Today's PB post I lay the blame completely at the feet of Hubert de Givenchy (pronounced gee-von-CHEE). Pas mal non? It's a bit of a shaggy dog story that requires a bit of 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 doing so..I'd have to think up a story to go with it.." 
Et voila!
The story of this painting goes a back to the '90s, when I spotted a gorgeous watercolor...
In a French magazine article, 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 specialment 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. cont. on next page... 
Jeffrey's loose yet precise washes are incredible to me still...
I'm in awe...
So much detail described with such ease and 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.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 very 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 you 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 :)
Before I left Paris I saw the new exhibit of 'The Caillbotte Brothers Private World' at the Musee Jacquemart-Andre. 
Well-to-do brothers, Gustave painted while brother Martial took endless photographs, both recording daily quotidienne life in the mid-19th century, opening an intimate window into their priviledged Parisien lives. 
Each brother visually influenced and mirrored the other's images. *Note this backlite silhouetted figure, the result of the slow view camera...
Echoed here in Gustave's painted silhouetted figure at the window... 
Just like these two sharply delineated visitors at the musee Jacquemart-Andre... 
Two figures from Gustave's famous big painting, 'Paris Street, Rainy Day' in the Art Institute of Chicago, again backlit... 
A preparatory etude/study for that painting... 
Looking down from the balcon at promenaders dans la rue... 
Again silhouetted figures contrasted against a light background.
And Martial's photo... 
150 photos of Martial's were recently discovered and are grandly displayed actual size against wall-sized blowups immersing you in the atmosphere of their times... 
Lots of eating included, like brother Gustave's petite niece licking out the copper jam cooking pot... 
Or the family caught mid-slurp at dejeuner... 
I loved all the glass in this 'Dejeuner' painting of Gustave's... 
And was inspired to try my hand at some champagne glasses... 
The Salon du The at the Jacquemart has terrific desserts. *Note the eaters are backlit on the terrace... 
