Jacques Doucet

I'd never heard of this man (have you?), but his heirs share his talents and his passions with the public at the  Musee Angladon in Avignon.  I gather the big thing about Doucet is supposed to be that he collected art and some very famous paintings are on show there.   Even I recognised The Pink Blouse, and a few others by Sisley and Manet.  The paintings could be photographed, amazingly;  someone else kindly did this a lot better than I.  However, It wasn't really the paintings that interested me.

Jacques Doucet was a fashion designer.  This link should show you most of what fascinated me about him, but very little of this aspect of his work was available in the museum.   There is a very satisfying amount of background and pictures about Doucet at this website.



See those wavy stripes? They must have been sewn individually,
as you can see the seams between each.

Some of the rooms were spectacular, particularly the wall paper fabrics. 

A chair intended for sitting backwards...

Never mind the many objets d'art, I thought the walls were art all by themselves. 

There were photographs of Doucet's art deco home which must have been spectacular. 

It reminded me a bit of the art nouveau home of Victor Horta. 

There was a collection of pictures taken by a photographer who called himself Nadar.  It was full of famous people like Sarah Bernhardt, Victor Hugo, Colette and Mistinguett.  I have seen any number of photos of Bernhardt (not to mention Mucha's posters), but some of the others gave the satisfaction of putting a face with a name long recognised.

Now that is a hat!

If I had to chose between Louis Voland's collection and that of Jacques Doucet, the latter wins by a mile (or should that be kilometre?).