Mariano Fortuny

Thanks to VA for finding this terrific page highlighting one gorgeous Fortuny gown, as well as the video that follows. We'll read more about him later in the book, but it's interesting that this sale page quotes Proust.  Wonder what it sold for...

And here's a video from Otis Fashion College showing more of his gorgeous clothes:



UPDATE 5/9/11: Thanks to un home sobrer in Barcelona for sending this link to a Fortuny exhibition held there some time ago. He points out that Mariano Fortuny Madrazo (Granada 1871 - Venice 1949) was the son of Catalan painter Marià Fortuny i Marsal,  who died all too soon in Rome in 1874. This kind of international cultural sharing is quite amazing!

Within a Budding Grove (vol II pp 229-49) Notes for February 2011

• Gift books of P.-J. Stahl [229]: P.-J. Stahl was the adapter of Little Women and Hans Brinker and is the pen-name of M. Pierre-Jules Hetzel, the publisher of the magazine Magasin d'éducation et de récréation ("Education and Entertainment Magazine") and longtime editor of Jules Verne. Reproduction here. More about Hertzel & Verne here.  "Molly remembered the quality of illustration in her children's books 'The pictures in our books were well drawn, but colour was very rare and highly prized' she recalled (A London Child, p. 51). She had a copy of P. J. Stahl Little Rosy's Voyage Round the World (1869) in English, it was a 'prime favourite' because each adventure was accompanied by a full-page illustration by Lorenz Frolich.

Battle of Grathe Heath by Lorenz Frolich

Louis XVI  drawing rooms (1643-1715); includes voyeuse chairs, with padded backs, so men could sit astride & rest their arms on them, perhaps to watch gambling. History of furniture link here.

Japanese Iris

Mlle Lili, heroine of the story
two intaglios cut into a topaz [230]
Parma violets [231]
Lespinasse [232]
du Deffand [232]

Henry Gréville (October 12, 1842, Paris - 1902), pen name for Mrs. Alice Durand, born Fleury, was a French writer.  This gown was an illustration in one of her books. [233]


Louis XV silk [233]

Empire Samovar

A samovar is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and around Russia, as well as in other Central, South-Eastern, Eastern European countries, and in the Middle-East. Since the heated water is usually used for making tea, many samovars have an attachment on the tops of their lids to hold and heat a teapot filled with tea concentrate..  Though traditionally heated with coal or charcoal, many newer samovars use electricity and heat water in a similar manner as an electric water boiler. Antique samovars are often displayed for their beautiful workmanship. [233]

Jockey Club [234]

Vatel 

Scullion, male counterpart to Scullery maid, servant who performed menial kitchen jobs (washing, cleaning, etc.) in large households during Middle Ages and Renaissance. [237]

Redfern fashion,  c. 1913... [238]

Fecit? (made it, created it)

Raudnitz [238]

Proust Literary Tour

Information on touring all the fun Proust sites in France.

Within a Budding Grove (vol II) Pages for February 2011

2/3:  Odette’s “winter-garden” (228): splendor of the chrysan­themums and poverty of the conversation: Mme Cottard (234); Mme Bontemps (234); her sassy niece Albertine (237); the Prince d’Agrigente (239);

2/10:  Mme Verdurin visits Mme Swann (239-42). Mmes Cottard & Bontemps, flowers, hats, invitations (242-50)

2/17:  Painful New Year’s Day (251). “Suicide of that self which loved Gilberte” (255). Clumsy interventions (256). Letters to Gilberte: “one speaks for oneself alone” (259). Odette’s drawing-room: retreat of the Far East & invasion of the 18th century (261-65).

2/24: New hair-styles and silhouettes (265; cf. I 278).  A sudden impulse interrupts the cure of detachment (271); Aunt Léonie’s Chinese vase (272). Two walkers in the Elysian twilight (273). Impossibility of happiness (274). The opposing forces of memory and imagination (276). Because of Gilberte, Marcel declines a dinner-party invitation where he would have met Albertine (277).