Opposites Attract
Marie-Anne Derville
“I like eclecticism and classicism. I love to see a mix of rigour and spontaneity in an interior, unperfected spaces with a variety of influences, yet at the same time elegant. Paradoxically, I also like busy interiors, sometimes even opulent … I hate fashions, or ‘original’ things just done to be ‘original’ … I admire Jacques Grange who has this unique talent to mix all kinds of styles, with this very sure and spontaneous French taste. Yovanovitch has this genius too but in a more architectural, radical and contemporary mood. He is for me the actual french chic. I guess I would like to be in between.” — Marie-Anne Derville
Paris is a city of two parts, the old and new, which, whilst sometimes rubbing each other up the wrong way, at the same time unite in harmony so as to create a truly unique atmosphere, quite unlike any other city. On the one hand, there’s the pomp and grandiosity of Palais Royal, with its carefully clipped avenues of lime trees, rose beds and fountains, and on the other the work of those great avant-garde modernists, the likes of Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945), Auguste Perret (1874-1954), not to mention Pierre Chareau (1883-1950); whose now-iconic masterpiece Maison de Verre is, perhaps somewhat poetically, hidden behind the solemn porte-cochere of an eighteenth-century hôtel particulier on Rue Saint-Guillaume, its luminous glass block facade quite literally excavated and carved into the fabric of a pre-existing townhouse. These layers and layers of history inevitably inform the work of those designers who grow up amongst the city’s medieval squares, quaint street-side cafés and grand Haussmannian boulevards. Sometimes the weight of history can be a burden, especially when one is tasked with the challenge of inserting new interiors and architecture into the bones of such a city. Famed French decorator Henri Samuel (1904–1996) chose to juxtapose old and new head-on, creating rich and layered interiors, blurring the rigid rules and diktats that once governed French decorating, and in doing so, opening the door for his protege, designer Jacques Grange (b. 1944), who would later recall, “I learnt, by working with [Samuel], the art of jumping with great freedom from classicism to modernity”. To some extent, in terms of art and design, it’s a city that brings to mind the idea of “six degrees of separation”, as coming full circle, Grange famously lives in the former apartment of Colette (1873-1954) on Palais Royal, a writer who, arguably, existed “too soon”, again, fighting against and trying to reconcile with tradition, reporting on everything from domestic violence to anorexia, fashion and cooking to fake orgasms. In part it’s this constant mercurial tension between Ancien Régime and art moderne that keeps things bubbling, bringing lessons of the past to the fore for a new generation eager to reinterpret and build upon those greats of twentieth-century design who defined genres and broke down pre-conceived ideas and notions of how we should live and work in a city.
Pierre Yovanovitch (b. 1965) is an interior architect whose work is unmistakably à la mode, having developed a style immediately identifiable and oft-imitated. Yet a good many of his projects are executed within the restrictive and challenging confines of listed buildings; the perfect example of which being the designers recent re-imagining of the former apartment of fabled French decorator and master of minimalism Jean-Michel Frank (1895-1941), a 2,500 square-foot duplex in an elegant eighteenth-century building on rue de Verneuil. Despite a penchant for monastic modernism, Frank, as with many of his contemporaries, had an acute sensitivity for the past and would often preserve an original interior shell, merely stripping it of any froufrou excess and in turn, imposing his own immediately identifiable brand of pared-back sophistication, which came to be known as luxe pauvre. In his own Left Bank apartment, Frank had instructed workers to remove decades of paint from the Louis XVI oak panelling, leaving the wood in its natural, raw state. The Versailles parquet floors were left bare and the overall palette was of the palest neutrals; indeed after dining at the apartment, artist Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) famously wrote to a friend, “Very charming young man, pity the burglars took everything he had!” The original parchment-clad scheme has, over the years since, been ravaged and remodelled by various decorators, including, the designer perhaps furthermost from Frank on the design spectrum, arch maximalist Jacques Garcia (b. 1947). Whilst retaining what remained of the original interiors — the unfinished oak panelling, bookcases and pale pink marble in the entrance hall — Yovanovitch created something altogether more contemporary, more Frank, if you will, at least in terms of atmosphere, and relevant and reflective the lifestyle of the young French family that would be inhabiting the space. Indeed the real skill of not only great designers but also the proprietors of those extraordinary galleries that line the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés is to re-contextualise historical works, whether in terms of architecture, furniture or objet d’art, in a way that makes them relevant to our age; as after all, in no way do any of us want to live in what, for all intents and purposes, is nothing more than a stage set, frozen in time, as if hermetically sealed from the realities of a tumultuous modern world. To my mind, the most interesting interiors, and collections, are those that embrace works of various eras and epochs, thus celebrating the best of past and present — as after all, without cyclical change and reinvention, a city like Paris could, very easily, become fusty and set in its ways, a proverbial mausoleum to the past. With that in mind, we spoke to interior designer Marie-Anne Derville, a Parisian in the truest sense, about her likes, dislikes and why a simple pair of square glass clip earrings still mean so much to her. Photography by Dominique Nabokov.
