THE PERFECT ART COLLECTOR

An ambassador of Le Grand Gout or the French taste, couturier Hubert de Givenchy's elegant lifestyle and incredibly rich collection, one of the most important of our times, has just gone under the hammer in Paris. A Christie's expert gives us a first-hand peek into his valuable friendships and artistic mind.

- PRIYA KUMARI RANA

THE HUBERT DE GIVENCHY COLLECTIONNEUR sale held by Christie's in Paris- one of their biggest there with 1,229 lots raising €114,992,000, more than double the €50,000,000 estimate was epoch-defining. It was the end of an era of grand couturiers and their possessions as one does not come across people like Monsieur Hubert Taffin de Givenchy or art, furniture, and objects that he surrounded himself with every day.

De Givenchy was the ultimate collector with an eagle eye, a telescopic lens with which he viewed artwork, furniture, sculptures, and objets d'art by European master artisans, and instinctively knew where to place them in his houses. The two exquisite residences from where the lots originate are Hotel d'Orrouer in Paris and Manoir du Jonchet (which was actually a chateau in Touraine, in Loire Valley). The 17th to 20th century lots give an idea about the intensely refined mind and elegant taste of one of the world's most famous couturiers-the founder of the House of Givenchy.

Born in 1927 in Beauvais, an aristocrat with Venetian roots, the tall (he was 6'5") Monsieur de Givenchy took in a taste for materials and décor early in life, influenced by a great-grandfather who did sets for Paris Opera and a grandfather who worked in a tapestry factory. He went to Paris at age 17 to study at Beaux-Arts, opened his couture house in 1952, and went on to dress the likes of Audrey Hepburn (a lifelong friend), Jackie Kennedy Onassis, and Duchess of Windsor. His mentor and friend was the great Cristobal Balenciaga from whom he learnt to approach fashion and aesthetics with an architectural eye. This informed his choice of interiors as well.