Misia: The Life of Misia Sert

by Arthur Gold, Robert Fizdale

Duo pianists Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale have written a charming and magnificent biography of a truly extraordinary woman, Misia Sert. Born into a Polish family of gifted artists, Misia was a pianist of talent who, as a child, delighted Liszt and, later, her teacher, Fauré. Her greatest talent, however, was the gift of inspiring and bringing together others. She was painted and adored by Renoir, Vuillard, Bonnard, and Toulouse-Lautrec. She was a friend of Mallarmé and Valéry, and later, Cocteau, Colette and Claudel. It was she who brought Diaghilev and Stravinsky together, inspired two characters in Proust's masterpiece Remembrance of Things Past, and 'discovered' Coco Chanel.

Genres: Biography, France, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Historical, Russia

337 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 1980

Reviews

[Kalliope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chaque autre fleur ne saurait méconnâitre
Que Misia fit gentiment de naître.

Mallarmé
Each other flower cannot help but know
That Misia has been born, and sweetly so.

Maria Zofia Olga Zenajda Godebska (1872-1950) – aka Mme Nathanson – aka Mme Alfred Edwards – aka Mme José-María Sert. Misia, for short (dates) was as Marcel Proust had said, a monument.

Arthur Gold (1917-1990) and Robert Fizdale (1920-1995), a couple of American pianists who performed as a duo-ensemble, have left us a remarkable biography of a lady who was more than remarkable lady. In the epilogue they explain how and why they set themselves out to write it. The link was, as could be expected: music. Music and people. On an evening in 1946 in NY (when Misia was still alive), they were to play a few pieces composed by Stravinsky, for the composer himself to hear them. Stravinsky was visiting from California. And that event acted like the opening of a felicitous Pandora box. A few years later, the two pianists set out for France to meet the circle of friends that Stravinsky had left behind in Europe.



Following a chronological order, this bio has various movements. The prelude is Misia’s peripatetic childhood, with Polish, Belgian, Russian and French airs. She was half Polish, half Belgian, had cellists and sculptors in her pedigree and she herself was a highly capable pianist who delighted Liszt when she was a child. She also tasted sorrow, for her mother died young and her father was a philanderer and there were several households none of which felt like a home to her. She soon showed her rebellious nature and eloped to England with a man or without a man. This is not clear.



She then began her career as a Wife-who-collects-Husbands. And this is the first movement. A literary one, since she married the editor of the prestigious and influential La revue Blanche, Thadée Natanson (1868-1951). This is then her literary phase, populated by Mallarmé and the group of painters who swarmed around literature in search of their symbols. And she was their muse. They all portrayed her. She is in so many of paintings by Bonnard, Vuillard, Valloton, but also by some of the Impressionists. Renoir was fascinated with her bosoms. With this read I have also realized that the very familiar Mme Nathanson as bequeathed to us by Toulouse-Lautrec was this same Misia.







Changing guises and husbands, she married the very wealthy Alfred Edwards (1856-1914) and her life took on the additional varnish of extreme luxury. This is the most dramatic of the movements. During this time Misia developed her power as patron, and musicians now became her court. Maurice Ravel dedicated La Valse to her, and this is when Diaguilev enters the scene. He would become one of Misia’s closest friends. With Edwards behaving somewhat like an Onassis, Misia began her third movement.




In the third movement Misia married a mural painter. José-María Sert (1874-1945), a Spaniard who tried to become a Modernist version of Tiepolo, came also from a very wealthy background. His own exuberance married well with Misia’s own and they spend many happy years surrounded by the very beautiful people, soon nicely dressed by the parvenue Coco Chanel. She also became one of Misia’s closest friends, or at least as the concept was as understood by Coco. The great years of the Ballets Russes were during this time and newcomers to the gallery are Picasso, Cocteau, Colette...



In the final and concluding movement, there is no recapitulation. Instead, the accompaniments move to the background and the core melody remains on stage alone, and with dim lights. The sounds are piano, and muted. But the echoes of brilliance and beauty remain.