The interior designer Marie-Anne Derville in Paris, a portrait taken by her friend, the photographer Dominique Nabokov, famous for capturing the “living rooms” of the cultural elite in New York, Paris and Berlin
What was it that initially drew you to a career in art and design?
It’s thanks to an old friend. She was working as an architect at Pierre Yovanovitch, and at the time the agency was still quite small. I was at a trend agency, bored, and looking for my way in life — but mostly thinking about partying. One day, she told me “Yovanovitch is looking for someone in his office to do decoration and I think you’re made for it”. I’m kind of a rocket and so a few days later I presented myself at the agency, and I was hired right away, first as an intern, and then I stayed there for seven years. A life cycle! Pierre taught me so much. I was an autodidact, like him, and so we had an instinctive way of understanding each other, and during that time, it was a permanent evolution and such an inspiring ground.
Would you say working alongside Yovanovitch, a designer with an immediately identifiable aesthetic sensibility, has impacted your own personal approach to interiors and architecture?
Totally. Pierre is an extraordinary man with a unique sensitivity. As a mentor he helped me to develop my eye, taking the time to teach, while at the same time leaving me free to develop as an individual. He has invented a style, a signature and that’s why today he’s so shamefully copied. He knows how to mix things always in unexpected and singular ways; he has the magic instinct to know what is good and what is not. Pierre has a certain magnetism and natural authority; he’s one of those gifted with a fantastic talent, like that of the great composers, or the great fashion designers. My own taste which I’ve cultivated is slightly different; I’m perhaps more classical, and naturally more feminine. It’s fundamental to keep your own personality. It’s the difference that makes you desirable.
Did the pandemic in any way impact your approach to your life or work?
After the very first lockdown, where I stayed for more than two months in the countryside, close to the sea, the world changed, my vision of life too. I felt that I needed to take a break and to start something new, a new cycle for myself. I left for Italy, where I lived a beautiful love story in Parma. There, I was lucky enough to work for a few months at an extraordinary museum, La Pilotta, doing Art direction. You need to see there the incredible Teatro Farnese, all in wood, Palladian-style, amazing ... and of course the Da Vinci, Correggio and Parmigianino. Italy was a unique experience. Now I’m back in Paris, happy, working on my own interiors and book projects, and still collaborating with Pierre, who is like family.
Stylistically speaking, what defines your approach to design?
I like eclecticism and classicism. I love to see a mix of rigour and spontaneity in an interior, unperfected spaces with a variety of influences, yet at the same time elegant. Paradoxically, I also like busy interiors, sometimes even opulent. Personally, though, I could only ever live in a clear simple space, with as few things around me as possible. That said, unity can be created with contrasts. Contrasts are creating style and spirit. Design must be as essential as it is unexpected, like a Bob Wilson chair or Chareau stool. I hate fashions, or “original” things just done to be “original” ... I admire Jacques Grange who has this unique talent to mix all kinds of styles, with this very sure and spontaneous French taste. Yovanovitch has this genius too but in a more architectural, radical and contemporary mood. He is for me the actual french chic. I guess I would like to be in between.
In terms of the decorative arts, what would you say is your particular area of interest?
Viennese Secession and its influences, Swedish Grace, and of course French Decorative Arts from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. These are the best years, the high elegance, the aristocracy alive and excessive, the great balls and sumptuous parties, the Russian ballets, the Surrealism, it was the time of Modernism mixed with this perfect classicism.
The home of Marie-Anne Derville, Paris, in the sitting room a chair by Greek artist Philolaos Tloupas, from Galerie Maxime Flatry, stands next to the fireplace, the renaissance painting is from Galerie Kugel, and the antique stone mask from Galerie Chenel, photograph by Dominique Nabokov
Who are your favourite twentieth-century designers?
Eileen Gray, Jean-Michel Frank, Marc du Plantier, Axel Einar Hjorth ... In all of them, there is the beauty of neoclassicism and refined modernism. Nothing “gratuitously” extravagant. Just basics with genius details, it’s the recipe. Looking for more is useless. My parents are living three blocks away from la villa Cavrois, by Robert Mallet-Stevens. I’m in love with this house, it’s a kind of quintessence, a masterpiece of art where every time I go, I’m dazzled, almost losing my mind!
