John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher and art critic of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy. Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft. Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J. M. W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in his emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today. BiographyJohn Ruskin was born on 8 February 1819 at 54 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, London, the only child of his parents who were first cousins. His father, John James Ruskin (1785–1864), was a sherry and wine importer, founding partner and de facto business manager of Ruskin, Telford and Domecq. His mother Margaret Cock (1781–1871), was the daughter of a publican. She had joined the Ruskin household when she became companion to John James's mother, Catherine. They married, without celebration, in 1818. Ruskin's childhood was shaped by the contrasting influences of his father and mother, both of whom were fiercely ambitious for him. John James Ruskin helped to develop his son's Romanticism. They shared a passion for the works of Byron, Shakespeare and especially Walter Scott. Margaret Ruskin, an evangelical Christian, more cautious and restrained than her husband, taught young John to read the Bible from beginning to end, and then to start all over again, committing large portions to memory. Its language, imagery and parables had a profound and lasting effect on his writing. As a child Ruskin was educated at home by his parents and private tutors. From 1834 to 1835 he attended the school in Peckham run by the progressive evangelical Thomas Dale (1797–1870). Ruskin heard Dale lecture in 1836 at King's College, London, where Dale was the first Professor of English Literature. Ruskin went on to enroll and complete his studies at King's College, where he prepared for Oxford under Dale's tutelage. Ruskin was greatly influenced by the extensive and privileged travels he enjoyed in his childhood. It helped to establish his taste and augmented his education. He sometimes accompanied his father on visits to business clients at their country houses, which exposed him to English landscapes, architecture and paintings. As early as 1825, the family visited France and Belgium. He developed a lifelong love of the Alps, and in 1835 visited Venice for the first time, that 'Paradise of cities' that provided the subject and symbolism of much of his later work. These tours gave Ruskin the opportunity to observe and record his impressions of nature. He composed elegant, though mainly conventional poetry, some of which was published in Friendship's Offering. His early notebooks and sketchbooks are full of visually sophisticated and technically accomplished drawings of maps, landscapes and buildings, remarkable for a boy of his age. He was profoundly affected by Samuel Rogers's poem, Italy (1830), a copy of which was given to him as a 13th birthday present; in particular, he deeply admired the accompanying illustrations by J. M. W. Turner. Much of Ruskin's own art in the 1830s was in imitation of Turner, and of Samuel Prout, whose Sketches Made in Flanders and Germany (1833) he also admired. Ruskin's journeys also provided inspiration for his writing. His first publication was the poem "On Skiddaw and Derwent Water" (August 1829). In 1834, three short articles for Loudon's Magazine of Natural History were published. They show early signs of his skill as a close "scientific" observer of nature, especially its geology. From September 1837 to December 1838, Ruskin's The Poetry of Architecture was serialised in Loudon's Architectural Magazine, under the pen name "Kata Phusin" (Greek for "According to Nature"). It was a study of cottages, villas, and other dwellings centred on a Wordsworthian argument that buildings should be sympathetic to their immediate environment and use local materials. It anticipated key themes in his later writings. In 1839, Ruskin's "Remarks on the Present State of Meteorological Science" was published in Transactions of the Meteorological Society. In 1836, Ruskin matriculated at the University of Oxford. Enrolled as a gentleman-commoner, he enjoyed equal status with his aristocratic peers. Ruskin was generally uninspired by Oxford and suffered bouts of illness, and he never became independent from his family during his time at Oxford. In April 1840, whilst revising for his examinations, he began to cough blood, which led to fears of consumption and a long break from Oxford travelling with his parents. For much of the period from late 1840 to autumn 1842, Ruskin was abroad with his parents, mainly in Italy. Back at Oxford, in 1842 Ruskin sat for a pass degree, and was awarded an uncommon honorary double fourth-class degree in recognition of his achievements. Before Ruskin began Modern Painters, his father John James Ruskin had begun collecting watercolours, including works by Samuel Prout and J. M. W. Turner. Both painters were among occasional guests of the Ruskins. When Ruskin read an attack on several of