La Belle Époque

by Philippe Jullian, Diana Vreeland (Introduction)

The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (French for "Beautiful Era") was a period in French and Belgian history that is conventionally dated as starting in 1871 and ending when World War I began in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Third French Republic (beginning 1870), it was a period characterized by optimism, peace at home and in Europe, new technology and scientific discoveries. The peace and prosperity in Paris allowed the arts to flourish, and many masterpieces of literature, music, theatre, and visual art gained recognition. The Belle Époque was named, in retrospect, when it began to be considered a "golden age" in contrast to the horrors of World War I. In the newly rich United States, emerging from the Panic of 1873, the comparable epoch was dubbed the Gilded Age. In the United Kingdom, the Belle Époque overlapped with the late Victorian era and the Edwardian era. In Germany, the Belle Époque coincided with the reigns of Kaiser Wilhelm I & II and in Russia with the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II.

Catalog of an Exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Includes reprint of Philippe Jullian's essay: La Belle Epoque, originally titled Can Can and Flappers, appeared in La Belle Epoque, William Morrow & Co.

Genres: History, Art, Art History, France, Nonfiction, Research

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Philippe Jullian né Philippe Simounet, est un écrivain, dessinateur et graveur, chroniqueur mondain et artistique de son époque.

Reviews

[Andrew Schirmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

La Belle Epoque. Myth has replaced history to such a degree that these words immediately conjure up a music-hall scene...As a subtitle or on a band round a book, the words La Belle Epoque promise delightful evocations, whether true or false (it does not really matter, and in any case the difference is negligible): a lady from the highest society leaving her huge house to go to a party somewhere, a footman on the steps, an impeccable coachman or chauffeur in attendance. The sparkle of her jewelry and the rustle of her train contrast with the evening suit of her companion, who personifies the man on the de Reszke cigarette advertisements. Or, in front of a charming country house, small girls with golden curls under lacy bonnets play diabolo with sailor-suited little boys who will be killed in the war. Or, again, in a box at the opera, superb women, their dresses a little too low-cut, listen to Melba singing Thaïs while in the stalls gentlemen in evening dress ogle the dancers' legs through their monocles...

Having only recently been born when Diana Vreeland's La Belle Epoque had its run at the Met, I cannot recall having seen it. But Philippe Jullian's accompanying essay, included in this slight monograph published to coincide with the exhibition, leaves me with no regrets. A few ambient spritzes of L'heure bleue, Debussy's Images on the hi-fi, and Jullian's prose are all I need. In fact, one could even jettison the first two and dine on Jullian alone--with no great loss.

La Belle Epoque is not to be found in the "great" novels of the time (Proust, the great chronicler/satirist of the era, excepted), in Forsyte or Zauberberg but in the small journals and pamphlets, the peripheral literature, the address books, the memoirs and diaries--Jullian seems to have read them all.

He is keenly aware of the period's limitations, setting the chronology rather firmly then most at 1900-14 before proceeding to lay down the parameters of class :

[Although] the very fast development of the industrial machinery that had caused so much upheaval in the nineteenth century finally led to a reduction in working hours, and trade unionization obtained definite advantages for workers, it was, however, in no way La Belle Epoque for the Lancashire miner, the silk weaver from Lyons, or any of those ranked among the poor.

and geography. Well, Paris (obvs), Vienna, London (to some extent. But why not Germany? :

The young German Empire, wholly concerned with acquiring the biggest army, the biggest factories only participated in La Belle Epoque through increased prosperity. The Germans were moral and megalomaniac like Emperor Wilhelm, and the aristocracy was too sure of its importance to bother about being smart.

and what we Americans call "sexual orientation" :

Whereas Lesbos was treated with amused indulgence, Sodom was frowned upon.

The text is packed with sources like a truffle-studded roast, each bite revealing another unexpected savory morsel, and yet it never grows boring. Jullian writes (I assume this is translated, more than adequately from the French) in a deliciously gallic Wildean style, opinionated and epigrammatic and despite his mastery of the minutiae he never loses the melody--the growing wealth transfer from the aristos to the bankers, the affairs & love scandals, changes in modes of transportation and modes of fashion :

The misogynist Diaghilev left Nijinsky practically naked but stifled his women in jewelry; Poiret, who adored women, allowed the shapes of their bodies to be guessed at at last.

Which brings us to June 24th, 1911, the height of LBE decadence, Paul Poiret's One Thousand and Second Night, so obviously 'appropriated' by Virginia Woolf for Orlando's Constantinople 'entertainment' seventeen years later :

The guests entered a drawing room where a half-naked Negro, draped in Bohara silks and carrying a torch and a yataghan, gathered them together and led them to me. Then they crossed a sanded courtyard where, beneath a blue-and-gold awning, fountains played in porcelain basins. A multicolored light descended through the colors of the awning. They climbed a few steps and found themselves in front of an immense golden cage latticed with twisted fittings inside which I had locked my favorite (Mme. Poiret), surrounded by her maids in waiting, who were singing real Persian songs. Mirrors, sorbets, aquariums, small birds, veils, and feathers, these were the amusements of the queen of the harem and her attendants...

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realized how little I know about European social history circa 1900-1914. Entertaining read and makes me want to read Proust.

[Dvora Treisman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philippe Jullian is certainly very witty, knows his subject, and at times if fun to read. But he is also full of himself, an attribute that tends to put me off. He says one thing that I question (although I am in no way any kind of expert). He goes through all the different art forms and social manifestations of the period, and says that literature was not among them. He does mention Colette's Gigi as giving a description of the grooming of women to be part of the courtesan class. But what about any number of Colette's other books? Cheri, The Vagabond, and others? Do they not describe that epoch? Are they not literature?

[reveurdart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, albeit short introduction to the Belle Époque period. I'd also recommend the author's other book, The Triumph Of Art Nouveau: Paris Exhibition, 1900.

[tumulus]

what a delight, makes you shiver with imagined nostalgia