One of the most fascinating things I gleaned from the book on Misia Sert by Gold and Fizdale is that Misia Sert and CoCo Chanel had a long and enduring, though sometimes competitive, friendship that lasted while both were alive - 30 years of friendship.
The two women met in Paris in 1916 and CoCo was the younger, by about a decade, but already a force as a fashion designer. Misia took the younger woman, who had a bit of scandal attached to her, under wing and introduced her to high society and high society began to socialize with Chanel and of course this meant good business. As Misia was a patron of the arts, and liked to be thought of as a person who discovered talent, including Chanel, Chanel was also interested in being a patron of the arts. Together they cared for Serge Diaghilev who lived in a house that Chanel owned and was provided for by Chanel to the end of his life. But friends with Misia first, it was she who was by his bedside when he died and she who provided his funeral in Venice, Italy.
The two women came to each other's rescue in times of crisis.
When Misia and Sert were thoroughly divorced, she was not longer herself, no matter how much love, understanding, rationalizing, or projecting positivity she tried. Most likely she suffered depression and was self treating with morphine. She'd been lead to believe by both Sert and his much younger new wife, Roussy" ( Roussadana Mdivani) that they both loved her. Some members of their set thought for a while that they would go on as three. The Mdivani family, who were Georgian Princes and Princesses in need of money, ambitiously marrying to recapture lost fortune, wanted Misia out of their lives.The newly married couple began to find her the equivalent of a meddlesome mother-in-law and were trying to discard her. (While I read of this, I couldn't help but feel that Jose Maria Sert, Misia's long term artist husband, had to know she would be devastated and that the couple lied to her and lead her on partly in hopes that she would get used to the idea.)
Chanel was there. She offered advice. She was protective. And when it seemed Misia was having the equivalent of a nervous breakdown Chanel kept Sert and Roussy from seeing her.
When Chanel was hired by Samuel Goldwyn to design costumes for a Hollywood Film during the Great Depression, paying her a million dollars to do it, Chanel took Misia with her to Hollywood. Chanel wasn't as impressed with the place or the people as Misia was. They were welcomed by Garbo, Dietrich, Colbert, March, Cukor...
Most stunning is that when Misia died on October 15, 1950, Roussy dead, Sert dead, it was CoCo there at her death. Chanel personally moved her body to Sert's bed and dressed her friend's body, doing Misia's hair, makeup, and jewelry. When callers came to see Misia, they found her more beautiful than ever and laying on a bank of white flowers and one pale pink rose from Chanel on her breast. Misia's funeral was in a Polish church in Paris and she was buried in a small country cemetery. For some time pink roses arrived anonymously to the grave though Chanel was not necessarily the sender. Learning this gave me a new appreciation for the love capable of by CoCo Chanel.
C 2019 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot
Showing posts with label Roussadana Mdivani. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roussadana Mdivani. Show all posts
Thursday, July 25, 2019
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
THE MARRYING FAMILY OF ROUSSY (ROUSSADENA MDIVANI) - HOLLYWOOD
Roussadana Mdivani "Roussy" became artist Jose Maria Sert's wife. leaving Misia in a complicated situation.
The story goes that Roussy, from a family of Georgian Princesses and Princes, looking to make advantageous marriages, styled herself a sculptor and had her own tiny studio in Paris. In 1925 she rang the bell of Sert's studio, a studio that Misia considered to be his turf and never visited without notice, to ask for advice. Some thought this was a predatory gambit. Hearing of the visit, Misia decided to turn up and see what was going on there. Her instincts were off and she didn't think of the girl as any threat. But she was.
Roussy's real mother was dead, as Misia's had been, and she felt maternal towards her. She said the girl was enchanting.
Roussy died of a brief illness on December 26, 1938, age 32, having not given Sert the heir he claimed he desired. She died of an infection that would likely easily be cured with antibiotics today. Misia was 66 years old and alone in the world, many of her friends had died and other people had taken over her role as muse of the creatives. Eventually she and Jose Maria would be good friends but never live together again.
Roussy's brothers were also considered fortune hunters who appealed to Hollywood actresses and young heiresses at a time when having a title by marrying a poor noble still held appeal to some and people could still "buy" titles. As a result Roussy had sisters-in-law such as actress Pola Negri, a vamp, and Mae Murray.
In 1931 a younger brother, Alexis, only 22, married an Astor family heiress named Louise Van Alen and came to America. She was only 19 and he lived like a Prince he always was on her money. Only 18 years later he divorced her to marry Woolworth stores heiress Barbara Hutton. But another brother, Serge, went ahead and married Louise four years later, keeping her money in the family.
C 2019 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot.
The story goes that Roussy, from a family of Georgian Princesses and Princes, looking to make advantageous marriages, styled herself a sculptor and had her own tiny studio in Paris. In 1925 she rang the bell of Sert's studio, a studio that Misia considered to be his turf and never visited without notice, to ask for advice. Some thought this was a predatory gambit. Hearing of the visit, Misia decided to turn up and see what was going on there. Her instincts were off and she didn't think of the girl as any threat. But she was.