Turner's pictures exhibited at the Royal Academy, he wrote a defence of Turner which finally appeared in 1903, as Turner did not wish it to be published. What became the first volume of Modern Painters (1843) was Ruskin's answer to Turner's critics. Ruskin controversially argued that modern landscape painters—and in particular Turner—were superior to the so-called "Old Masters" of the post-Renaissance period. Ruskin maintained that, unlike Turner, Old Masters such as Gaspard Dughet (Gaspar Poussin), Claude, and Salvator Rosa favoured pictorial convention, and not "truth to nature". For Ruskin, modern landscapists demonstrated superior understanding of the "truths" of water, air, clouds, stones, and vegetation, a profound appreciation of which Ruskin demonstrated in his own prose. Although critics were slow to react and the reviews were mixed, many notable literary and artistic figures were impressed with the young man's work, including Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell. Suddenly Ruskin had found his métier, and in one leap helped redefine the genre of art criticism, mixing a discourse of polemic with aesthetics, scientific observation and ethics. It cemented Ruskin's relationship with Turner. Ruskin toured the continent with his parents again in 1844, visiting Paris, studying the geology of the Alps and the paintings of Titian, Veronese and Perugino among others at the Louvre. In 1845, at the age of 26, he undertook to travel without his parents for the first time. It provided him with an opportunity to study medieval art and architecture in France, Switzerland and especially Italy. In Venice, he was particularly impressed by the works of Fra Angelico and Giotto in St Mark's Cathedral, and Tintoretto in the Scuola di San Rocco, but he was alarmed by the combined effects of decay and modernisation on the city. Drawing on his travels, he wrote the second volume of Modern Painters (published April 1846). The volume concentrated on Renaissance and pre-Renaissance artists rather than on Turner. It was a more theoretical work than its predecessor. Ruskin explicitly linked the aesthetic and the divine, arguing that truth, beauty and religion are inextricably bound together. In defining categories of beauty and imagination, Ruskin argued that all great artists must perceive beauty and, with their imagination, communicate it creatively by means of symbolic representation. During 1847, Ruskin became closer to Effie Gray, the daughter of family friends. It was for her that Ruskin had written The King of the Golden River, his only work of fiction, set in the Alpine landscape Ruskin loved and knew so well. It remains the most translated of all his works. The couple were engaged in October. They married on 10 April 1848 at her home, Bowerswell, in Perth, once the residence of the Ruskin family. The European Revolutions of 1848 meant that the newlyweds' earliest travels together were restricted, but they were able to visit Normandy, where Ruskin admired the Gothic architecture. Ruskin's developing interest in architecture, and particularly in the Gothic, led to the first work to bear his name, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849). It contained 14 plates etched by the author. The title refers to seven moral categories that Ruskin considered vital to and inseparable from all architecture: sacrifice, truth, power, beauty, life, memory and obedience. All would provide recurring themes in his work. In November 1849, Effie and John Ruskin visited Venice, staying at the Hotel Danieli. For Effie, Venice provided an opportunity to socialise, while Ruskin was engaged in solitary studies. Ruskin was making the extensive sketches and notes that he used for his three-volume work The Stones of Venice (1851–53). Developing from a technical history of Venetian architecture from the Romanesque to the Renaissance, into a broad cultural history, Stones reflected Ruskin's view of contemporary England. In 1848, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti had established the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The Pre-Raphaelite commitment to 'naturalism' – depicting nature in fine detail, had been influenced by Ruskin. Millais had painted Effie for The Order of Release, 1746, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1852. In the summer of 1853 John Everett Millais (and his brother) travelled to Scotland with Ruskin and Effie. She and Millais fell in love, and Effie left Ruskin, causing a public scandal. In April 1854, Effie filed her suit of nullity, on grounds of "non-consummation" owing to his "incurable impotency", a charge Ruskin later disputed. The annulment was granted in July. Ruskin did not even mention it in his diary. Effie married Millais the following year. The complex reasons for the non-consummation and ultimate failure of the Ruskin marriage are a matter of enduring speculation and debate. Ruskin continued to support Hunt and Rossetti as well as his wife Elizabeth to encourage her art. Other artists influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites also received both critical and financial support from Ruskin, including John Brett, John William Inchbold, and Edward Burne-Jones, who became a good friend. Ruskin had been in Venice when he heard about Turner's death in 1851. Being named an executor to Turner's will was an honour that Ruskin respectfully declined, but later took up. Ruskin's book in celebration of the sea, The Harbours of England, revolving around Turner's drawings, was published in 1856. In January 1857, Ruskin's Notes on the Turner Gallery at Marlborough House, 1856 was published. He persuaded the National Gallery to allow him to work on the Turner Bequest of nearly 20,000 individual artworks left to the nation by the artist. Starting from the 1850s Ruskin was involved in teaching and became an increasingly popular public lecturer. His first public lectures were given in Edinburgh, in November 1853, on architecture and painting. Both volumes III and IV of Modern Painters were published in 1856. During this period Ruskin wrote regular reviews of the annual exhibitions at the Royal Academy under the title Academy Notes (1855–59, 1875). They were highly influential, capable of making or breaking reputations. Following his crisis of faith, and influenced in part by his friend Thomas Carlyle (whom he had first met in 1850), Ruskin shifted his emphasis in the late 1850s from art towards social issues. Nevertheless, he continued to lecture on and write about a wide range of subjects including art. Ruskin was an art-philanthropist: in March 1861 he gave 48 Turner drawings to the Ashmolean in Oxford, and a further 25 to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in May. On his father's death in 1864, Ruskin inherited a considerable fortune of between £120,000 and £157,000 This considerable fortune gave him the means to engage in personal philanthropy and practical schemes of social amelioration. Ruskin was unanimously appointed the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University in August 1869. In Oxford, Ruskin's lectures were often so popular that they had to be given twice—once for the students, and again for the public. Most of them were eventually published. He lectured on a wide range of subjects at Oxford, his interpretation of "Art" encompassing almost every conceivable area of study. In 1871, John Ruskin founded his own art school at Oxford, The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. Ruskin endowed the drawing mastership with £5000 of his own money. He also established a large collection of drawings, watercolours and other materials (over 800 frames) that he used to illustrate his lectures. That same year, Ruskin also founded his utopian society, the Guild of St George. A communitarian protest against nineteenth-century industrial capitalism, it had a hierarchical structure, with Ruskin as its Master, and dedicated members called "Companions". Ruskin wished to show that contemporary life could still be enjoyed in the countryside, with land being farmed by traditional means, in harmony with the environment, and with the minimum of mechanical assistance. He also sought to educate and enrich the lives of industrial workers by inspiring them with beautiful objects. As such, with a tithe (or personal donation) of £7,000, Ruskin acquired land and a collection of art treasures. Donations of land from wealthy and dedicated Companions eventually placed land and property in the Guild's care. In principle, Ruskin worked out a scheme for different grades of "Companion", wrote codes of practice, described styles of dress and even designed the Guild's own coins. In reality, the Guild, which still exists today as a charitable education trust, has only ever operated on a small scale. The Guild's most conspicuous and enduring achievement was the creation of a remarkable collection of art, minerals, books, medieval manuscripts, architectural casts, coins and other precious and beautiful objects. In August 1871, Ruskin purchased the then somewhat dilapidated Brantwood house, on the shores of Coniston Water, in the English Lake District, paying £1500 for it. Brantwood was Ruskin's main home from 1872 until his death. His estate provided a site for more of his practical schemes and experiments: he had an ice house built, and the gardens comprehensively rearranged. He oversaw the construction of a larger harbour (from where he rowed his boat, the Jumping Jenny), and he altered the house (adding a dining room, a turret to his bedroom to give him a panoramic view of the lake, and he later extended the property to accommodate his relatives). He built a reservoir, and redirected the waterfall down the hills, adding a slate seat that faced the tumbling stream and craggy rocks rather than the lake, so that he could closely observe the fauna and flora of the hillside. Ruskin had been introduced to the wealthy Irish La Touche family by Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford. Maria La Touche, a minor Irish poet and novelist, asked Ruskin to teach her daughters drawing and