Castaing In Ad 1977

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esove: The d6cor of a long Callery sets the distinctive tone of Mme Madeleine Castaing's main floor apartment in Paris. Lightly scaled antique furnishings are arranged symmetrically along a wall whose windows are covered by 19th-century French floralpainted shades. nrorr The Salon exemplifies le styleAnglais revival, for which antiquarian/ designer Castaing is noted. An 18th-century English settee, a Victorian fringed pouf and an Austrian Schcinbrunn-style canap6 provide interesting shapes. Paintings on the walls by Soutine; painting on the easel by Paolo Vallos.

P HOTOGRAPHY BY PA SCALHI NO US TEXTBY VALENTINELAWFORD

woRLDof lhe antiquaireand the rN rHETNTERNATToNAL interior designer there are a few men and women who have achieved a legendary status, a status based not on talent alone but on a flair that almost defies definition. One of this elite is surely Mme Madeleine Castaing of Paris, though she herself would no doubt be the first to deny it. Her house forms the northeast angle of the rue Bonaparteand the rue Jacob,and the ground floor lies slightly below street level. Like many comparable corners on the Left Bank in Paris the place is self-evidently an antiques shop in part, but the view through the windows has such an intriguingly intimate quality that one almost hesitates to push open the streetdoor-for fear of disturbing a house party of amiable ghosts in the midst of a conversation, or interrupting the plot of a long-forgotten novel.And perhapsthe odd presentimentis not all

MadameCastaingChezElle TheT amed? arisianJntiq uaire andD esigner

that absurd.Forthe talent of MadeleineCastaingis indeed an exceptionallyprivate and personalone. The world that her imagination has created for herself and her clients has an undeniable affinity wi th th e l e i s u re l y b a c k g ro u n d of ni neteenthcentury Europeancountry-housefiction.

The furniture in the ground floor shop is arrangedin a seriesof seeminglylived-in rooms' On the second floor, however, an enfilade of highceilinged tall-windowed reception rooms is furni shedas an apartment.B ut Mme C ast aingact ually betweenthe shop and lives in a suite on the entresol

opposrrE:In the Living Room, a balanced ensemble of design elements surrounds the fireplace.On the 19th-centuryFrenchmantelare pairs of Russianmalachitecandlesticks and 18th-century French porcelain vases.English Regency cabinets with Neo-classic painted details flank the fireplace;the bench and pouf are also Regency.Fernspainted and gilded on a 1gth-century mirror look like three-dimensionalreflections.reovr: An 18th-century porcelain stove warms the Game Room. A rare blue enamel Directoire billiard lamp hangs above a pair of elegant Vienna porcelain swan figures. The l9th-century Viennese mahogany chairs have brass insets and emperor medallions.

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the second floor, from which she emerges in the afternoonsto work and receivevisitors. Madeleine Castaing is one of those remarkable and rewarding women of a certain age-are they especiallyindigenousto France?-whosemental and physical charms seem only to increaseas the years continue.Success,evenprofessionalsuccess,seems to make them more human-not less so. Characteristically, they are not conventional respectersof persons.They are too intelligent and too experiencedto pontificateor feel the need to impress. "My first memories are of a country house and its garden,"she says,"my grandfather'sproperty of St. Pr6,near Chartres.It was infinitely more 'Proustian' than Illiers. There were still a lot of historic charactersaround. My godfather had founded la Presse, with Emile Girardin, and as a child I remember being dressedup for the visit of the actress Marie Laurent,among many interestingpeople. "After I married Marcellin Castaingwe bought our own property, four kilometers away, where I designed the gardens and planted thousands of willows, and poplars, 'the cypressesof the lle-deFrance.'Our friends in thosedaysincluded some of those who have become known as the greatest artists of the time: Modigliani, Picasso,Vuillardand, above all, Soutine. He stayed with us very often from 1925until World War II, and painted in the garden,and sometimeshe used me as a model. Otherwise we lived far from the world and were more than huppy to do so. "Then the war came, and a second, very different, part of my life began. Our country house was taken over, and we couldn't go there anymore. It was so sad in Occupied Paristhat I decidedthat I must do something. Three years earlier we had consideredbuying a R6gencehouse in the rue du Cherche-Midi that had once been the laundry of Mme Sans-G€ne,but we had abandonedthe idea, on the advice of our architect. However, since we had gone so far as to acquirethe lease,I thought of that house again, and decided-against my husband's wishes-to go aheadand do somethingwith An English Victorian luster 6pergne servesas the centerpiecefor an elegantly draped Dining Room table. Coquillage candlesticks and silver figures holding shells; Coalport china and shellshaped Wedgwood salad plates comprise the setting. The chairs are Regency, the small 6tageres are Russian. The subdued organizationfocusesattention on the paintings of Chaim Soutine.