The popularity of twentieth-century design is only on the up and up, as evidenced by the recent Maison de Verre sale at Christie’s Paris; but are there still any designers whose work you think is under-appreciated?
The market has become quite terrible, completely saturated, with astronomical prices. It’s sad because it makes the whole thing kind of disembodied. Design itself has become a fashion and good pieces are becoming difficult to find, even for gallerists. But of course, let’s stay positive, and think there are always things to discover; youth can’t admit defeat! I think it could be interesting to look towards Germany or Eastern countries. In my opinion, great things still quite unknown can be found there...
What’s your favourite work of design?
Eileen Gray’s Lotus table made for Jacques Doucet is one among so many others. It’s an absolute of beauty, sophistication and invention. The perfect mix of minimalism and maximalism. Though black lacquer in general drives me mad.
What was the first important piece of art you ever owned?
Maybe a pair of clip earrings the best friend of my mother gave me when I was nine or ten years old. I spent hours looking at her collection of clothes, shoes, jewellery and I was fascinated. For me, she was the incarnation of femininity and class. I still remember the red carpet and every object in her enormous apartment with its high ceilings and long corridors. Then one day she gave me the object of my desire, a pair of square glass earrings with green liquid inside. Very nineties! I was crazy about their shape, material, function — all just to make a person more beautiful. Maybe on reflection, they were not so good, but for me, they were a real piece of art, because they contained a whole universe.
In terms of art and design, if money were no object, who would you collect?
In my most inaccessible dreams, Cy Twombly, Baselitz, Balthus, Anri Sala, Helen Frankenthaler, Elizabeth Peyton, Italian primitives and Renaissance portraits paintings. In terms of design, it’s impossible to list them all, as I love so many things of different styles; I would mix Paavo Tynell, with Martin Szekely, Carl Horvik, Max Lamb, Empire masterpieces, Donald Judd and Eyre de Lanux.
What was the last thing you bought and loved?
A photograph by Dominique Nabokov, from the series Berlin Living rooms. It’s the interior of Angelica Blechschmidt, editor in chief of German Vogue. The photo is great, full of messy books, and big leopard plush on huge banquettes. I’m an enormous fan of Nabokov’s work and she is also a dear friend. She looks as no one else does at incongruous and imperfect things and situations. She is doing the opposite of what we can see most of the time today in magazines, that being flat photographs of soulless boring interiors. Nabokov is the only one to capture in this way the essence of interiors, their poetry and most intimate atmosphere. She’s a portraitist and she photographs interiors as if portraits. She gets the genius of spaces, literally and figuratively. She recently shot my flat in Paris, I feel very lucky!
The home of Marie-Anne Derville, Paris, in the sitting room works by contemporary artist Hadrien Jacquelet hang above the fireplace, the lacqured red tables are from Galerie Maxime Flatry, photograph by Dominique Nabokov
The home of Marie-Anne Derville, Paris, in the study a Pierre Chareau chair and an enamelled stoneware sculpture by Maurice Gensoli, both from Galerie Maxime Flatry, photograph by Dominique Nabokov
An object you would never part with?
Maybe an ugly floor lamp I’ve been dragging around forever. It was already in my room when as a kid; a simple, almost ridiculous, worthless white stand. It’s become a running joke with my friends. Every time we see this lamp, always there, somewhere, hidden in a corner of my apartment, we burst out laughing. “Oh, this one is still there!”. But no, there is nothing to do, I can’t get rid of it! And the more we make fun of it, the more I get attached to it.
What would you like to own that you currently don’t possess?
A very nice and very expensive armchair by Frits Henningsen! From the 1940s, covered in black horsehair. I would love it for my living room. It’s both elegant and comfortable. And that for me is very important! Life nowadays is kind of a fight against the ugliness of comfort — comfort and practicality are the plague of our time. Beautiful comfort is hard to find, and if you find it, you usually need quite a lot of money!
What’s the best gift you’ve been given?
A little crystal ball, offered by my very dear friend Djaba Diassamidze. It stays on my desk, I look at it and believe it’s charged with magic.
What’s your biggest extravagance?
Until I was 12-13 years old, it was my laughter, I laughed in a cascade, like bells, it was very particular. Today, I would say with self-derision, that it’s my legendary band of friends, all men, loving men, each as beautiful and funny as the other. I’m usually the only woman, blonde, very tall, always laughing, it must seem extravagant to some…
The site that most inspires you?
The Louvre, infinite in discovery and beauty — a lifetime would not be enough to see all the treasures inside; and every time I cross la cour carrée, my chest swells, and I feel stupidly proud to be French!
