man’s (or woman’s) best friend

Whether you love them for their grace and beauty or for their unwavering loyalty, dogs are truly a man’s (or woman’s) best friend…here is a sampling of some of my favorite designers with the love’s of their life

Bobby McAlpine with his Greyhound Joe

Darryl Carter with his German Shorthaired Pointer Otis

Robert Couturier with his Shih Tzus Henriette and Chuck

Alfredo Paredes’ Labrador Retriever Sid

Tara Shaw with her Whippet Jack

John Dransfield and Geoffrey Ross with their Great Dane Cooper

Grant K. Gibson with one of his two Westies

Todd Romano’s miniature dachshund Bunny

Stephen Shubel’s Papillon Coco

Nate Berkus with his Border Collies Henry and Emma

Fitzhugh Karol with Olive

Yves Saint Laurent with his Chihuahua

Michael S. Smith’s Wheaton Terriers Chubbs and Shortcake

Greet Lefevre with Mango! (ok, not her dog Ralph but most definitely a huge love of her life!)

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well read ~ part two

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” ~ Charles W. Eliot

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Hallberg & Wisely

Haynes-Roberts

J. Randall Powers

Jacques Grange

James Huniford

John Minshaw

John Saladino

Juan Pablo Molyneux

Kara Mann

Karin Blake

Lars Bolander

Lauren Gold

Luis Bustamante

Magnus Lundgren

Mary McDonald

Meichi Peng

Michael Smith

Michele Bonan

Miles Redd

Nina Griscom

Richard Shapiro

Robert Couturier

Sheila Harley

Steven Volpe

Suzanne Rheinstein

Ted Tuttle

Thomas Jayne

Thomas O’Brien

Tricia Huntley

Vicente Wolf

William Frawley

Windsor Smith

Yves Saint Laurent

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living with statuary ~ part two

“In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.” ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti

Wishing you a joyous weekend!

John Saladino

Juan Pablo Molyneux

Lars Bolander

Luis Bustamante

Martyn Lawrence-Bullard

Meichi Peng

Richard Shapiro

Robert Couturier

Studio Ko

Suzanne Rheinstein

William Frawley

William Sofield

Windsor Smith

Yves Saint Laurent

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l’amour fou

L’Amour Fou has finally arrived in the states! Released yesterday in NY and LA, the award winning documentary film by Pierre Thoretton focuses on the relationship between fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and the love of his life, Pierre Berge…footage includes their impassioned collection of art and furniture, the historic 2009 Paris Christies auction as well as YSL’s early years at Dior…this film promises to be visually beautiful and emotionally charged…I know I’ll be there the day it hits theaters in Boston!!!!! (to read more about YSL, check out my older posts archived under Yves Saint Laurent)

to view the trailer, click here

” I understand that the most important encounter in life is the encounter with oneself.” ~ Yves Saint Laurent

photos from IMDb

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one hundred posts!

above, Alex Papachristidis

I made it! Today is my 100th post! When I started “a thoughtful eye” back in September, one of my goals was to write one hundred posts before the end of the calendar year and happily I achieved that goal with a few days to spare! To celebrate, I’m sharing with you my top twenty favorite interiors! Each and every one of these images brings a smile to my face along with a vivid memory of the first time I experienced their beauty.

This is my special gift to you, my loyal readers…thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to join me on this personal journey…I can’t thank you enough…there is so much I have yet to discover and explore about our visual world…I hope you continue to join me, it wouldn’t be the same without you…

below, Antony Todd

below, Bobby McAlpine

below, Bunny Williams

below, Charles Spada

below, Darryl Carter

below, Jacques Grange

below, John Saladino

below, Kelly Wearstler

below, Miles Redd

below, Richard Shapiro

below, Robert Couturier

below, Stephen Sills

below, Studio Ko

below, Susan Ferrier

below, Thomas O’Brien

below, Veere Grenney

below, Vicente Wolf

below, Windsor Smith

below, Yves Saint Laurent

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framed groupings

above, my living room

A few years ago, my husband and I purchased a small sectional sofa for our living room. Positioned in the corner opposite our main entry, I knew we needed a strong statement on the walls. After many weeks of research I decided on a large grid of square frames. Mathematically, they echo the “L” shape of the sofa and draw the eye up, creating the illusion of increased ceiling height. Initially I had intended to frame some of my black and white photographs but I ended up falling in love with the brown MDF backing and white mat! The high contrast and exact repetition turned out to be the dramatic statement I was looking for!

