Albertine, the character

Albertine Simonet is the most quoted character in the novel. She is one of the “young girls in flowers” that the Narrator meets for the first time in Balbec (Cabourg). Impertinent, ethereal and ever changing, Albertine is described by Marcel Proust as “a being of flight”.

In the infinite series of imaginary Albertines who followed one after the other in my fancy hour by hour, beach, figured only at the head, just as the actress who “creates” a role, the star, appears, out of a long series of performances, in the few first alone.

Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower 

Loving the Narrator when he doesn’t want her any more, releasing him when he makes her a prisoner, Albertine is fickle and elusive: an object of desire. 

From literature to design

Towards a Pomare chair

The Pomare chair takes its name and origin from the last dynasty of Tahiti’s kings. Anthony Guerrée was inspired by this high-backed chair because it symbolizes romantic desire. This chair entered popular culture in the 70’s after it was featured in the poster of the erotic film Emmanuelle and evokes lightness and liberal mores.

I knew that I would never possess this young cyclist if I did not possess also what was in her eyes. And it was consequently her whole life that filled me with desire; a painful desire because I felt that it was not to be realised, but exhilarating, because what had hit her to been my life, having ceased suddenly to be my whole life, being no more now than a little part of the space stretching out before me, which I was burning to cover and which was composed of the lives of these girls, offered me that prolongation, that possible multiplication of oneself which is happiness.

Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower 

The circular back designed by Anthony Guerrée for the “Albertine” chair is directly inspired by the bike that Albertine rides away on.

Swann, the character

This view of Swann’s social atmosphere which prevailed in my family seemed to be confirmed later on by his marriage with a woman of the worst class, you might, you might almost say a « fast » woman, whom, to do him justice, he never attempted to introduce to us, for he continued to come to us alone, though he came more and more seldom ; but from whom they thought they could establish, on the assumption that he had found her there, the circle, unknown to them, in wich he ordinarily moved.

Marcel Proust, Swann‘s Way

Charles Swann is one of the main characters of In Search of Lost Time. Born into a rich and bourgeois family, he frequents the high society of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Swann flourishes in this worldly life because he can meet a lot of women:

But Swann was so ardent a lover that, once he had got to know almost all the women of the aristocracy, once they had taught him all that there was to learn, he had ceased to regard those naturalization papers, almost a patent of nobility, which the Faubourg Saint-Germain.

Marcel Proust, Swann‘s Way

Combray’s petty bourgeoisie didn’t approve of his marriage to a tart named Odette de Crécy. The Narrator’s parents didn’t like her, so Swann use to come to dinner at their house alone.

This view of Swann’s social atmosphere which prevailed in my family seemed to be confirmed later on by his marriage with a woman of the worst class, you might, you might almost say a “fast” woman, whom, to do him justice, he never attempted to introduce to us, for he continued to come to us alone, though he came more and more seldom ; but from whom they thought they could establish, on the assumption that he had found her there, the circle, unknown to them, in which he ordinarily moved.

Marcel Proust, Swann‘s Way

From literature to design 

Towards a reversible chair 

Swann is an acrobat balancing between two worlds. Anthony Guerrée wanted to pay tribute to Swann’s social agility by designing a reversible chair whose back can be the seat and the seat, the back. 

This chair also evokes the two ways of Combray, Swann’s way and the Guermantes way. 

For there were, in the environs of Combray, two “ways” which we used to take for our walks, and so diametrically opposed that we would actually leave the house by a different door, according to the way we had chosen: the way towards Méséglise- la-Vineuse, which we called also “Swann’s way” because, to get there, one had to pass along the boundary of M. Swann’s estate, and the “Guermantes way”.

Marcel Proust, Swann‘s Way

Verdurin, the character

Sidonie Verdurin belongs to the Parisian bourgeoisie and reigns over her salon which brings together painters, musicians and writers. Swann frequented this salon for a while before being expelled from it for having frequented another one. Mme Verdurin does not tolerate the slightest infidelity from the members of her “clan”.