Where’s the most unforgettable place you’ve travelled?
Sicily, undoubtedly. We did a trip by car there, for three weeks. We drove down the island, from Palermo to Syracuse, Ortigia ... passing through Catania, spending days in the surreal Noto, seeing Ragusa ... We passed by the Roman villa of Casale, with its amazing mosaic floors. We walked on Etna, which we will remember all our lives. Sicily is breathtaking. There is another dimension on this land. If you want to fall in love, go to Sicily! It’s carried by the explosive energy of volcanoes. Beauty is everywhere before your eyes. Their spirits and senses are speaking
Where would you like to go next?
I dream to see St Petersburg and to visit Moscow. I want to discover the Russian world, its excess, its craziness and its romanticism. This intense atmosphere described in the great Russian novels I read when I was a teenager. And I’ve planned to go to Georgia, with my friend, Djaba. He knows his country like the back of his hand. He will drive me to the most beautiful secret places and we’ll get drunk with orange wine.
What’s the best souvenir you’ve bought home?
A small orthodox icon brought from Amorgos. At the monastery of Panayia Hozoviotissa, which dates from the tenth century, built into the rock above the sea. It has no historical value, it was very cheap, but it is full of spiritual meaning. Imbued with the big blue sea, it watches over me.
Oh and I’m also thinking of an umbrella from the Ritz! Brought home by chance, it has become a relic! Souvenir of a crazy night in Paris.
Tell us about a recent “find”?
A Barcelona-based architectural practice, Arquitectura-G. These guys are so good!
If you didn’t live in Paris, where would you live?
Paris simply doesn’t have any equivalent and I would be in a pain to leave it! There is everything in Paris, my friends, my family, the four seasons, galleries, history, projects, incredible exhibitions, heated terraces and the river. It’s lacking a little in trees and sun, true! Maybe an alternative could be Rome ... for its infinite beauty, its mysteries, its churches, the beautiful Italians, its luxuriant vegetation, its life both refined and raw. But I’ve heard living there is impossible, unless you’re of Roman blood. I also love Turin. The city where I grew up until the age four years old. It’s a chic and strange city where I like sometimes to imagine myself in another kind of life; married, four kids, a tennis court and a nice car!
If you had to limit your shopping to one neighbourhood, in one city, which would you choose?
The Jardin du Luxembourg and its surrounding area. It’s kind of my favourite atmosphere now — maybe I’m getting old! Palm trees in summer, beautiful romantic light in winter, tennis courts, real Parisians, a mix of generations; it’s such a great show just to just sit there and people watch, looking at how elegant they are, or like a funny film character. Then, if you walk a little further, you find marvellous booksellers, Saint-Sulpice, le Café de la Mairie and somewhere around, Catherine Deneuve...
What’s your favourite room in your apartment?
My bedroom! Because sleep for me is sacred. It has nothing particularly beautiful, but I love its vibe of simplicity. Just a bed, no headboard, my favorite books, and on the walls, three artworks of friends that I like very much; a photograph by Simon de Dreuille, the gardens of the Villa Medici, a painting of Benoit Maire, purple clouds, and a big and strange painting of Hadrien Jacquelet that I can contemplate whenever I’m getting bored.
What’s your biggest indulgence?
Champagne! Too much champagne.
What’s the best book you’ve read in the past year?
I’ve just bought Let Me Tell You What I Mean, by Joan Didion. She is such an inspiring woman for me, she had an extremely sharp eye and a unique style of writing. She was an icon, and I can’t wait to go through it. Also, I can’t not mention a book I read, and loved, a lot a few years ago, Tiens ferme ta couronne, by Yannick Haenel. It’s a very funny story of a heroic loser looking for beauty. It’s about the entanglement of events, their magic and strangeness. I believe life is like a big game board, where you just have to know how to read the signs and coincidences.
What would you do if you didn’t work in design?
I would devote myself to literature, art books and publishing. In another life, I would have loved to be part of a publishing house like Gallimard, and bathe in the atmosphere. I always wanted to create a magazine of interiors with friends, but this is a very hard mission today, almost a priesthood!
What ambition do you still have?
To play a femme fatale in a silent movie … surrounded by beautiful men. Just kidding ... but not completely!
What’s the greatest challenge of our time?
I could not mention the climate crisis of course. But at my level, I feel very concerned by the question of preserving beauty in this new paradigm, with usually relies today on sustainability, practicality, comfort, novelty. It can be a disaster... Can the environmental challenges be articulated with an aesthetic dimension? Aesthetics and beauty are political subjects. All this is the subject of intense conversations with friends.
What’s next?
A focus on advising in art and design and devoting myself to my most precious collaborations!