Today's PB post I lay the blame completely at the feet of Hubert de Givenchy (pronounced gee-von-CHEE).A shaggy dog story that requires your patience.
I left a comment on the Style Saloniste that I owned a watercolor sketch of Givenchy's salon. Terry of Square with Flare, big fan of Givenchy contacted me. "Is this image posted on your blog? I would love to see it". "Not yet Terry...I never thought of it. I'd have to think up a story to go with it”.
Et voila!
Back to the '90s, I spotted a gorgeous watercolor.
In a French magazine, Atmosphere, on Parisien watercolor artists.
I had to track down artist Jeffrey Bailey who is in fact American.
Turns out Jeffrey painted this preparatory 'sketch' whilst sitting right in Givenchy's salon. The final artwork, one of a series, made specialement for M. Givenchy, was a much tighter version, but I fell in love with the sketch. Somehow I twisted Jeffrey's arm to sell it to me. 
Jeffrey's loose yet precise washes are incredible.
I'm in awe.
So much detail described with such ease, economy and dash.
It's a delight to share Jeffrey's work with you.
I can't imagine living in this grand style, much less sitting amidst all this splendor and then painting it.
The Charmed Couple:The Art and Life of Walter and Matilda Gay is a lushly illustrated book about another American artist who also made it his specialty to paint interiors of great homes in France and New York. Edith Wharton, Henry James, Elsie de Wolfe to name a few of the 'grandees' painted by Walter Gay.
I've seen some exhibits of Gay's watercolors - exquisite non?
This one is only 7" x 9"
Gay painted inside the Musee Jacquemart-Andree back when it was a private mansion. We'll have to be patient and wait for the show the Frick Museum is putting on in Spring of 2012 of Gay's works.
I've never tackled a full interior watercolor, but painting a vignette is loads of fun. This one from the Chateau Vaux le Vicomte
And the musee Nisson de Camondo.
Merci for your patience dear PB readers - un gouter from the tea salon at the Jacquemart-Andree..Jeffrey Bailey, where ever you are, I'd love to meet up again.