I’m excited to share with you some of my favorite framed groupings. Whether the same size or different shapes and sizes, many or few, colorful or monochromatic, framed groupings have the power to transform a space!

below, Alex Papachristidis

below, Steven Gambrel

below, Charles Spada

below, Darryl Carter

below, Jacques Grange

below, James Huniford

below, Richard Shapiro

below, Susan Ferrier

below, Thomas O’Brien

below, Veere Grenney

below, Vicente Wolf

below, Yves Saint Laurent

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mirrors

Yesterday’s post featured the ultra chic Miles Redd and his iconic mirrored master bathroom. I couldn’t help but think about mirrors and the important role they play in architecture and interior design. From grand to petite, circular to linear, simple to ornate, they have the power to transform a space from dull to dazzling. I’m excited to share with you some of my favorite mirrored interiors! Enjoy!

above and below, Miles Redd NYC master bathroom from David Adler’s Armour Estate in Chicago ~ photos from New York Social Diary

below, Yves Saint Laurent ~ photo by Pascal Chevallier for Vanity Fair

“A pair of undulating lily-motif mirrors, crafted in bronze and copper by Claude Lalanne for the upstairs music room, led, between 1974 and 1985, to the proliferation of over a dozen more, floor to ceiling. “I can’t live in a room without mirrors,” Saint Laurent said. “If there aren’t any, the room is dead.” The effect in the music room of their multiplying reflections was vertiginous—a touch of Mad Ludwig of Bavaria, as seen through the lens of Luchino Visconti.” ~ Amy Fine Collins for Vanity Fair

below, photo from Yves Saint Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris

below, Bobby McAlpine

below, Vicente Wolf

below, Veere Grenney

below, Susan Ferrier ~ photo from House Beautiful

below, photos by danielle boudrot for Spero Home

below, Richard Shapiro

below, Paul Corrie

below, Lisa Luby Ryan

below, John Minshaw

below, Jacques Grange ~ photography by Vincent Thibert for Architectural Digest

below, Darryl Carter

below, Antony Todd

below, John Saladino

below, Michael Kors ~ photo by Douglas Friedman

below, Miles Redd

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sale of the century

Inside the Grand Palais, Collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Berge

23, 24, 25 February 2009 Grand Palais, Paris

It is with this post that I bid farewell to the legend Yves Saint Laurent. In February of 2009, the world watched as the private collection of Saint Laurent and Berge sold on the Christie’s auction block. It was an unprecedented global event breaking every record imaginable and grossing almost a half billion dollars. Although it was a huge financial success, I write this post with a heavy heart. This art represents the life they had together ~ the elation of a new discovery, the comfort of a familiar face. In yesterday’s post I quoted Madison Cox saying, “choosing paintings together was one of the strongest dialogues between Pierre and Yves, the discussion, the chase, the passion.”

Their collection may have moved on, but their legacy lives forever.

first four photos from Time magazine online (Christie’s Images), below ~ text from Christie’s

Paris – The three-day sale of the magnificent Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé at the Grand Palais, offered by Christie’s in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, realised in total €373,935,500 / £332,802,595 / $483,835,144. A remarkable 95.5% of lots sold by lot, and 93% sold by value. This historic sale set a world record for the most valuable private collection sold at auction, was the highest grossing sale in Europe on record, and set multiple world records for Impressionist and Modern Art, 20th Century Decorative Arts, Silver, Sculpture and Works of Art. One of the most exceptional and significant collections of art in private hands, it generated unprecedented interest from bidders throughout the world and the pre-sale estimates for both the sale as a whole and the individual works, were significantly exceeded.

