Madeleine Castaing (, Magistry; 1894–1992) was a French antiques dealer and interior designer of international renown. She was the friend and the sponsor of many artists, including Soutine, who made her portrait in 1928. Original, even whimsical, she revolutionized the world of decoration, creating the ''style Castaing'' which is now a reference.

Debuts

The daughter of an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

who built the

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

Chartres Chartres () is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 1 ...

, Madeleine Magistry early married an heir from

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

, the

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

Marcellin Castaing. Their very romantic meeting had been concluded by her "kidnapping"; she was barely fifteen or sixteen at the time. Twenty years older than she was, Marcellin Castaing was known for his impressive literary and artistic culture. During the fifty years of their marriage, he remained his wife's great love, according to all the couple's friends, including the writer and photographer François-Marie Banier, who remembers "Madeleine's legendary love for her husband". In the 1920s, Madeleine Castaing made her débuts as an actress in

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s; then gave up the career while being already nicknamed "the French

Mary Pickford Gladys Louise Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American film actress and producer. A Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood, pioneer in the American film industry with a Hollywood care ...

". At that time, her husband had offered her a neoclassical manor that she had been longing for, in Lèves, not far from Chartres, where he wanted for her to "unwind", he explained. The young woman had indeed discovered her own vocation for interior design.

Sponsorship

Shortly after their friend Modigliani's death, the Castaings made the acquaintance of Soutine at the Café de la Rotonde in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. It is split betwee ...

. The first meeting was difficult. Soutine refused the 100 franc note handed to him by Marcellin Castaing for a painting that Castaing had not even looked at it. A few years later, in 1925, the Castaings could buy their first painting by this artist at

Leopold Zborowski Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name), including a list of people named Leopold or Léopold * Leopold (surname) Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold B ...

's, the primary art dealer of Soutine and of Modigliani, and became friends with him. From 1930 to 1935, he was a guest during the summer in their mansion in Lèves. They became the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

s and main buyers of Zborowski. Thanks to them, Soutine could hold his first exhibition in Chicago in 1935. The Castaings possessed more than 40 paintings by this artist, which became the most important private collection of Soutine's works. Madeleine Castaing considered that he was the greatest painter of the 20th century. "Above others, he gives his hand to the Greco and

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

", she claimed. Madeleine Castaing's portrait by Soutine, ''La Petite Madeleine des décorateurs'', is now at The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York. The words ''petite madeleine'' refer to the ''petite madeleine'' of

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...

, an author whom Madeleine Castaing was especially interested; she spent decades reading ''

In Search of Lost Time ''In Search of Lost Time'' (), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early twen ...

'' again and again, fully, several times. She had discovered this work in 1913. Generally speaking, the Castaings were patrons of artists belonging to the

École de Paris The School of Paris (, ) refers to the French and émigré artists who worked in Paris in the first half of the 20th century. The School of Paris was not a single art movement or institution, but refers to the importance of Paris as a centre o ...

and to the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière () is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the A ...

. Madeleine Castaing was a friend of

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...

, Maurice Sachs,

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars (), was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European ...

André Derain André Derain (, ; 10 June 1880 – 8 September 1954) was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse. In 2025, all of Derain’s work entered the public domain in the United States. Life and career Early ...

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

(arranging his house in

Milly-la-Forêt Milly-la-Forêt () is a commune in the Essonne department in the Île-de-France region in northern France. Geology The Forest of Fontainebleau, in the western end of which Milly-la-Forêt lies, is composed of the Oligocene Fontainebleau sand ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

, Iché,

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, so ...

, Louise de Vilmorin (to whom she inspired the character of Julietta in the novel of the same name), and Francine Weisweiller (for whom she decorated the Villa Santo Sospir in

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (; ; Italian language, Italian: ''San Giovanni Capo Ferrato'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region in Southe ...