"l just follow my instinct-mix up all sorts of things I like." 734

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ABOv rAN : Doppos r r EABO\E: M ntc C as tai ng's c har m i ng p.r s tel - toned Bedr o o n l c o n t . ri n s g i l t N apol etnl l l .D uo rs : rrd e e i l rn g Lr r onz e/r l ,r r - b.tm Lr Oofur ni tur ethatbel ongedtOas i s ter of l t.r t,ea p.r i ntc c l c l oudl i k e op.r c i tr ,. T he Lr r onz e dor d c har r del i er and gi l de d f i re s c re e t l a re An Lr oth Igth- c entl r r r ,. In the i i r c s i de v i gnette tr v o addi ti onal Souti ne p.l i nti r l g s . rre v i s i b l c . IBth c entur v m 0thc r - oi - pe.tr l c l oc k s h.r r c s the m .i l r tel r v i th R us s i an m a l a c h i t e o b j e c t s r nc l c .r r r dl es ti c k s bv N as t; .r bov e thc m i s .r n Adam gi l tr v ood nl i r r or . o rp o s l t e : Mn l e gilt C as t.i i ng's v .r r r l tc c l B.tthr Or r m i s el .r bor .r tel v dr ..r ped, and aptl v app o i n t e c l rv i t h L.r .,nz e fi r tur es . R es t.r ted bv the i r i l r r - banboo m i r r or i s a s c or r c c r v i th l i t l i rl ' / r, rrrrrs h . rd e .

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it. I had always enjoyed furnishing and decorating So now my own home, as a form of self-expression. I begangraduallyto createa seriesof showroomsIittle more than uitrines,really,and very simple." In spite of the difficultiesof the time, Madeleine Castaing'smodest business venture became increasinglysuccessfuland she was eventuallyable to acquirethe house where she lives and works today. Her clientsare an infinitely varied human collection, but in her own words, "they have one thing in common-sensibility-and they tend to be very faithful." Pastclients have included Jean Cocteau, for whom she decorateda houseat Milly, and Mme FrancineWeissweiller,for whom she has worked at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and in Paris.More recently shehas worked on townhousesand apartmentsand small houseswith gardens,in Belgium and Swrtzerland, as well as in many parts of France. Her remarks about her general technique as a decorator are spontaneousand direct: "l have to know the people,and I have to like them. I look at the houseor the apartmentand the surroundingsand wait for inspiration.If the people are worth the trouble,inspirationinvariably comes.I havepicked up quite a little psychologicalsensein the courseof the last thirty-five years. I don't like to work for people who want an interior to improve their standing in the eyes of others. But, for a certain kind of people,I do like to createa mirror in which they can recognizethemselves.One must let the heart have its say in all matters. "My work isn't signed.The essentialquality-the vibration-always depends on the clients themselves.I don't think there are any rules exceptthat the desire to surprise or shock takes a decorator nowhereat all. Personally,I just follow my instinct, amuse myself creatingan atmosphere,mix up all sorts of things I like. It is important to be inspired by things.Obviously a good decoratorneedssound professionalknowledge,and I myself have a great respectfor the profession.But for me the real point of departure is poetry, a stroke from some magic " wand. 'La uie,c'estle coupde baguette.' Even a total stranger,watching Madeleine Castaing as she moves about the apartment, finds it impossible not to fall under the spell. Perhaps becausethese rooms serve her principally as a private theater or experimental workshop, they seem to partake of the endearingly amateur and unpremeditatedquality of a charade. Instead of assertingthemselvesas potentially pricelessworks of twentieth-centuryart, the powerful Soutine canvaseson the walls assumethe statusof picturesin a family album. Although Mme Castaingis an outstandingdoyenneof the decoratingprofession,she can still call to mind a little girl of years agoblissfullyabsorbedin "playing at houses."tr