Highlights of these exceptional and rare works of art, each with impeccable provenance, captured the attention of international collectors as they were exhibited by Christie’s, in association with Pierre Bergé and Associates, in New York, London, Brussels and Paris in the last four months. The spectacular public exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, a once in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this unique curated collection of art and to experience the evocative atmosphere of Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment at rue de Babylone, was viewed by over 30,000 visitors over 3 days (21-23 February), and over 1500 people gathered for each of the sales, held in a specially built saleroom, the largest in Christie’s history. The top lot of the sale was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911 by Henri Matisse, which sold for €35.9 million / £31.9 million / $46.4 million. 16 works of art sold for over €5 million and 61 works of art sold for over €1 million. Numerous world auction records were set in each sale, and in almost every part of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Collection, a tribute to their discerning eye for provenance and museum quality. The proceeds of the sale will go to the Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, created to prolong the history of the House of Yves Saint Laurent, and to a new foundation that will be set up for scientific research and the fight against AIDS.

below ~ Inside the Christie’s Auction of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Collection, with Exclusive Photos from the Architectural Digest Archives (Christie’s Images), Text by Mark Ginsburg, Published July 2009

1. Constantin Brancusi $37,623,104

2. Jean Dunand (pair) $3,982,106

1. Gustave Miklos (pair) $2,249,523

2. Egyptian $403,496

1 to 3. Italian $109,576

4. James Ensor $6,436,600

1. Italian (18) $1,238,849

2. Attributed to Maison Bagues $128,139

3. Gobelins $712,886

1. Jean Dunand $32,228

2. Jean Dunand $29,005

3. Jean Luce $70,90

GRAND SALON, 1976

Architectural Digest shot the couple’s apartment in 1976.

1. Italian $109,576

2. Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann $202,393

3. Jean Dunand $418,966

4. Armand Albert Rateau $1,455,422

5. French (pair) $125,045

6. Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann $94,106

7. Jules Leleu $44,604

8. After Giambologna and Pietro Tacca (pair) $388,027

9. Pierre Legrain $589,130

10. Armand Albert Rateau $388,027

11. French $148,249

12. Eileen Gray $28,238,277

GRAND SALON, 1976

Architectural Digest shot the couple’s apartment in 1976.

1. Jean Dunand $81,731

2. Attributed to Pierre Reymond $137,421

3. Jean Dunand $125,045

4. Jean Dunand $66,261

5. Albert Cheuret $403,496

6. Sir Edward Burne-Jones $774,764

7. Alfred Porteneuve (pair) $155,984

8. French (four) $132,780

9. Ernest Boiceau $774,764

GRAND SALON, 2008

When Christie’s photographed the apartment in the fall of 2008, the grand salon remained mostly unchanged, although the walls were now lined with paintings.

1. Giorgio de Chirico $14,233,226

2. Augsburg $233,332

3. Fernand Léger $7,158,509

4. Fernand Léger $4,559,634

5. Augsburg $233,332

6. Nuremberg $148,249

7. 19th century $140,515

8. Fernand Léger $4,848,398

9. Thomas Gainsborough $2,827,050

10. Henri Matisse $10,623,677

11. Juan Gris $1,383,231

12. Probably Italian $47,698

SALON DE MUSIQUE

Hall of Mirrors

Saint Laurent and Bergé were patrons of art and design as well as collectors. In 1974 the couple commissioned a pair of mirrors from Claude Lalanne for the music room of their rue de Babylone apartment. Ultimately, 15 bronze mirrors with foliate motifs by Lalanne covered the walls. Visible through the space is a Roman torso in the entrance hall.

