The passion started with a closet
Status: 8:09 p.m
Baroque relief of the chariot of Apollo
Source: Courtesy of Galerie Kugel, Paris
French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy owed his early fame as a couturier to Audrey Hepburn. But he formed his taste as an art collector on a special antique.
EAt the end of the 1950s Hubert de Givenchy was already a famous fashion designer. He had designed for Pierre Balmain, worked for the avant-garde Elsa Schiaparelli and challenged the established Christian Dior. Fame came with Audrey Hepburn.
The actress was the it girl of the fifties. And Givenchy outfitted Audrey Hepburn – not only when shooting from “Sabrina” to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, but also in her private wardrobe.
Givenchy then became an art collector because of a closet. In the late fifties he bought the “Armoire au char d’Apollon” – a baroque cabinet together with the Renaissance faience it contained. The Paris cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle made it around 1700.
The monumental, 279 cm high cabinet made of oak has an ebony veneer and inlaid with brass and tortoiseshell. It is one of the most important pieces of furniture of the Louis Quatorze era, unique for its bronze relief of the chariot of Apollo and Diana.
One has to imagine that this cabinet trained Givenchy’s eye in the long term. Because from this first purchase onwards there was no holding back. The couturier, famous for his simple cuts, lived out his penchant for opulence as a collector.
He combined antiques with modern art with absolute taste in his residences, the Hôtel d’Orrouer in Paris, built around 1720, and the Manoir du Jonchet from the early 17th century on the Loire. Over the decades, both houses have become treasure chambers overflowing with arts and crafts.
Nobody knows why Givenchy parted with his favorite piece thirty years ago. In any case, he left it in the hands of the art dealers Nicolas and Alexis Kugel, whose best customer he was until his death in 2018. In June 2022, Galerie Kugel will open a homage to the collector with the Apollo cabinet in the center. Of course, it is not for sale, according to the gallery. Perhaps no interested party has yet quoted a satisfactory price.
The entire Hubert de Givenchy collection (more than 1,000 lots, including Boulle furniture) will be auctioned by Christie’s in Paris in June. Many of them with provenance: Galerie Kugel, Paris.