. The bedroom
of Mrs. Moreira-Sales, the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to France, was
upholstered in yellow silk, all of it hand-embroidered, that would have done
honor to Versailles. Geffroy was also daring in the way he mixed colors. In the
salon of Pierre David-Weill’s country house at Gambais, he paired solid pink
with canary yellow. There was always a provocative touch: In an otherwise
classical décor at the baronne de Montesquiou’s house in Neuilly-sur-Seine,
Geffroy slipped in a sofa covered with leopard-print velvet. A keen collector,
Geffroy favored eighteenth-century pieces, though he preferred the elegant
sobriety of Louis XVI or the Directoire to the busier style of Louis XV. His
own apartment on the rue de Rivoli was proof of this, containing chairs with
the stamp of Georges Jacob, architectural furniture by Adam Weisweiler or
Jean-Henri Riesener, Neoclassical bibelots, vases and stone obelisks. He had a
sense of theater and delighted in trompe l’oeil effects. The bookcases he
designed reflect that. He built a large number of them, notably for Baron
Alexis de Redé at the Hôtel Lambert and, in 1944, in collaboration with Charles
de Beistegui, for the residence of Sir Duff Cooper and Lady Diana Cooper, the
British ambassador to France. Are the columns in these bookcases lapis lazuli
or wood? Neither—they’re made of stucco. Staircases were another specialty—he
would sketch them out with a bold hand while sitting at his Louis XVI desk.
Indeed, it was around a spectacular staircase that he organized the avenue
Messine house of movie actor Alain Delon, and it was a staircase that set the
Geffroy stamp on antiques dealer Jacques Kugel’s Paris shop in 1971. A few
months later he was dead, but his final creation was worthy of its author, the
lover of antiques who was Georges Geffroy.
Georges
Geffroy
Reinterpreting
past eras for the upper echelons of Paris society
By Laurence
Mouillefarine
January 1,
2000
Design
Legends Georges Geffroy
Georges
Geffroy was an eighteenth-century gentleman, a figure from another era, one of
a breed of decorators that is extinct today," remembers couturier Hubert
de Givenchy, a fellow aesthete and an ardent admirer of his work.
Geffroy was
a purist. He never accepted more than one job at a time—that way he could
devote himself entirely to each assignment. Moreover, he guided his clients in
buying art, assisting them with the polite authority of a connoisseur. In the
appraisal of antique furniture, he had an especially unerring eye.
The
designer was a prominent society figure in postwar Paris, and his clients were
invariably personal friends. In the afternoons he could be seen making the
rounds of the dealers with millionaire socialite Arturo Lopez, and later he
would escort Gloria Guinness through the galleries.
His own
beginnings as a fashion designer left Geffroy with an abiding taste for
fabrics. "He draped the folds of his curtains like a couturier," says
Antoine de Grandsaignes of Decour, where the art of upholstery has been handed
down from father to son since 1840. When Geffroy became an interior designer,
he had his taffetas, silk satins and failles made to measure by Prelle, one of
the last great silk manufacturers of Lyons. He was demanding, insisting on the
highest standards of workmanship.
"One
day," recalls de Grandsaignes, "when the one fabric he had in mind
failed to turn up among our samples, he went right ahead and invented it. He
made us sew strips of taffeta one by one in graduated colors of yellow, green
and old rose. Long after his death, our most loyal clients were still asking us
to reproduce du Geffroy, his exact style."
Georges
Geffroy (1903 –1971), one of postwar Paris society's most eminent designers,
was an expert in classic, yet somewhat theatrical, period decoration. He sits
in his living room, near a portrait of him by François de Bigorie, in 1948. The
walls are covered in satin.
What was
meant by "du Geffroy?" A certain brand of ostentation? Perhaps. More
likely, people were talking about his unique gift for selecting textiles. The
bedroom of Mrs. Moreira-Sales, the wife of the Brazilian ambassador to France,
was upholstered in yellow silk, all of it hand-embroidered, that would have
done honor to Versailles. Geffroy was also daring in the way he mixed colors.
In the salon of Pierre David-Weill's country house at Gambais, he paired solid
pink with canary yellow. There was always a provocative touch: In an otherwise
classical décor at the baronne de Montesqulou's house in Neuilly, Geffroy
slipped in a sofa covered with leopard-print velvet.
A keen
collector, Geffroy favored eighteenth-century pieces, though he preferred the
elegant sobriety of Louis XVI or the Directoire to the busier style of Louis
XV. His own apartment on the rue de Rivoli was proof of this, containing chairs
with the stamp of Georges Jacob, architectural furniture by Adam Weisweiler or
Jean-Henri Riesener, Neoclassical bibelots, vases and stone obelisks.
He had a
sense of theater and delighted in trompe l'oeil effects. The bookcases he
designed reflect that. He built a large number of them, notably for Baron
Alexis de Redé at the Hôtel Lambert and, in 1944, in collaboration with Charles
de Beistegui, for the residence of Sir Duff Cooper, the British ambassador to
France. Are the columns in these bookcases lapis lazuli or wood?
Neither—they're made of stucco.
Staircases
were another specialty—he would sketch them out with a bold hand while sitting
at his Louis XVI desk. Indeed, it was around a spectacular staircase that he
organized the avenue Messine house of movie actor Alain Delon, and it was a
staircase that set the Geffroy stamp on antiques dealer Jacques Kugel's Paris
shop in 1971. A few months later he was dead, but his final creation was worthy
of its author, the lover of antiques who was Georges Geffroy.
Georges
Geffroy (1905-1971): Une Legende Du Grand Decor Francais
By
(author) Pierre Arizzoli-Clementel
-A
monograph on a pivotal fifties interior designer, considered one of the most
talented and inspired designers of his generation, whose work generated an
unrivalled atmosphere in the grand classical style -This book reconstructs
Georges Geffroy's interior design projects with the greatest possible accuracy
-Generously illustrated throughout with many hitherto unseen images and
supported by comprehensive appendices A pivotal figure of 1950s Cafe Society,
Georges Geffroy was venerated in his lifetime as an oracle of grand classical
interior design - but this was a classicism revisited, purified and stripped
back to its quintessence, far removed from any notion of pastiche. Geffroy's
loyal client list featured a 'who's who' of the great names of the time, for
whom he created interior designs of supreme refinement. He complemented his
decorative schemes with objets and furniture from his favourite period, the
late eighteenth century, selected with a famously unerring eye from the most
distinguished antique dealers of the time, and draped them with silks chosen with
his unique flair for colour. Every detail of his compositions spoke eloquently
of his incessant quest for perfection. Declaring his unbounded admiration for
the work of Christian Berard, Geffroy designed celebrated interiors for
Christian Dior, a friend from his youth, as well as for the great beauties of
the age, goddesses of elegance such as Daisy Fellowes and Gloria Guinness, and
icons of taste including Charles de Beistegui, Alexis de Rede at the Hotel
Lambert, and Arturo Lopez in his Neuilly mansion and on his legendary yacht. At
the end of his life he crowned his career with his exceptional designs for the
great art patron and collector Antenor Patino, a final project that allowed him
to showcase his remarkable gifts once more. This book reconstructs Georges
Geffroy's interior design projects with the greatest possible accuracy, thanks
notably to previously unpublished archive documents and to the valuable
contribution of Hubert de Givenchy, one of his most fervent admirers.
Generously illustrated throughout with many hitherto unseen images and
supported by comprehensive appendices, this is an essential volume for anyone
interested in the history of taste, as well as for connoisseurs of architecture
and interior design. Text in French.
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