Roussy's real mother was dead, as Misia's had been, and she felt maternal towards her. She said the girl was enchanting.
Roussy died of a brief illness on December 26, 1938, age 32, having not given Sert the heir he claimed he desired. She died of an infection that would likely easily be cured with antibiotics today. Misia was 66 years old and alone in the world, many of her friends had died and other people had taken over her role as muse of the creatives. Eventually she and Jose Maria would be good friends but never live together again.
Roussy's brothers were also considered fortune hunters who appealed to Hollywood actresses and young heiresses at a time when having a title by marrying a poor noble still held appeal to some and people could still "buy" titles. As a result Roussy had sisters-in-law such as actress Pola Negri, a vamp, and Mae Murray.
In 1931 a younger brother, Alexis, only 22, married an Astor family heiress named Louise Van Alen and came to America. She was only 19 and he lived like a Prince he always was on her money. Only 18 years later he divorced her to marry Woolworth stores heiress Barbara Hutton. But another brother, Serge, went ahead and married Louise four years later, keeping her money in the family.
C 2019 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot.
Thursday, July 18, 2019
MISIA SERT : THIRD MARRIAGE TO ARTIST JOSE MARIA SERT and THE ACCOMMODATION OF ROUSSADANA MDIVANI
NOTE: April 2020
I got a comment that said two things that I question. The link to the person who posted showed him on blogger but not to a blog. The commenter first said that Serge Diaghilev was not a ballet dancer. This is what Wikipedia says: Serge Diaghilev was a Russian ballet impresario. He was a Russian promoter of the arts who revitalized ballet by integrating the ideals of other art forms - music, painting, and drama - with those of dance. From 1906 he lived in Paris, where in 1909 he founded the Ballets Russes. Thereafter he toured Europe and the Americas with his ballet company, and he produced three ballet masterpieces by Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910),Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913.)
The other thing this poster said was that Misia did not get a settlement from her marriage, that she was, in so many words, too proud. I'm basing my account on the book noted.
And not publishing this comment.
Please back up any statement you make with some reference such as a book title and page, an article on the internet, or otherwise. I realize that in some cases there are very many books that contradict each other. Thanks, Missy
************************
ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE:
Misia met and became the mistress of famous and accomplished artist Jose Maria Sert, who was patronized by the Spanish royal family. They lived together for twelve years before they married in 1920 when he was 45 and she was 48. She knew he had a lifetime habit of affairs. Two marriages behind her, she was finally with a man who wanted and needed more than a playmate or wife to show off. She was finally with an equal. Misia was said to be - for the first time - "Sexually overwhelmed" for the first time. And she became serious with Sert quickly, so quickly that he seemed to want to back out of a relationship. But she followed him to continue the affair and they went on an art and architecture tour where he played tour guide. She was now considered a liberated woman but she did not want to go it alone. Her money came from a settlement with her last ex-husband, Edwards, in their divorce. (Before he died in 1914 he had even begged her to marry him again.)
Her life was continually entwined with the up and coming and the renown artists, sculptors, ballet dancers, choreographers - the biggest talents in arts, culture, and society in France. Together the couple were friends with ballet dancer Serge Diaghilev, who had been born in Russia in 1872. He was a fashion "dandy," a homosexual and he and Misia gossiped and intrigued for the next twenty years as special friends. Friends even said that she was the only woman Diaghilev could ever have married. By 1910-1911 Paris season his ballets were considered to be a "revelation" attended by aristocrats, royals, high society, and homosexual society, (Including Isadora Duncan, the dancer, who has also been a Mistress of the Month here at Mistress Manifesto.)
Misia rarely visited Sert at his studio, thinking of it as his sacred space but it is there that the young Georgian Princess Roussadana Mdivani, called Roussy, as a neophyte sculptor herself appeared, looking for advice in 1925.
For some reason, Misia did not initially feel threatened when she heard about her. But then the young woman was young enough to be a daughter and so Misia felt that she and her husband could take the playful Roussy underwing. The day came though when she showed up at the studio hoping to meet her. She was enchanted. Misia had grown up without her birth mother and Roussy's mother was dead. The Serts were childless.
Misia and Jose Maria had a Catholic marriage in Spain, considered impossible to divorce and had been married for 20 plus years and Misia loved the girl too but the idea that she would remain a surrogate daughter to the couple was ridiculous. The girl had once even crept in on all fours and watched Misia and Sert have sex! The girl claimed she loved Misia as well. Would they go on as three?
They sure didn't want Misia along on their honeymoon.
Was it an act of love on Misia's part to let him go to the girl? She cooperated with civil divorce and an annulment (considered invalid in France) so her old husband and the girl could marry. She agreed there was something wrong with her sexual organs and he said he had married Misia in order to have an heir! (Well, we wonder, how the childbirth adverse Misia managed to perhaps never become pregnant at a time when contraception was not what it is today.)