painting in 1858. Rose La Touche was ten. His first meeting came at a time when Ruskin's own religious faith was under strain. La Touche family prevented the two from meeting. A chance meeting at the Royal Academy in 1869 was one of the few occasions they came into personal contact. After a long illness, she died on 25 May 1875, at the age of 27. These events plunged Ruskin into despair and led to increasingly severe bouts of mental illness involving a number of breakdowns and delirious visions. Ruskin turned to spiritualism. He attended seances at Broadlands. Ruskin's increasing need to believe in a meaningful universe and a life after death, both for himself and his loved ones, helped to revive his Christian faith in the 1870s. In 1879, Ruskin resigned from Oxford, but resumed his Professorship in 1883, only to resign again in 1884. In the 1880s, Ruskin returned to some literature and themes that had been among his favourites since childhood. He wrote about Scott, Byron and Wordsworth in Fiction, Fair and Foul (1880). His last great work was his autobiography, Praeterita (1885–89) (meaning, 'Of Past Things'), a highly personalised, selective, eloquent but incomplete account of aspects of his life. The period from the late 1880s was one of steady and inexorable decline. Gradually it became too difficult for him to travel to Europe. He suffered a complete mental collapse on his final tour, which included Beauvais, Sallanches and Venice, in 1888. The emergence and dominance of the Aesthetic movement and Impressionism distanced Ruskin from the modern art world, his ideas on the social utility of art contrasting with the doctrine of "l'art pour l'art" or "art for art's sake" that was beginning to dominate. Although Ruskin's 80th birthday was widely celebrated in 1899, Ruskin was scarcely aware of it. He died at Brantwood from influenza on 20 January 1900 at the age of 80. He was buried five days later in the churchyard at Coniston, according to his wishes. The contents of Ruskin's home were dispersed in a series of sales at auction, and Brantwood itself was bought in 1932 by the educationist and Ruskin enthusiast, collector and memorialist, John Howard Whitehouse who opened in 1934 as a memorial to Ruskin and it remains open to the public today. The Guild of St George continues to thrive as an educational charity, and has an international membership. Ruskin's influence reached across the world. Tolstoy described him as "one of the most remarkable men not only of England and of our generation, but of all countries and times" and quoted extensively from him, rendering his ideas into Russian. Proust not only admired Ruskin but helped translate his works into French. Gandhi wrote of the "magic spell" cast on him by Unto This Last and paraphrased the work in Gujarati, calling it Sarvodaya, "The Advancement of All". Theorists and practitioners in a broad range of disciplines acknowledged their debt to Ruskin. Architects including Le Corbusier, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Gropius incorporated his ideas in their work. Writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde, G. K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound felt Ruskin's influence.
William Morris and C. R. Ashbee (of the Guild of Handicraft) were keen disciples, and through them Ruskin's legacy can be traced in the arts and crafts movement.
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ProfileVeronique Peck (née Passani; 5 February 1932 – 17 August 2012) was a French-American arts patron, philanthropist and journalist. She was married to actor, political activist and philanthropist Gregory Peck from 1955 until his death in 2003. BiographyVeronique Passani was born in Paris, France; her mother was an artist and writer, while her father was an architect. She began her career as a journalist for France Soir, a French daily newspaper, and met Gregory Peck while conducting an interview for France Soir in 1953. The couple married on December 31, 1955, shortly after Peck's divorce from his first wife, Greta Kukkonen. Veronique Peck became a well-known philanthropist in Greater Los Angeles. She and her husband raised approximately $50 million for the American Cancer Society during the 1960s. The Los Angeles Times named her "Woman of the Year" in 1967. She also co-founded the Inner City Cultural Center, a theater group composed of members from different ethnic backgrounds, and the Los Angeles Music Center. Veronique Peck became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1976. Shortly after Gregory Peck's death in 2003, Veronique Peck took control of the Gregory Peck Reading Series. The series raises money on behalf of the Los Angeles Public Library through the collaboration of celebrities. Veronique Peck and her family attended a private White House screening of To Kill a Mockingbird(the film for which Gregory Peck was awarded Oscar) in 2012 with President Barack Obama to mark what would have been her late husband's 96th birthday. Veronique Peck died of a heart ailment at her home in Los