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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ProfileJean-Pierre Aumont (born Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons; 5 January 1911 – 30 January 2001) was a French actor, and holder of the Légion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre for his World War II military service. Jean-Pierre Salomons, dit Jean-Pierre Aumont, est un acteur français, né le 5 janvier 1911 dans le 9e arrondissement de Paris et mort le 30 janvier 2001 à Gassin. Jeune premier vedette du cinéma français dans l'entre-deux-guerres, il participe également, durant sa longue carrière, à divers films américains. Par ailleurs, pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il fait partie des Forces françaises libres. BiographyJean-Pierre Aumont was born Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons in Paris, the son of an actress, and owner of a linen department store. Aumont's younger brother was the noted French film director François Villiers. Aumont began studying drama at the Paris Conservatory at age 16; His professional stage debut occurred at the age of 19. His film debut came one year later, when Jean de la Lune (Jean of the Moon) was produced in 1931. However, his most important, career-defining role came in 1934, when Jean Cocteau's play, La Machine infernale (The Infernal Machine), was staged. In 1938 Aumont married French actress Blanche Montel, to whom he divorced two years later. While his film and stage career began rising quickly, World War II broke out. Aumont remained in France until 1942, when he realized that as a Jew he would have to flee the Nazis. He migrated from the unoccupied zone of Vichy France to New York City, then to Hollywood to pursue his film career. While in Hollywood, Aumont married Maria Montez, a Dominican actress on 14 July 1943. She was known as the Queen of Technicolor, and their marriage was very happy, and they couple had one child, a daughter, Tina (1946–2006). He began working for MGM, but after finishing The Cross of Lorraine, he joined the Free French Forces. For his bravery during the fighting, Aumont received the Légion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre. After the war, Aumont quickly resumed his movie career, starring opposite Ginger Rogers in Heartbeat (1946), and as the magician in Lili (1953) with Leslie Caron, among many other roles. Montez drowned in her bathtub on 7 September 1951 after suffering an apparent heart attack at the family's Suresnes villa. Jean Pierre Aumont has been romantically involved with Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Vivien Leigh and Barbara Stanwyck. In 1955, Aumont was dating Grace Kelly at the time she first met Prince Rainier III of Monaco. In the mid-1950s, Aumont began working in the new medium of television. In 1956, Aumont married Italian actress Marisa Pavan. The couple starred in one film together, John Paul Jones (1959), in which Pavan played the romantic interest of the lead, while Aumont appears as King Louis XVI. They divorced, but later remarried and remained together until his death. Aumont and Pavan had two sons, Jean-Claude and Patrick. In the 1960s and 1970s, he appeared in various theater productions, including the musicals Tovarich with Vivien Leigh, and Gigi. One of his last acting performances was in A Tale of Two Cities (1989), and his last on screen appearance is in Senso in 1993. Two years later, in 1991, aged 80, he received an honorary César Award as well as being decorated with the cross of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. Jean-Pierre Aumont died in 2001 of a heart attack in Gassin, France, aged 90, and was cremated. BiographieJean-Pierre Philippe Salomons est le fils d'Alexandre Salomons, administrateur de société, et de Suzanne Cohen. Son frère fit une carrière de cinéaste sous le nom de François Villiers. Jean-Pierre Aumont s'inscrit au Conservatoire de Paris à 16 ans. Il débute au cinéma dans Jean de la Lune, et obtient un premier rôle comme jeune ouvrier sombrant dans la délinquance dans Dans les rues (1933). Doté d'une beauté physique particulièrement avantageuse, il n'a aucun mal à accéder à des rôles de jeunes premiers au cinéma. Jean Cocteau lui confie en 1934 le rôle d'Œdipe dans sa Machine infernale. Il triomphe en 1934 dans Lac aux dames de Marc Allégret avec Simone Simon et Michel Simon. À la suite de l'invasion allemande, du fait de ses origines