Givenchy Collection Headed to Auction

Christie's Images Ltd 2012

The designer's collection includes this statue of the Nile River god.

French haute couturier Hubert de Givenchy once dressed style icons such as Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly. But since the dawn of his fashion career more than a half-century ago, the Frenchman (who is now 85) has harbored a lesser-known passion: the engravings of the 17th-century sculptor and collector François Girardon.

 

Girardon was a sculptor for Louis XIV and owned some 800 artworks. He would feature sculptures he owned, and many he longed to own, in engravings of imaginary settings. "They're quite spectacular and amazing," Mr. de Givenchy said of the engravings at his 17th-century manor in the countryside southwest of Paris.

 

During September's Paris Biennale, Christie's plans to present about a dozen bronze and marble sculptures from Mr. de Givenchy's collection, arranged amid giant reproductions of Girardon engravings, in an elaborate exhibition Mr. de Givenchy has dreamed of for years.

Photos: The Art Collection

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Christie's Images Ltd 2012

 

 

Visitors to Christie's main exhibition hall in Paris will enter between busts of Alexander the Great and Augustus Caesar and into a black-carpeted room covered with tapestries printed with Girardon's engravings. Mr. de Givenchy's art will be hung on the tapestries or placed in front of etchings of similar pieces, to recreate the experience of visiting Girardon's fantasy gallery.

 

One sculpture in the show is attributed to Girardon, others appeared in his engravings and still others are similar to the art depicted in those engravings.

 

In that third category are two 18th-century bronze figures of Venus and Venus Marina attributed to the Baroque sculptor Robert Le Lorrain. The sculptures are a highlight of the de Givenchy collection due to their condition and detail, says Isabelle Degut, head of European sculpture for Christie's in Paris.

 

The statue of Venus Marina depicts a placid goddess holding up a wreath woven from flowers, their Lilliputian petals individually carved. The drapes of her diaphanous sash billow dramatically behind her as her back and torso muscles strain realistically to support her. At her feet are seashells and coral.

 

The former president of Christie's advisory board prefers that the collection of mainly 17th- and 18th-century works be sold as a whole but is open to offers for individual pieces.

“'No, no, not for sale!' the dealer said. Mr. de Givenchy persisted, and bought the bronzes.”

 

For Mr. de Givenchy, the prize pieces are 18th-century statues of the river gods Tiber and Nile mirrored in Girardon's engravings. The designer chased after the French bronzes for three decades, after spotting them in New York's Wildenstein & Co. gallery. "I always wanted to buy these two, and every time Mr. Wildenstein said 'No, no, not for sale!' But two or three years ago, he was ready to sell and they were still on my mind," said Mr. de Givenchy.

 

Christie's doesn't provide estimates of what the objects might fetch, but 18th-century marble sculptures can sell for anywhere from a few thousand dollars to more than $2 million, dealers say. A pair of the same Tiber and Nile models that Mr. de Givenchy owns were sold at the auction house Piasa in 2006 for around $1.5 million.

 

The designer added that his grandparents planted the seeds of both fashion and art in his mind. Whenever he earned good grades in school, his grandmother would show him her rich rolls of textiles, and both grandfathers were avid art collectors.

 

His passion for what he calls "selecting" deepened after the launch of his fashion house in 1952 brought him eclectic art-world contacts such as Carlos de Beistegui and Arturo López-Willshaw.

 

Most of the pieces in the exhibition once stood in Mr. de Givenchy's Parisian home, including the piece attributed to Girardon—a 32-inch-tall statue of Bacchus that stood on a table in the designer's bedroom, nestled among stacks of art books.

 

As for the reasons for the show, Mr. de Givenchy said, "As time passes, we like to simplify our lives" and concentrate on dream projects "that we hold in our hearts." Christie's has collaborated with a top French designer before. A much-hyped 2009 auction of art collected by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner brought in $443 million.