1. Claude Lalanne $94,106

2. Roman $1,671,995

3. Claude Lalanne (15) $2,393,905

4. Jean Dunand (pair) $808,660

BIBLIOTHÈQUE

Light and Bright

“There is a theme and a continuity to my collections. Of course, there are always fantasies, but it is the base that counts,” Saint Laurent told Architectural Digest in 1976. During AD’s visit, a Joseph Csaky bas-relief was on the fireplace.

1. Joseph Csaky $186,923

2. French $32,228

3. Vilmos Zsolnay $44,604

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yves saint laurent’s paris home

Choosing paintings together was “one of the strongest dialogues between Pierre and Yves,” Madison Cox says, “the discussion, the chase, the passion.”  ~ Vanity Fair

In 1969, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge purchased a glorious home at 55 Rue de Babylone in Paris’s Seventh Arrondissement. For several decades the visionary pair amassed one of the largest private collections of art and antiques in the world. They collected what they loved and lived with what they loved..when others were following modernist trends, they were acquiring masterful pieces from the Art Deco period. Gutsy commissions from visual artists such as Andy Warhol, Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, illuminated the couples foresight and incredible eye. They were, and still are, trendsetters in fashion, art, antiques and interiors.

There is a wonderful article from Vanity Fair, 2009 ~ a must read for those who want to learn more about their impassioned art collection and the evolution of their Paris home. Here is a short excerpt ~

“Far more influential than either Lalannes or Jacques Doucet on the manner in which Saint Laurent and Berge decorated their home was the iconoclastic Vicomtesse Marie-Laure de Noailles, whose wildly eclectic salon on the Place des États-Unis, intoxicated the couturier to the point of delirium. Recalls decorator Jacques Grange, “Yves said that the salon of Marie-Laure de Noailles was the eighth wonder of the world.” An intimate of the Surrealists—her husband, Charles, had financed Buñuel and Dalí’s scandalous 1929 film, Un Chien Andalou—the vicomtesse was by the late 1960s a bizarre, nearly forgotten relic of the vanished world Saint Laurent worshipped. Recklessly mixing the austere “nouveau pauvre” architecture of Jean-Michel Frank with her heirloom old masters, her souvenir postcards, and the work of her avant-garde protégés (Bérard, Cocteau), Noailles “was, like Yves, a devil spirit, a revolutionary,” says writer and photographer François-Marie Banier. “Yves did with couture exactly what Marie-Laure did with décor: breaking the rules by putting together things that have nothing to do with one another.” ~ Vanity Fair, Amy Fine Collins

above, photos by Pascal Chevallier for Vanity Fair

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yves saint laurent

One of my favorite documentaries is Yves Saint Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris (2002). It focuses on the creative process and detailed construction of the artisan’s last women’s collection in 2001. I believe the film is the first of its kind, exploring the behind the scenes evolution of a couture collection. From the meticulous work of the dressmakers fitting the models to the final runway show, it is a journey worth taking. For me, it’s the quiet introspective moments in his Paris studio that make the film so compelling. Since its release in 2002, there have been many fashion documentaries to follow in its footsteps ~ Valentino: The Last Emperor, The September Issue, The Story of Fashion with Karl Lagerfeld, just to name a few. I applaud director David Teboul for his innovation and for inspiring so many in the world of fashion and film making.

above, photo from Yves Saint Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau, 75116 Paris

In 2008, the design world lost one of the greatest couturiers of the 20th century, Yves Saint Laurent. The new documentary film L’Amour Fou by Pierre Thoretton looks at the heartfelt 50 year long relationship between the legendary designer and his partner, Pierre Berge. There is a fantastic interview with the french film maker on digitaldaze ~ here is an excerpt

“Digital Daze: So it was just out of sheer interest for their love story? Pierre Thoretton: Yes, I started making a film about the art collection they had purchased over years – but I soon realized that what made the most sense was them. The collection was all them, it was their oeuvre, it was an intimate reflection of their couple, not a demonstration of power or money. It was entirely led by their taste, by their desire to be surrounded by things they love.”

Theirs is truly a story of love, loyalty and beauty

above, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge

photos from the New York Times

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