Gold and Fizdale have performed for us a riveting account. The transition from a Fin-de-Siècle world of glitter to the dreary Paris occupied by the Nazis is intoxicating. We see a parade of artists in which each figure seems to outshine the previous one, when painters, dancers, writers, musicians, designers, choreographers, and the wealthy ones belonged to a world of frenzied creativity, until the time of waltzing the dance macabre arrived. Some of the artists then donned the masks of collaborationists, and eventually all parted their way. Proustians will be delighted that the ‘basso continuo’ in this piece is Marcel Proust and his La recherche. One of the motifs is Misia is revealed as Proust’s sole source for the Princesse Yourbeletieff, and we learn that Coco Chanel used to refer to her dear friend as Mme Verdurinsky.



In their performance, Gold and Fizdale have left us the score, so that we could judge their interpretation. The book is rich in documents: letters, photographs, and diaries... Some they procured from their direct owners, for even if they were of a younger generation were close to them and sang the same musical language of art and creativity. They understood that world.

[Eva Stachniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misia Sert was a fascinating woman. The queen of Pasris, a muse, a hostess who lived art, not worshipped it. Gold and Fizdale's biography is based on Misia's own memoirs and on testimonies of her friends. The portrait that emerges is of a complex spirit, generous and irreverent, an animator of art and a connoisseur of beauty. The book also contains many letters and documents from the authors' archives--all evidence of the mesmerizing effect she had on those from her circe: Picasso, Diaghilev, Cocteau, Proust, Coco Chanel...

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb biography on Misia Sert, who was a wealthy iconic model as well as a supporter of artists Renoir, Vuillard, Bonnard, and Toulouse-Lautrec. Wherever she sat, it seems that she was the magnet or in the presence of greatness in the art world. From writers to artists to composers to close designers, she knew everyone, and everyone seemed to want her support and friendship. At the moment I can't think of a better book on European art from the 19th-century to the World War II era, where things fell apart in the world of the arts.

"Misia" is written by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, which is the sole reason why I picked this book up. In my vinyl hunting, I have come upon two great albums by Gold and Fizdale, who play duo pianos, and focused on early 20th-century music, specifically the excellent Paul Bowles. Gold/Fizdale, a gay couple, seem to be at the very heart of the boho music world of the 1940s and 1950s Manhattan world. Besides writing this remarkable biography (1980), they also had a local New York City cooking show as well.

"Misia" is brilliantly told through various letters and journals by those who are in Ms. Sert's social world, as well as her letters to such cultural icons like Jean Cocteau and her best friend Serge Diaghilev, whose personality comes out gloriously in these pages. Cocteau was a hustler for his work, and Diaghilev was a hardcore hustler for his vision of the ballet and combining the most exceptional talents in art, music, and dance in one space, and on one stage. Misia also helped a young Coco Chanel start her world as fashion goddess, and may and may not have been lovers. The book is a gossip's dream of classic scandal on everyone from Marcel Proust to Erik Satie. It's fascinating to me that I know all the participants in this world, except for Misia Sert! There are people like her who were extremely important for any scene to get started, and she was the finance/friend that kept the ball rolling - especially to someone who was a combination of financial ruin and mess, Diaghilev.

The book is full of bitchy witticisms and an essential title for anyone who even has the 'slightest' interest in art culture from those times.

[Shane McLennan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this biography of the life of Misia Sert and highly recommend it. I learned so much about the artists, musicians, dancers and choreographers during her time, late 1800’s to her death in 1950. From their crazy personal lives to their brilliance as artists.