Mme Verdurin was genuinely fond of her regular visitors, the faithful of the little clan, but wished them to be entirely devoted to their Mistress. Cutting her losses, like those jealous lovers who will tolerate unfaithfulness, but only under their own roof and even in front of their eyes, that is to say when it scarcely counts as unfaithfulness, she would allow the men to have mistresses or male lovers, on condition that the affair had no social consequence outside her own house, that the tie was formed and perpetuated in the shelter of her Wednesdays.

Marcel Proust, The Captive

Social vanities are the driving force behind Madame Verdurin, pushing snobbery to the point of claiming its lack of distinction. The Verdurin salon participated in the emergence of a new Parisian artistic milieu, heteroclite and avant-garde. It accelerates the careers of painters, musicians, praises the Russian ballets…

It is through her character that Marcel Proust points out the cultural and social aspirations of the Parisian bourgeoisie of this period.

From Literature to Design

To a folding screen chair

The screen appeared in China with the Zhou dynasty before conquering the Western interiors. Intended to trace the boundaries of the intimate, to conceal it while suggesting it. Over time, the screen became a real piece of furniture, particularly in the 1930s thanks to the creations of Eileen Gray and Louis Barillet.

In a funny passage from Swann’s way, Marcel Proust highlights the sensual relationship between Madame Verdurin and her furniture. One day Sidonie Verdurin invites Swann to “paw” the small bronzes of her Beauvais armchair:

My husband claims I don’t like fruit because I eat less than he does. But the fact is I’m greedier than any of you, but I don’t need to put them in my mouth because I can feed on them with my eyes. What are you all laughing at? Ask the doctor, he’ll tell you that those grapes act on me like a real purgative. Some people go to Fontainebleau for their cure; I stay here for my own little Beauvais cure. Now, Monsieur Swann, you mustn’t leave without feeling the little bronze mouldings on the backs. The patina is so soft, isn’t it? No, no, with your whole had – feel them properly

Marcel Proust, Swann’s way

In reference to this famous passage from In the Search of Lost Time, the “Verdurin” folding screen chair is decorated with hammered bronze spheres inviting to touch.

Odette, the character

In Swann in Love, Marcel Proust recounts the encounter between Swann and Odette de Crécy, a maintained woman, to whom he finds resemblances to one of Jethro’s daughters in Botticelli’s work.

Meeting Odette at the Verdurin salon for the first time, he finds her unattractive, though speculates that others may think her beautiful.

Marcel Proust, Swann’s way

For Swann and Odette, “to make catleyas” is the way of saying “to make love” :

But he was so shy in approaching her that, after this evening which had begun by his arranging her cattleyas and had ended in her complete surrender, wether from fear of chilling her, or from reluctance to appear, even retrospectively, to have lied, or perhaps because he lacked the audacity to formulate a more urgent requirement than this (which could always be repeated, since it had not annoyed her on the first occasion), he resorted to the same pretext on the following days. If she had any cattleyas pinned to her bodice, he would say: “It is most unfortunate; the cattleyas don’t need tucking in this evening; they’ve not been disturbed as they were the other night.”

Marcel Proust, Swann’s way

From Literature to Design

To a rattan chair

The Second Empire was the golden age of rattan furniture and saw the development of the rattan craft. The oldest rattan seating factory in the world – the Maison Louis Drucker was founded in 1885 and still exists in Gilocourt. Rattan is a palm stem imported from the Asian rainforests during the colonial era. The rattan bistro chair symbolises the Parisian terraces and the cheerfulness of the French capital.

The floral form and the use of plant materials in the design of the Odette chair is a reference to the catleya of the character from In Search of Lost Time whom Swann liked to “rearrange”.

Vinteuil, the character

Marcel Proust’s greatest influence on the creation of the Vinteuil character was the composer Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947): one of his best friends with whom he had a close relationship and who introduced him to music.

This part of my inner life that I am giving to you […] if I can believe it is worth anything, I rejoice twice.

Marcel Proust, letter to Reynaldo Hahn (1895).

Music plays a central role in In Search of Lost Time with the Vinteuil sonata. It is a piece for violin and piano which accompanies the lively love affairs of Swann and Odette. These musical notes “were like the national air” of their romance.

