Focus on Dancer in a Café and explain the Paul Poiret, Isadora Duncan and the art world.
The French fashion designer Paul Poiret actually worked for the House of Worth early in the 20th century, however, the "brazen modernity of his designs" proved too much for Worth's conservative clientele. Poiret established his own house in 1903 and threw spectacular parties to promote his work.In June 1911 Poiret unveiled "Parfums de Rosine" in a grand soirée held at his palatial home (a hôtel particulier avenue d'Antin), a costume ball christened "la mille et deuxième nuit", (the thousand and second night), attended by the Parisian high-society and the artistic world. Raoul Dufy—with whom Metzinger had exhibited at the gallery of Berthe Weill in 1903, the Indépendants of 1905 and Galerie Notre-Dame-des-Champs in 1908—designed the invitation. Gardens were illuminated by lanterns and live tropical birds. His marketing strategy became a sensation and the talk of Paris. A second scent debuted in 1912, "Le Minaret", again emphasizing the harem theme.In 1911, the photographer Edward Steichen was challenged by publisher Lucien Vogel to promote fashion as a fine art by the use of photography. The photographs of Poiret's gowns, published in the April 1911 issue of the magazine Art et Décoration, are now considered to be the first modern fashion photography shoot. In 1912, Vogel began his renowned fashion journal La Gazette du Bon Ton, showcasing Poiret's designs, along with other leading Paris designers such as the House of Charles Worth, Louise Chéruit, Georges Doeuillet, Jeanne Paquin, Redfern & Sons and Jacques Doucet (the Post-Impressionist and Cubist art collector who purchased Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, directly from Picasso's studio).Paul Poiret had a lifelong interest in modern art for the purposes of self-promotion and the benefit of his diverse commercial enterprises. In 1911 he rented and restored a mansion built by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel for Louis XV, 1750, called Pavillon du Butard in La Celle-Saint-Cloud (not far from Albert Gleizes' studio and close to the Duchamp residence, where the Section d'Or group gathered) and threw lavish parties, including one of the more famous grandes fêtes dated 20 June 1912, La fête de Bacchus (re-creating the Bacchanalia hosted by Louis XIV at Versailles). Guy-Pierre Fauconnet (1882–1920) designed the invitation. Isadora Duncan, wearing a Hellenic evening gown designed by Poiret, danced on tables among 300 guests and 900 bottles of champagne were consumed until the first light of day.
Isadora Duncan, a girl from California said to have posed for Eadweard Muybridge, placed an emphasis on "evolutionary" dance motion, insisting that each movement was born from the one that preceded it, that each movement gave rise to the next, and so on in organic succession. Her dancing defined the force of progress, change, abstraction and liberation. In France too Duncan delighted her audience.André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Max Jacob, André Salmon and others such as Kees van Dongen and Raoul Dufy are known to have attended Poiret's balls. Salmon writes about one of them in L'Air de la Butte: 'Poiret who opens his home to artists of his choice, who prepare, in his gardens, a party in the spirit of 1889'. Here Salmon makes reference to the Exposition Universelle (1889).By 1912, Marie Laurencin had entered into an intimate lesbian relationship with the fashion designer Nicole Groult, born Nicole Poiret (the sister of Paul Poiret). In 1906 Nicole Poiret, with her brother Paul and friend Isadora Duncan fought a tense battle for the liberation of women, which began by the abolition of the corset. Laurencin had shown together with Metzinger and other Cubists in Room 41 of the 1911 Salon des Indépendants (at the suggestion of Guillaume Apollinaire), which provoked the 'scandal' out of which Cubism emerged and spread throughout Paris, France, Europe and so on. In the company of her friend Marie Laurencin, Nicole Poiret frequented the bohemian world of Montmartre, Le Bateau-Lavoir and the Cubists.The sculptor Emile-Antoine Bourdelle had met Isadora in 1903 at Auguste Rodin's picnic, and in 1909 he saw her dance on stage. Bourdelle had previously been asked to decorate the façade of the planned Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. When he saw her he realized that Isadora was his muse: "To me it seemed that there, through her, was animated an ineffable frieze wherein divine frescoes slowly became human realities. Each leap, each attitude of the great artist remains in my memory like flashes of lightning." Bourdelle would return from the theatre and sketch for hours. His images of Isadora are the most varied, for they convey not only Isadora but the vast range of emotions she embodied.By 1912 Isadora had become an icon for artists in Paris. Many had first seen her in 1903 when she had gone to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and distributed complimentary tickets to students. The artist Dunoyer de Segonzac published his first Isadora portfolio in 1910, with a preface in verse by the poet Fernand Divoire. At this time, Dunoyer de Segonzac and Metzinger were both teachers at the Académie de La Palette, 104 Bd de Clichy, Paris 18ème, along with Henri Le Fauconnier.Metzinger's interest in fashion was mirrored by Poiret's interest in modern art. On 18 November 1925 works from the art collection of Paul Poiret were exhibited and sold at a public auction in Paris. Artists in his collection included Derain, van Dongen, Dufresne, Dufy, de La Fresnaye, Othon Friesz, Matisse, Modigliani (Portrait de Max Jacob), Picabia, Picasso, Rouault and Dunoyer de Segonzac.Though it is unclear whether Metzinger attended these parties it would be very unlikely that he and a selected few of his fellow Cubists did not—considering the celebrity status he enjoyed at the forefront of the avant-garde. Three months after La fête de Bacchus Metzinger exhibited Dancer in a café at the Salon d'Automne, held in Paris at the Grand Palais from 1 October to 8 November 1912.
André Salmon Bateau-Lavoir Louis XV Louise Chéruit Raoul Dufy La Gazette du Bon Ton Louis XIV bohemian Eadweard Muybridge Exposition Universelle (1889) Guillaume Apollinaire Albert Gleizes Lucien Vogel Marie Laurencin Jacques Doucet Georges Doeuillet Cubist Redfern & Sons Ange-Jacques Gabriel Edward Steichen Cubism Salon d'Automne Pavillon du Butard Grand Palais Exposition Universelle Emile-Antoine Bourdelle Isadora Duncan Gazette du Bon Ton Bacchanalia Berthe Weill Charles Worth Auguste Rodin Nicole Groult Jeanne Paquin André Dunoyer de Segonzac Les Demoiselles d'Avignon Post-Impressionist Antoine Bourdelle Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Section d'Or Kees van Dongen Académie de La Palette lesbian Le Bateau-Lavoir Henri Le Fauconnier House of Worth Max Jacob Montmartre Paul Poiret La Celle-Saint-Cloud Salon des Indépendants