Christian Bérard

Elsa Schiaparelli collection, Paris, special commission for her apartment rue Barbet-de-Jouy in Paris in 1934

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Christie's, Paris, 22 May 2018, lot 6

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Christian Bérard : excentrique bébé, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco, 8 July - 16 October 2022

Elsa Schiaparelli, Shocking life : Elsa Schiaparelli, London, 1954, reproduced p. 189

Christian Bérard : excentrique bébé, exhibition catalogue, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco, 8 July - 16 October 2022, reproduced p. 78 and 80-82

Shocking ! Les mondes surréalistes d'Elsa Schiaparelli, exhibition catalogue, Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, 6 July - 22 January 2023, reproduced p. 60

In 1934, having become the fashion designer of Parisian high society, Elsa Schiaparelli moved into an apartment on rue Barbet-de-Jouy. She entrusted the interior design to Jean-Michel Frank, whom she had already commissioned to design her previous interior and her couture salon.

For the entrance hall, she commissioned “a small screen” from her friend, the painter Christian Berard, who regularly collaborated on her creations. He delivered our screen, “The Virgin Mary and her two pages”. His refined style and hieratic figures are reminiscent of the frescoes by Giotto and Piero Della Francesca that the artist had discovered during his trip to Italy in 1922. This work also features the flat areas of acid colors so dear to Berard, which contribute to the enigmatic character of his paintings, as well as the artist’s taste for trompe l'oeil, inherited from his experience in theatrical decoration. The work thus found its perfect place alongside Frank’s minimalist furniture and the apartment’s orange, white, and canary yellow curtains.

Our screen occupies an important place in Schiaparelli’s world. She chose it as the backdrop for a model’s photo shoot in 1935. In 1937, when Elsa Schiaparelli moved into the mansion at 22 rue de Berri in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, Christian Berard’s screen found its place in her upstairs office, in a setting that skillfully combined paintings, furniture, tapestries, and objets d’art from different periods, from 18th-century furniture to lighting fixtures by Alberto Giacometti.

A testament to Elsa Schiaparelli’s deep friendship and admiration for Christian Berard, this screen found its place both in the immaculate setting designed by Jean-Michel Frank and in the opulent decor of the Rue de Berri, as evidenced by several photographs from the 1940s and 1950s.

This screen also represents a unique testimony to Berard’s unclassifiable art in the 1930s, which fascinated Gertrude Stein, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Emilio Terry, and art critic Waldemar George, who defined him as a “neo-humanist” painter.

Archives image:

Mark Shaw, Ghislaine de Boisson, Elsa Schiaparelli's famous model, at the designer's home in Paris © Mark Shaw / mptvimages.com