Angeles, California on 17 August 2012, at the age of 80. She was survived by her daughter filmmaker Cecilia Peck, son Anthony Peck, three grandchildren, and her brother, Cornelius Passani. Further interestExhibition ProfileOskar Dieter Alex von Rosenberg-Redé, 3rd Baron von Rosenberg-Redé (4 February 1922 – 8 July 2004), also known as Alexis, Baron de Redé, was a prominent French banker, aristocrat, aesthete, collector, and socialite. Involved in horse racing, in 1972 he won the Prix de Diane and came in second at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. In 2003, he was appointed a commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his restoration of the Hôtel Lambert, where he was known for hosting opulent costume balls. Alexis von Rosenberg, 3e baron de Redé (4 février 1922 — 8 juillet 2004), né sujet austro-hongrois, est un amateur d'art, esthète réputé et grand collectionneur de mobilier français du xviiie siècle. Établi à Paris après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, il a appartenu aux plus hauts cercles de la société mondaine européenne et américaine pendant près de soixante ans. Peu soucieux de célébrité médiatique et, de son vivant, quasi inconnu du grand public, il est réputé pour son goût pour l'art et les réceptions durant les années 1950. BiographyOskar Dieter Alex von Rosenberg-Redé was born in Zurich, Switzerland on 4 February 1922, the third and youngest child of Oskar Adolf Rosenberg, Baron von Rosenberg-Redé [de] (1878–1939), a banker from Austria-Hungary. His father had been adopted by a banker named Rosenberg and made a citizen of Liechtenstein, then created a baron in the Hungarian nobility by the Emperor of Austria in 1916. Redé's mother was Edith von Kaulla (1890—1931), a member of an ennobled German Jewish family that had been part-owners of the Royal Württemberg Court Bank (″Königlich Württembergische Hofbank″, founded by Karoline Kaulla and Raphael Kaulla). He had two siblings. His brother Hubert von Rosenberg-Redé, born in 1919, was the heir to the barony, while his sister Marion von Rosenberg-Redé (born 1916) was born handicapped. Together with his brother and sister, Redé was brought up Protestant and raised by their mother in a 16-room hotel suite at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich, attended by a great many maids, nannies, porters, and valets. Their father who lived mostly in Vienna, visited occasionally. As the family's finances decreased with the onset of World War II, the children moved with their mother into a two-bedroom suite. In 1931, when Redé was nine years old, his mother left for Vienna to look for her husband after being diagnosed of leukemia, and she died there 3 weeks later. Redé and his brother were then sent to be educated together at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland where the royal families and rich millionaires sent their children. Prince Rainier of Monaco and future Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi were both fellow pupils. In 1939 Redé's father committed suicide at the family's estate (Villa Rosin) in the Austrian town of Kaumberg, due to bankruptcy, leaving his children a small income from a life insurance policy. Redé moved to New York City, living there with income of $200 a month. He traveled to California to work for an antique dealer, where he earned money to support his sister and befriended Elsie de Wolfe (known as Lady Mendl), as well as Salvador and Gala Dalí. But he returned in New York in 1941. In a New York restaurant, the 19-year-old Redé caught the eye of immensely rich Chilean businessman Arturo López Willshaw (1900–62) who was married to his first cousin Patricia Lopez Huici but had had a few homosexual relationships before meeting Redé and was "famous for his extravagant costume entertainments." Arturo López Willshaw became Redé's protector and lover in 1941. By his own account, Redé was largely uninterested in affection or sex, and had only ever loved a Polish classmate at Le Rosey, an interest he never acted on. Upon meeting Arturo López Willshaw, Redé recollected losing his virginity to the man at the "sleazy" hotel Winslow on East 55th Street. As Redé recalled of the beginning of the relationship, "I was not in love. But I needed protection, and I was aware that he could provide this." In addition, he observed, "The money gave me the security I craved, and it would also enable me to look after my handicapped sister." In 1942, his brother Hubert von Rosenberg-Redé committed suicide in Hollywood, California, whereupon Redé became the third and last Baron von Rosenberg-Redé, which was typically abbreviated as Baron de Redé in France. Shortly after they became a couple, Arturo López Willshaw allegedly offered Redé $1 million to return with him to France, but Redé was initially hesitant. Then upon Arturo López Willshaw's urging, Redé moved to Paris in 1946 in the entourage of Lady Mendl who was returning to Versailles from California. Arturo López Willshaw and his wife Patricia Lopez Willshaw lived in a house in Neuilly, 14 rue du