juives, Jean-Pierre Aumont s'exile aux États-Unis en 1940. Il est le compagnon de l'actrice française Blanche Montel de 1934 jusqu'à son départ pour les États-Unis en 1940. En 1943, il est la vedette de deux films de guerre ayant pour cadre le conflit en France : Un commando en Bretagne (Assignment in Brittany) de Jack Conway et La Croix de Lorraine (The Cross of Lorraine) de Tay Garnett avec Gene Kelly. Il s'engage dans les Forces françaises libres en juin 1943 et fait partie des troupes qui libèrent la France, notamment en tant que lieutenant, aide de camp du général Diego Brosset, commandant la 1re division française libre. Blessé deux fois, il reçoit la croix de guerre 1939-1945 et la Légion d'honneur. En 1947, Jean-Pierre Aumont interprète le compositeur russe Nicolaï Rimski-Korsakov dans une fantaisie hollywoodienne Schéhérazade (Song of Scheherazade) aux côtés d'Yvonne De Carlo. Aux États-Unis, il se marie avec l'actrice dominicaine María Montez, avec laquelle il aura une fille Tina Aumont (1946-2006). Le couple vivait alors à Suresnes. Il tourne dans de nouvelles versions de L'Atlandide avec María Montez en 1948 et partage l'affiche avec elle, en 1949, du beau Hans le marin. En 1951 son épouse María Montez est retrouvée morte noyée dans sa baignoire. On le retrouve en 1953 dans Moineaux de Paris de Maurice Cloche aux côtés des Petits chanteurs à la croix de bois et dans Lili de Charles Walters avec Leslie Caron et Mel Ferrer. Il a une liaison avec l'actrice Grace Kelly, future princesse de Monaco. Et on lui connaît des liaisons avec les actrices Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr, Vivien Leigh et Barbara Stanwyck. En 1956, il épouse à Santa-Barbara en troisièmes noces Marisa Pavan, sœur jumelle de Pier Angeli, avec qui il a deux fils, Jean-Claude Aumont (1957) et Patrick Aumont (1959). Ils divorcent en 1963 et se remarient à San Clemente en 1969. En 1965, Jean-Pierre Aumont joue sur scène à Broadway Tovarich aux côtés de Vivien Leigh; en 1973 il joue dans La Nuit américaine de François Truffaut, puis dans diverses productions étrangères. Il tient des rôles de premier plan dans les remakes de Nana en 1982 et de Senso en 1993. Il meurt à 90 ans d'une crise cardiaque à Gassin, dans les environs de Saint-Tropez. Une plaque en hommage à Jean-Pierre Aumont a été dévoilée le 28 septembre 2008 au 4, allée des Brouillards, dans le 18e arrondissement de Paris. Le 2 mai 2011, la Cinémathèque française a célébré le centenaire de Jean-Pierre Aumont. Further interestBooks
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ProfileJane Mallory Birkin, OBE (14 December 1946-16 July 2023) was an English actress, singer, songwriter, and model. Although she had a prolific career as an actress in British and French cinema, she attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with French musician Serge Gainsbourg, as well as her status as an style icon immortalised by French luxury brand Hermès's Birkin Bag, created for and named after her. BiographyJane Mallory Birkin was born on 14 December 1946, in Marylebone, London. Her mother, Judy Campbell, was an English actress, best known for her work on stage, and muse of Noel Coward. Her father, David Birkin, was a Royal Navy lieutenant commander and World War II spy. Her brother is screenwriter and director Andrew Birkin. Birkin was raised in Chelsea, and described herself as a "shy English girl." She was educated at Upper Chine School, Isle of Wight. At age 17, she met John Barry, the English composer best known for writing the music for many James Bond films, as well as numerous other movies like Out of Africa. They met when Barry cast Birkin in his musical Passion Flower Hotel. They were married in 1965 and their daughter, Kate Barry, was born on 8 April 1967. Birkin appeared in an uncredited part in The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965), her first appearance on screen. She had more substantial roles in the counterculture era films Blowup and Kaleidoscope (both 1966) and as a fantasy-like model in the psychedelic film Wonderwall (1968). Birkin and her husband Barry divorced in 1968, and Birkin returned to live with her family in London, and began to audition for film and television roles in England and Los Angeles, California. That same year, she auditioned in France for the lead female role in the film Slogan (1969). Though she did not speak French she won the role, co-starring alongside Serge Gainsbourg, and