As the truth came to her, Misia became depressed, even driven insane. She even took a job in a dress shop in New York to get away and it was there that she got the letter from Sert saying he had married again and in the Catholic church.
Roussy died of what sounds to be a throat infection that she went to Switzerland to cure, not having created an heir, and then Misia and her ex-husband lived separate but became friends. They visited daily and sometimes went out to dinner.
Sert died November 27, 1945 and she didn't make it to his death bed. He left his property to others but he did give Misia his apartment and everything in it on the rue de Rivoli including paintings, furniture, and the library. Over the next five years Misia sold whatever when she needed money as she herself had little. It was there she died.
C 2019 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot
References for this post are Misia's own memoir and the book about her by Fizdale and Gold.
I got a comment that said two things that I question. The link to the person who posted showed him on blogger but not to a blog. The commenter first said that Serge Diaghilev was not a ballet dancer. This is what Wikipedia says: Serge Diaghilev was a Russian ballet impresario. He was a Russian promoter of the arts who revitalized ballet by integrating the ideals of other art forms - music, painting, and drama - with those of dance. From 1906 he lived in Paris, where in 1909 he founded the Ballets Russes. Thereafter he toured Europe and the Americas with his ballet company, and he produced three ballet masterpieces by Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910),Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913.)
The other thing this poster said was that Misia did not get a settlement from her marriage, that she was, in so many words, too proud. I'm basing my account on the book noted.
And not publishing this comment.
Please back up any statement you make with some reference such as a book title and page, an article on the internet, or otherwise. I realize that in some cases there are very many books that contradict each other. Thanks, Missy
************************
ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE:
Misia met and became the mistress of famous and accomplished artist Jose Maria Sert, who was patronized by the Spanish royal family. They lived together for twelve years before they married in 1920 when he was 45 and she was 48. She knew he had a lifetime habit of affairs. Two marriages behind her, she was finally with a man who wanted and needed more than a playmate or wife to show off. She was finally with an equal. Misia was said to be - for the first time - "Sexually overwhelmed" for the first time. And she became serious with Sert quickly, so quickly that he seemed to want to back out of a relationship. But she followed him to continue the affair and they went on an art and architecture tour where he played tour guide. She was now considered a liberated woman but she did not want to go it alone. Her money came from a settlement with her last ex-husband, Edwards, in their divorce. (Before he died in 1914 he had even begged her to marry him again.)
Her life was continually entwined with the up and coming and the renown artists, sculptors, ballet dancers, choreographers - the biggest talents in arts, culture, and society in France. Together the couple were friends with ballet dancer Serge Diaghilev, who had been born in Russia in 1872. He was a fashion "dandy," a homosexual and he and Misia gossiped and intrigued for the next twenty years as special friends. Friends even said that she was the only woman Diaghilev could ever have married. By 1910-1911 Paris season his ballets were considered to be a "revelation" attended by aristocrats, royals, high society, and homosexual society, (Including Isadora Duncan, the dancer, who has also been a Mistress of the Month here at Mistress Manifesto.)
Misia rarely visited Sert at his studio, thinking of it as his sacred space but it is there that the young Georgian Princess Roussadana Mdivani, called Roussy, as a neophyte sculptor herself appeared, looking for advice in 1925.
For some reason, Misia did not initially feel threatened when she heard about her. But then the young woman was young enough to be a daughter and so Misia felt that she and her husband could take the playful Roussy underwing. The day came though when she showed up at the studio hoping to meet her. She was enchanted. Misia had grown up without her birth mother and Roussy's mother was dead. The Serts were childless.
Misia and Jose Maria had a Catholic marriage in Spain, considered impossible to divorce and had been married for 20 plus years and Misia loved the girl too but the idea that she would remain a surrogate daughter to the couple was ridiculous. The girl had once even crept in on all fours and watched Misia and Sert have sex! The girl claimed she loved Misia as well. Would they go on as three?
They sure didn't want Misia along on their honeymoon.
Was it an act of love on Misia's part to let him go to the girl? She cooperated with civil divorce and an annulment (considered invalid in France) so her old husband and the girl could marry. She agreed there was something wrong with her sexual organs and he said he had married Misia in order to have an heir! (Well, we wonder, how the childbirth adverse Misia managed to perhaps never become pregnant at a time when contraception was not what it is today.)
As the truth came to her, Misia became depressed, even driven insane. She even took a job in a dress shop in New York to get away and it was there that she got the letter from Sert saying he had married again and in the Catholic church.
Roussy died of what sounds to be a throat infection that she went to Switzerland to cure, not having created an heir, and then Misia and her ex-husband lived separate but became friends. They visited daily and sometimes went out to dinner.
Sert died November 27, 1945 and she didn't make it to his death bed. He left his property to others but he did give Misia his apartment and everything in it on the rue de Rivoli including paintings, furniture, and the library. Over the next five years Misia sold whatever when she needed money as she herself had little. It was there she died.
C 2019 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot
References for this post are Misia's own memoir and the book about her by Fizdale and Gold.
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