Centre which was bought by him before the war which he rebuilt and furnished with priceless treasures. Patricia Lopez Willshaw was cool towards her husband's companion, though the three often attended social events as a group and traveled together, moving between suites in European and American hotels, the house in Neuilly, a yacht, and an apartment in California. The Lopez-Wilshaws and Redé also took up organizing lavish costume balls together. Redé was a committed aesthete. In 1949, he moved into the ground floor of the 17th century Hôtel Lambert on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris and restored the building and its décor. He was influenced by such interior decorators as Georges Geffroy and Victor Grandpierre. Lopez-Wilshaw unofficially lived with Redé at the Hôtel Lambert while maintaining his formal residence with his wife in Neuilly. With his wealth deriving from his lover, Redé's social notoriety rested on being a kept man. By the early 1950s, Redé had become an "important influence in Paris society" with his luncheons and dinners at the Hotel Lambert, which were known for their decor, luxury, and food. His parties were the center of le tout-Paris. In a number of his events he involved the new designers in Paris that would later go on to become well-known, such as Pierre Cardin who designed his costume for a Beaumont Ball in 1949, and Yves Saint Laurent who designed headdresses for him for his Bal des Têtes in 1956. Nina Ricci designed the costumes of Redé and the Lopez-Willshaws for the famous 1951 Bal oriental given by Carlos de Beistegui at his Venetian palace, the Palazzo Labia. In 1956, at Redé's Bal des Têtes, the young Yves Saint Laurent provided many of the headdresses—the Duchess of Windsor being one of the judges—and received a boost to his career. Well-known in Parisian high-society, Nancy Mitford called him "La Pompadour de nos jours."(Pompadour of our times); Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon described him as "the Eugène de Rastignac of modern Paris"and "the best host in all Europe"; Philippe Jullian described the world of Lopez-Willshaw and Redé as akin to a small 18th-century court. Members of this circle included the poet and patron of the Surrealists, Marie-Laure de Noailles (1902–70); musicians such as Henri Sauguet, Georges Auric, and Francis Poulenc; and the artist Christian Bérard. In 1953, author Christian Mégret published Danaé, a popular roman à clef based on Redé's and Lopez-Willshaw's life together. The racy details were provided by one of their close friends and Mégret's companion, Princess Ghislaine de Polignac. Lopez-Willshaw promptly banned Polignac from his home, although Redé later relented and became friends with Polignac again. As his partner, Redé was closely involved with managing Lopez-Willshaw's financial affairs, which he did "adroitly." In 1962, when Arturo Lopez-Willshaw died, Redé inherited half of his fortune. To manage it, he joined Prince Rupert Loewenstein in taking control of Leopold Joseph & Sons, a bank where he served as the deputy chairman. With Loewenstein, Redé was closely involved in managing the money of the Rolling Stones. They also founded Artemis, an investment fund specializing in the purchase of fine art. Apart from private collectors, some major museums around the world such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, The National Gallery of London, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The National Gallery of Washington, The National Museum of Denmark were among the the investment fund's clients. Redé himself was also an avid art collector and had a great interest in the 17th and 18th centuries. He frequented dealers of art such as Jacques Kugel and Nicolas Landau. In 1964, Redé was included on the first annual list put out by the National Society of Interior Designers for "individuals who have inspired good design". After forging a friendship with Marie-Hélène de Rothschild, wife of Baron Guy de Rothschild, Redé worked with her to throw a great many balls at the Rothschild Château de Ferrières, east of Paris. He also threw parties in Hotel Lambert, where he resided. The most famous party was the Oriental Ball (Bal oriental) in December 1969, which turned the hotel into a lavish fantasy and has been called an "apotheosis" of Redé's parties. 