[Norini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. A Parisian that floated through ex-pat Paris meeting all with wry observations.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Après l'enterrement, Misia et Thadée demandèrent à leurs amis de revenir avec eux à Villeneuve. Tous se mirent tristement en route : Renoir, Lautrec, Vuillard, Vallotton, Bonnard, Claude Terrasse, Vollard, Mirbeau, Coolus, Bourges, Maurice Maeterlinck, et Georgette Leblanc. Au dîner ce soir-là, les nerfs tendus par les épreuves de la journée, tout le monde fut soudain terrassé par un fou rire hystérique. Misia, la première à recouvrer son calme, se sentit à la fois furieuse et remplie de honte. Renoir, qui adorait Mallarmé et était plus proche de lui par l'âge que les autres, la rassura avec douceur : "Ne vous frappez pas, Misia, on n'enterre pas Mallarmé tous les jours", lui dit-il."

"Ce dernier est tout autant un portrait des sentiments de Vuillard pour Misia que de Misia elle-même. Car le peintre, alors âgé de vingt-neuf ans, était tombé amoureux de la femme de son ami Thadée. Un soir, alors que les Natanson s'apprêtaient à partir pour un voyage en Normandie, Vuillard demanda à Misia de l'accompagner pour une dernière promenade le long de la rivière. Cinquante ans plus tard, elle écrivit :

Nous partîmes au déclin du jour. Grave et rêveur, Vuillard me conduisit le long du fleuve cerné de hauts bouleaux aux troncs d'argent. Je crois que nous ne parlions pas. Il avançait lentement dans l'herbe jaunissante et je respectais inconsciemment son silence. Le jour tombait vite et nous prîmes pour rentrer un raccourci à travers un champ de betteraves. Nos silhouettes, côte à côte, n'étaient plus que des ombres calmes sur le ciel pâle. Le sol devenait rugueux sous nos pas. Je m'accrochai le pied dans une racine et tombai à moitié. Vuillard s'était arrêté court pour m'aider à reprendre mon équilibre. Nos regards se rencontrèrent brusquement. Je ne vis que ses yeux tristes briller dans l'obscurité grandissante. Il éclata en sanglots. C'est la plus belle déclaration d'amour qu'un homme m'ait jamais faite."

"Misia (Esther) : Pourquoi pas ? Je ne peux pas me forcer à le détester ou à détester cette petite... Je mentirais... Je les aime. J'aime aimer... j'ai la fureur d'aimer, comme Verlaine. Et vous détestez l'amour. Tout le monde déteste l'amour, essaye de l'abîmer, de l'empêcher de vivre...
Chanel (Charlotte) : Personne ne vous comprendra, ne vous croira...
Misia (Esther) : Naturellement, je lutte, naturellement, je souffre. Ce serait trop simple. Cette nuit... j'ai crevé de souffrance. Je l'ai appelé. Il est venu. Il m'a dorlotée. Il voulait rester chez moi. C'est moi qui l'ai obligé à me quitter, à remonter chez elle.
Chanel (Charlotte) : Vous n'avez plus l'ombre de sens moral.
Misia (Esther) : Dieu m'en préserve. Si je l'avais retenu, j'aurais pensé qu'il restait à contrecœur et elle m'en aurait gardé rancune.
Chanel (Charlotte) : C'est un comble !"

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating material and a great read, for the boldfaced names alone, much less Misia's rich personality and the course of her life. Unfortunately, the author's affection for their subject tips from flattery into outright sycophancy.

A biographer has no duty to judge; however, these writers' repeated celebrations of Misia's decisions and aesthetic taste is excessive to a fault, and frequently contradicted by the very events they describe. Next to their willingness to castigate Misia's acquaintances, this adulation seems downright silly and a blatant exercise of double standards (in the most extreme instance, Misia's third ex-husband, Jose-Maria Sert, is condemned as a weak-willed collaborator for his willingness to work for Nazis while retaining ties to Jews and other old friends in Occupied Paris; the authors grant Misia herself the benefit of her sympathy for persecuted friends while giving her a pass for enjoying the material benefits and personal safety obtained by her ex-husband).

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful evocation of Misia Sert

[Celine Cayatte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cette biographie de Misia est merveilleusement écrite et se lit comme un roman. C'est une invitation au voyage musical dans le Paris artistique du début du xx eme.

[Aaron James Voltaire · Rating 5 out of 5]

YES!

[Samantha Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!!