she performed with him on the film's theme song, "La Chanson de Slogan" – the first of many collaborations between the two. After filming Slogan, Birkin relocated to France permanently and started a passionate and creative relationship with her co-star Serge Gainsbourg, who would become her mentor. In 1969, Gainsbourg and Birkin released the duet "Je t'aime... moi non plus" ("I love you ... me neither"). Gainsbourg originally had written the song for Brigitte Bardot, who sang with him but later asked him not to release the song. Gainsbourg kept his promise, but released the version he sang with Jane Birkin. The song caused a scandal for its sexual explicitness, and was banned by radio stations in Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. "Je t'aime" made UK chart history on 4 October 1969 and the following week on 11 October, the song was at two different chart positions, though it is the same song, the same artists, and the same recorded version. The only difference was that they were on different record labels. It was originally released on the Fontana label, but due to its controversy, Fontana withdrew the record, which was then released on the Major Minor label. It was also the biggest-selling single ever for a completely foreign-language record. In 1971, Birkin and Gainsbourg had a daughter, actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. The same year, Jane Birkin appeared on Gainsbourg's 1971 album Histoire de Melody Nelson, portraying the Lolita-like protagonist in song and on the cover. She took a break from acting in 1971–1972, but returned as Brigitte Bardot's lover in Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973). In 1975, Jane Birkin appeared in Gainsbourg's first film, Je t'aime moi non plus, which created a stir for frank examination of sexual ambiguity, and was banned in the United Kingdom by the British Board of Film Classification. For this performance, she was nominated for a Best Actress César Award. Birkin and Gainsbourg separated in 1980. After their separation, Birkin became partner of French director Jacques Doillion, and continued to work as both an actress and a singer, appearing in various independent films and recording numerous solo albums. On 4 September 1982, Birkin gave birth to her third daughter, Lou Doillon, from her relationship with Jacques Doillon. They separated in 1990. In 2016, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La femme et le TGV, which she said would be her final film role. On 24 March 2017, Birkin released Birkin/Gainsbourg: Le Symphonique, a collection of songs Gainsbourg had written for her during and after their relationship, reworked with full orchestral arrangements. In September 2017, she performed live in Brussels in support of the album. In addition to her acting and musical credits, she lent her name to the popular Hermès Birkin bag which made her a style icon. In her decade long love affair with Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin was seen everywhere. Everywhere she went, in any season, with any outfit, she was carrying a hand-woven straw basket. Even after she left Gainsbourg, she did not leave her basket. In 1983, on her flight from Paris to London, Jane Birkin as always carried her "Jane basket", which failed this time when she put it in the overhead compartment, with all the contents fell to the floor. The man next to her seat, was French luxury label Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas who witnessed this comic scene. Jane Birkin explained to Dumas that it had been difficult to find a leather weekend bag she liked. In 1984, he modified the design of a bag created in 1982, and created a black supple leather bag for her: the Birkin bag. Thus Jane Birkin became the style icon and the Birkin bag the status symbol. So much so that her third daughter Lou Doillon called herself "Daughter of the bag". In the last two decade of her life, Jane Birkin's health became more delicate. In 2002, Jane Birkin was diagnosed with leukaemia and underwent rounds of treatment. Eleven years later, in December 2013, her daughter Kate Barry died after falling from a fourth floor apartment in Paris. It took Jane Birkin years to recover from the loss of her daughter. In September 2021, Jane Birkin suffered a small stroke. On 16 July 2023, Birkin was found dead at her home in Paris by her care giver. She was 76 years old. |
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