400 guests were invited. When Diana Vreeland heard of the plans for the event, she promptly contacted Redé and expressed her interest in having the event photographed for Vogue. The guest list was the crème de la crème of international high society. Which includes: Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and Baron Guy de Rothschild, Comtesse Jacqueline de Ribes, Duke and Duchess of Cadaval; Baron Arnaud de Rosnay, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Prince Johannes of Thurn and Taxis, Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein, socialite Sao Schlumberger, Dolores Guinness, Vicomtesse DaleBrigitte Bardot de Bonchamps; movie star Brigitte Bardot, ballet dancer Serge Lifar, artist Salvador Dalí, art collector Jean Claude Abreu, couturiers Oscar de la Renta and Hélène Rochas, jewellery designer Kenneth Jay Lane,, film producer Vincente Minnelli, the Bolivian billionaire Antenor Patiño, industrial magnate Konrad Henkel, Lazard bank chairman Michel David-Weill. In 1971, he was included on The New York Times best-dressed list. In 1972, Redé had his portrait painted by the fashionable painter Anthony Christian, and he was named in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. Also in 1972, Redé won the Prix de Diane horse race, and came in second at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. In 1975, Redé persuaded his close friends, Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and her husband Baron Guy de Rothschild, to purchase the Hotel Lambert. Redé kept his apartments in the building, and they shared the house for the rest of his life, with the Rothschilds henceforth using it as their Paris residence. He and the Rothschilds remained close, and all three went on vacations together. Redé was inseparable from Marie-Hélène until she died in 1996. Afterwards he spent much of his time with Charlotte Aillaud, sister of Juliette Gréco. In 2003, he was appointed a commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his restoration of the Hôtel Lambert. He continued to entertain at the Lambert until 2004. He died suddenly at the home of a friend, Carmen Saint, at the age of 82, of heart issues. A mass was held at Saint Louis en L'Isle on July 13, at the church near the Hotel Lambert. He was interred in a crypt at Pere Lachaise near the tomb of Arturo Lopez-Willshaw. A larger memorial was held in September. Redé's estate, notably the contents of his apartment at the Hôtel Lambert, was auctioned after his death by Sotheby's and realized £5.2 million. His memoirs, Alexis: The Memoirs of the Baron de Redé, were published posthumously in 2005. Hugo Vickers was its editor and ghostwriter. BiographieAlexis Dieter Rudolf de Redé est né le 4 février 1922 à Zurich, Suisse, dans un milieu éminemment privilégié. Son père, Oskar Adolf Rosenberg, (1878 - 1939), 1er baron de Redé, est un banquier austro-hongrois juif, anobli en 1916 par l'empereur François-Joseph d'Autriche. Cependant, le titre de baron de Redé n'est pas mentionné dans l'Almanach de Gotha et de ce fait sa validité a été mise en doute : ainsi « Dans Les Juifs, écrit Roger Peyrefitte, j'ai fait allusion à son origine ; il m'a fait écrire par son avocat que le titre de baron de Rédé était reconnu dans la principauté de Liechenstein ! C'est vraiment une référence inattaquable. » Mais si l'on considère l'année 1916 où le titre a été créé, en pleine première Guerre mondiale, peu avant l'effondrement des principautés allemandes et des empires centraux, il faut admettre que la mise à jour d'un almanach ait pu ne pas y être traitée en urgence : l'anoblissement d'Oskar Adolf Rosenberg fut effectivement confirmé. Ce financier avisé est le fondé de pouvoir du roi Nicolas de Monténégro et il possède la plus jolie station balnéaire d'Allemagne, Heiligendamm, le « Deauville de la Baltique ». Oskar Adolf fait l'acquisition de Heiligendamm en 1924, deux ans après la naissance d'Alexis. La mère d'Alexis, Édith von Kaullas, appartient à une riche famille de banquiers juifs allemands eux-mêmes anoblis et associés au roi de Wurtemberg dans la propriété de la banque de Wurtemberg. À l'instar des riches familles d'Europe centrale de l'époque, les Rosenberg mènent une existence cosmopolite et voyageuse. Après s'être installé au Liechtenstein dont il prend la nationalité, Oskar Adolf Rosenberg loue une suite de seize pièces dans un grand hôtel de Zurich où il installe sa femme, son fils aîné, Hubert, et sa fille, atteinte de déficience mentale. C'est là que naît Alexis. Une armada de gouvernantes et de précepteurs veille sur les trois enfants qui sont élevés dans la religion protestante, bien que les familles de leurs deux parents soient de confession juive ; pour sa part, le père vit principalement à Vienne, d'où il mène ses affaires. C'est en 1931 que s'annonce le déclin. Apprenant qu'elle est atteinte de leucémie, la mère d'Alexis se rend à Vienne auprès de son mari; elle y apprend qu'il entretient une maîtresse à Paris. Que ce soit sous le choc de cette révélation ou épuisée par la maladie, elle meurt trois semaines plus tard. Alexis qui a neuf ans, est aussitôt envoyé par son père à l'Institut Le Rosey, célèbre pension suisse où se côtoient les enfants de millionnaires et de familles royales. Il y sera le condisciple du futur Rainier III de Monaco et du futur shah d'Iran, le jeune Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, qui se souviendra de lui comme d'un garçon d'une « gracieuse langueur ». Alors qu'enfle l'ombre du nazisme, il y rencontre aussi l'antisémitisme dont il ne soupçonnait pas l'existence. Ruiné, son père se suicide en 1939. Confié à un tuteur, Alexis décide, en septembre 1939, de partir pour New-York, où réside une partie de sa famille et y reste jusqu'en 1946. « Un jour Arturo Lopez [-Willshaw] entre