). In the 1970s, she helped François-Marie Banier by purchasing a dozen of his photographs for 70,000 francs.François-Marie Banier: un ami qui vous veut du bien
16 January 2009. Accessed 26 July 2010. The historian and politician Michel Castaing (1918–2004), the Castaings' younger son, was a famous expert in

paleography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

. Michel's son, Frédéric Castaing, is a specialist in autographs and also a novelist. When Michel Castaing died in 2004, the family mansion in Lèves was sold at auction b
Sotheby's
as well as the family collection of paintings and art objects, including seven paintings by Soutine. Count Bruno de Caumont, artistic director at Edmond Petit, the company who edits Madeleine Castaing’s fabrics, and an expert of her style, arranged the items to be sold into decoration scene

Bibliography

Books

* (prefaces by Jacques Grange and Frédéric Castaing) * Pierre Levallois ''et al.'', ''La Décoration'' (5e volume de la collection « Connaissance des Arts », 1963, p. 60) * Jean-Noël Liaut, ''Madeleine Castaing, Mécène à Montparnasse, décoratrice à Saint-Germain-des-Prés'', Payot, 2008 * Lisa Lovett-Smith, ''Paris Interiors'', Taschen * Patrick Mauriès et

Christian Lacroix Christian Marie Marc Lacroix (; born 16 May 1951) is a French fashion designer. The name may also refer to the company he founded. Lacroix's designs combine luxury and insouciance. He prefers artisanal trades, fringe, bead, and embroidery. He's ...

, ''Styles d'aujourd'hui'', Gallimard/Le Promeneur, 1995 * Barbara et René Stoeltie, ''Chez Elles : le décor au féminin'', Flammarion, 2003, pp. 13 à 19 * Suzanne Trocmé, ''Influential Interiors'', Michtell Beazley, 1999 * Adam Lewis, ''The Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design, 1870-1955'', Rizzoli, New York, 2010

Reviews

* Hervé Joubeaux et Pierre Falicon, ''Le Temps retrouvé chez Madeleine Castaing'', photographies de Claire Flanders, musée des Beaux-Arts,

, 1997 * Hervé Leroux, « L'appartement de Madeleine Castaing », ''Maison française'' n° 509, 2000 * Anne de Royère, « Madeleine Castaing, Lla Mujer de los azules », ''Casas e Gente'', septembre 2004 * Barbara Stoeltie, « Au revoir, Lèves », photographs by René Stoeltie, '' The World of Interiors'', 2004 * Catalog of Soutine Exhibition (1963),

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

, London * Catalogue de l'exposition François-Marie Banier, « Madeleine Castaing »,

Maison européenne de la photographie Maison (French for "house") may refer to: People * Edna Maison (1892–1946), American silent-film actress * Jérémy Maison (born 1993), French cyclist * Leonard Maison, New York state senator 1834–1837 * Nicolas Joseph Maison (1771–1840), M ...

, Paris, 2003 * Catalogue

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

, ''L'Univers de Madeleine Castaing'',

Galerie Charpentier The Galerie Charpentier was a gallery of historic and contemporary art in Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048 ...

, Paris, septembre-octobre 2004

Filmography

* ''

The Proprietor ''The Proprietor'' is a 1996 film. It is a U.S.- French co-production Merchant Ivory film, directed by Ismail Merchant for Jeanne Moreau's request. Cast Starring *Jeanne Moreau as Adrienne Mark *Sean Young as Virginia Kelly *Sam Waterston as Har ...

'', film by

Ismail Merchant Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman; 25 December 1936 – 24 May 2005) was an Indian film producer. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included film director (and Merchant's longt ...

with

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...

and

Sean Young Mary Sean Young (born November 20, 1959) is an American actress. She is particularly known for working in science fiction films, although she has performed roles in a variety of genres. Young's early roles include the Independent film, indepe ...

(1996), filmed in Madeleine Castaing's apartment * ''Madeleine Castaing et

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemianism, bohemian, and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who we ...

'', television documentary directed by Benjamin Roussel,

France 5 France 5 () is a French free-to-air public television channel, part of the France Télévisions group. Principally featuring nonfiction and educational programming, the channel's motto is ''la chaîne de la connaissance et du savoir'' (the knowl ...

(2006) for the series ''Le Bal du siècle'', produced by Jean-Louis RemilleuxCulture-infos
* ''Madeleine Castaing''
documentary
by Christopher Flach,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

(2006)

External links

*
Text by François-Marie Banier
and a portrait of Madeleine Castaing (« Photographie, portraits ») *

*

*

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castaing, Madeleine French interior designers 1894 births 1992 deaths People from Chartres