With a slow and rhythmical movement it led him first this way, then that, towards a state of happiness that was noble, unintelligible, and yet precise. And then suddenly, having reached a certain point from which he was preparing to follow it, after a momentary pause, abruptly it changed direction, and in a fresh movement, more rapid, fragile, melancholy, incessant, sweet, it bore him off with it towards new vistas. Then it vanished. He hoped, with a passionate longing, that he might find it again, a third time.

Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way

From Literature to design

To a piano bench

A piano bench often has a rectangular seat that gives the pianist more room to change posture. The “Vinteuil” piano bench is based on the codes of a curule seat, a type of seating dating back to ancient Rome. The shape of this chair was then taken up again in the Directoire period and then in Art Deco style furniture such as Pierre Legrain’s stools in the 1920s.

Now, scarcely a few minutes after the young pianist had begun playing at Mme. Verdurin’s, suddenly, after a high note held for a long time through two measures, he saw it approaching, escaping from under that prolonged sonority stretched like a curtain of sound hiding the mystery of its incubation, he recognized it, secret, murmuring and divided, the airy and redolent phrase that he loved.

Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way

The use of cork for the seat of the Vinteuil bench is a direct reference to the sound insulation panels in the walls of Proust’s room at 102, bd Hausmann. The structure is composed of five slats that evoke the five lines of a musical staff.

Bergotte, the character

Bergotte is the writer of In Search of Lost Time, just as Elstir is the painter and Vinteuil the musician. The Narrator loved his style as Marcel Proust loved the style of Anatole France.

For the writer as well as for the painter, style is not a question of technique, but of vision. It is the revelation, impossible by direct and conscious means, of the qualitative difference there is in the way in which we look at the world, a difference which, without art, would remain for ever each man’s personal secret…

Marcel Proust, Time Regained

The death of Bergotte took place in front of Vermeer’s View of Delft and his little patch of yellow wall. It is one of Anthony Guerrée’s favorite scenes.

At last he came to the Vermeer which he remembered as more striking, more different from anything else he knew but in which, thanks to the critic’s article, he noticed for the first time some small figures in blue, that the sand was pink, and finally, the precious substance of the tiny patch of yellow wall. His dizziness increased, he fastened his eyes like a child to a yellow butterfly he wants to seize, to the precious little section of wall.

Marcel Proust, The Prisoner

From literature to design

Towards a circular bench

The circular bench or “borne” rotates around a central axis. Its peak usage was in the XIXth century during the reign of Napoleon III. These seats often adorned large reception rooms. It’s a direct reference to the place where Bergotte died: a museum.

 Anthony Guerrée wanted to use the “skyline”, the silhouette of the city of Vermeer’s painting with its piece of yellow wall for the design of the back seat “Bergotte”.  

That’s the way I should have written, he said. My last few books are too dry, I should have added several layers of colour, make my sentence precious within itself, like this little piece of yellow wall.

Marcel Proust, The Prisoner

Elstir, the character

Elstir is the painter of the novel. He belongs to the Impressionist movement. He strives not to show things as he knows they are “[…] but according to these optical illusions of which our first vision is made”.

“The young girls in flowers” of Balbec used to frequent Elstir’s studio and the Narrator will do everything to be introduced to Albertine by the painter.

When I arrived at Elstir’s, a few minutes later, my first impression was that Mlle. Simonet was not in the studio. There was certainly a girl sitting there in a silk frock bareheaded, but one whose marvelous hair, whose nose, meant nothing to me, in whom I did not recognize the human entity that I had formed out of a young cyclist strolling past, in a polo–cap, between myself and the sea. It was Albertine, nevertheless.

Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower

From literature to design

Towards a rocking chair

Elstir’s studio description is a very beautiful scene of the novel.

And Elstir’s studio appeared to me as the laboratory of a sort of new creation of the world in which, from the chaos that is all the things we see, he had extracted, by painting them on various rectangles of canvas that were hung everywhere about the room, here a wave of the sea crushing angrily on the sand its lilac foam, there a young man in a suit of white linen, leaning upon the rail of a vessel.

Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower

As Jean-Yves Tadié, the great Proustian scholar, said : “Elstir studio is, like the studio of Proust, carpeted with these sketches, traces of his life and of his thinking.”

The rocking-chair dates from the early XIXth century, popularized by Michael Thonet. It was commonplace in the homes of Shakers, an American religious sect, because, as they said, its rocking helped to guide their eyes toward heaven. Anthony Guerrée wanted to transform Elstir into a rocking-chair to underline the importance of movement and time for the Impressionists.

Charlus, the character

Palamedes of Guermantes, Baron de Charlus is Saint-Loup’s uncle. The poet Robert de Montesquiou would be the main source of inspiration even if Marcel Proust has always recognized a numerous and elusive identification to his characters.

In the first pages of Sodome et Gomorrah, the Narrator surprises Charlus in full love act with young Jupien.

Jupien …, at once shedding the humble, kindly expression I had always seen him wear, had – in perfect symmetry with the Baron – drawn back his head, set his torso at an advantageous angle, placed his fist on his hip with a grotesque impertinence, and made his behind stick out, striking poses with the coquettishness that the orchid might have had for the providential advent of the bumblebee.

Marcel Proust, Sodom and Gomorrah

The Narrator then discovers the Baron de Charlus in another light, that of an insatiable hunter of men. Jupien later became the secretary of Charlus and the administrator of a bordello on behalf of the Baron.

This famous scene from La Recherche inspired Anthony Guerrée in the design of the armchair “Charlus” and the ottoman “Jupien”.

From literature to design

Charlus and the furniture in the novel

Baron has a savant knowledge of furniture and likes to test the knowledge of Narrator in the matter by offering to sit in his seat Louis XIV. The Narrator sat down on the chair closest to him. The baron exclaimed with irony:

Ah, so that is what you call a Louis XIV chair! I can see that you’re a well educated young man.

Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way

For Charlus, therefore, furniture is a means of expressing its social superiority:

He was in the habit, after dinner (so much did he love to play the king) of sprawling in an armchair in the smoking-room, letting his guests remain standing round him.

Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way

Towards an armchair and its ottoman

The luxury of sitting near the ground is suitable for relaxing. The armchair “Charlus” and the ottoman “Jupien” revisit the broken duchess: lounge chair in two distinct and separable parts. The black stained brushed oak emphasizes the finest design of the structure. The cognac-colored natural leather offers an extremely soft feel to the cushions and to the seat back.

Saint-Loup, the character,

The Marquis of Saint-Loup-en-Bray known as Robert de Saint Loup is the best friend of the Narrator. Of the prestigious lineage of the Guermantes, he is a solar and charismatic character who has no prejudices of class and strives to offer a better place to the Narrator in the high society’s gambling.

In a famous extract of The Guermantes Way, Saint-Loup rises on the benches of a restaurant, passes nimbly over a chair in a spectacular vaulting exercise to bring the Narrator his coat.

Inspired by this dreamed friend, Anthony Guerrée imagined a singular seat: a stepladder chair paying homage to Saint-Loup’s funambulesque feat at the restaurant.

From literature to design

Saint Loup and the furniture in the novel

To Boulle furniture, Saint-Loup much prefers the modern style and collections of Bing to the chagrin of his family who has more conservative and patrimonial tastes in particular the Duchess of Guermantes.

[…] These aristocratic conversations had moreover the charm with Mme de Guermantes, of being couched in excellent French. For this reason they made permissible on the Duschess’s part her hilarity at the words “viaticum“, “cosmic“, “pythian“, “pre-eminent“, wich Saint-Loup used to employ – as, similarly, at his Bing furniture.

Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way

Towards a stepladder/chair

The stepladder/chair “Saint-Loup” is a contemporary interpretation of the library scale. Its lines are fine and racy in the image of Saint-Loup, distinguished and svelte character. The solid brushed spruce and stained black was chosen for its marked veining which highlights traditional assemblages of cabinetmaking.