dans une banque new-yorkaise et aperçoit un ravissant et mince employé blond. Il l'invite à dîner, lui demande son nom:Alexis Rosenberg. Que le Tout-Paris connaît maintenant sous le nom de baron de Rédé. Il a été un grand ami de Denise Bourdet. C'est un homme très distingué, et qui a une sorte de génie des affaires. Il a réussi, non seulement à restaurer la fortune d'Arturo Lopez, mais encore à devenir plus riche que lui. Le Tout-Paris connaissait cette amitié, mais personne n'en parlait. Arturo était marié, Redé faisait la cour aux baronnes de Rothschild ou aux jeunes filles du monde. On annonçait de temps en temps ses fiançailles, et on faisait semblant d'y croire. Il fut éconduit d'une manière humiliante, lorsqu'il sollicita la main d'une fille du comte de Paris. » Roger Peyrefitte Alexis de Redé situe son rencontre avec Le milliardaire chilien Arturo Lopez-Willshaw au printemps 1941, à New-York. « Arturo Lopez-Willshaw allait transformer sa vie tout entière. Ils vinrent vivre à Paris (en 1946) où Alexis occupa l'étage noble du fameux hôtel Lambert... Collectionneur avisé, il savait s'entourer d'objets d'art, de coupes de vermeil d'Augsbourg et de Dresde, d'émaux de Limoges et de Venise, qui ne pouvaient venir que de chez Nicolas Landau et de chez Kugel. Cet amateur aurait pu en remontrer à bien des professionnels (...) il était d'une insatiable curiosité. Il y a vingt ans (1975), lorsque l'hôtel Lambert fut à vendre, ses amis Guy et Marie-Hélène de Rothschild s'en rendirent les maîtres et le partagèrent avec lui. C'est là, dans ce lieu d'un autre âge, qu'il termina ses jours. » Redé collectionnait différents types d'objets d'art et livres précieux dans le goût fastueux dit « Europe centrale ». Arturo Lopez-Willshaw loua le premier étage de cet hôtel prestigieux de l'île Saint-Louis, que son jeune compagnon restaura pendant deux ans (1947-1949 ?) et meubla magnifiquement. À sa mort en 1962, il hérita de la moitié de sa fortune et d'une partie de l'importante collection d'art réunie dans son hôtel particulier de Neuilly-sur-Seine. Sa propre collection fut dispersée lors de deux grandes ventes aux enchères publiques, menées par Sotheby's : la première à Monaco les 25 et 26 mai 1975, organisée après la mort de son ami, aurait été causée par une situation financière altérée par de mauvais investissements. La seconde vente, à Paris les 16 et 17 mars 2005 fut faite dans le cadre de sa succession hormis certains livres anciens de grande valeur, selon sa compagne Charlotte Aillaud (sœur de Juliette Gréco), qui partagea les dix dernières années de sa vie. Par ses choix esthétiques, Redé a influencé le goût de son temps. Alexis de Redé est connu notamment pour ses fêtes fastueuses comme le Bal des Têtes, le 23 juin 1957, ou encore le Bal oriental en 1969, tous deux donnés à l'hôtel Lambert. Le Bal des Têtes a pour particularité le port, par chaque invité, d'un faciès si possible fantasque. Un jury de personnalités avait la mission de choisir la coiffe la plus réussie pour lui décerner un prix. Yves Saint Laurent, alors jeune assistant de Christian Dior, contribue à l'organisation de cette soirée. Le 5 décembre 1969, Redé donne à l'hôtel Lambert un Bal oriental qui est pour lui une sorte « d’apothéose mondaine » et lui aurait coûté un million de dollars. Il en eut l'idée à la suite de l'achat d'un mouchoir indien, et les invitations étaient la copie de ce mouchoir. Le décorateur Jean-François Daigre intervient dans la conception et la réalisation des décors. Alexandre Serebriakoff réalise notamment les plans de table, et une série de dessins à l'aquarelle. Quatre cents invités y participent, parmi lesquels les personnalités les plus connues du Tout-Paris et de la café society internationale:
Le maître de maison était costumé en prince mongol. Deux éléphants blancs en papier mâché, grandeur nature, accueillaient les invités dans la cour de l’hôtel. Des « esclaves noirs » torse nu portaient les torches dans le grand escalier menant à la salle de bal, tandis que des automates jouaient de différents instruments, disposés dans la majestueuse galerie d'Hercule. Cette fête a fait l'objet de nombreux reportages, dans Vogue et Paris Match entre autres magazines, et elle reste l'une des plus célèbres de l'après-guerre. Il meurt à Neuilly-sur-Seine; sa messe de funérailles est dite en l'église Saint Louis en l'île le 14 septembre 2004, selon le rite extraordinaire de l'église catholique par le père Konrad zu Loewenstein, fils d'un de ses amis, le prince Rupert zu Loewenstein. Il est inhumé au cimetière du Père Lachaise, dans la même tombe que son ami Arturo Lopez-Willshaw (88ème Division). « Il existe à Paris une poignée d'hommes qui, depuis des décennies, semblent ne pas avoir vieilli, ou presque. [Ainsi de] l'élégant baron de Redé, souvent drapé dans une cape et chaussé d'escarpins d'une finesse extrême. Ses cheveux acajou sont tantôt plaqués, tantôt légèrement bouffants. De loin, sa silhouette est celle d'un homme de quarante ans. » Further interestArticles
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