It was demolished some time after his death

It is a famous designer, but also an exceptional collector of books and literary manuscripts, African and Asian art, art deco and especially of modern art, Picasso, Duchamp and de Chirico. Who is No, it is not Yves Saint Laurent. His name is Jacques Doucet (1853-1929), and he only left his name to a Parisian literary library contiguous to that of Sainte-Geneviève. Yves Saint Laurent, he was perfectly aware of Jacques Doucet and its collections. To the point, as pointed out, at auction sales Saint Laurent-Bergé last February, Christie's expert, Philippe Garner, that "the couturier had succeeded to faithfully reconstruct some parts of the apartment of Doucet". Two small benches of the years 1928-1929 by Gustave Miklos were purchased by Yves Saint Laurent in 1972 and placed in the grand salon. Bronze lacquered Red Palm wood, Panther for a refined shape skin. A rare stool beech, a 1920s by Pierre Legrain africaniste inspiration, has the same origin. As one of the stars of the collection of modern paintings up for auction in February last at the Grand Palais: a rare canvas painted in 1918 by Giorgio de Chirico. Since then, "Reverting" was purchased by the Centre Pompidou.

A be indistinguishable

Jacques Doucet had many other treasures on its walls. Imagine that the same man had in the 1920s, result of an unerring flair, the table, "monument" who signed the Act of birth of cubism, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" of Picasso. It is now the "Mona Lisa" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition, two of the jewels of the Museum of Orsay were also in the credits of his collection. "The snakes nylon" of customs Rousseau and the sketch of the "circus" of Seurat had, at his death, a gift to the State.

To make the portrait of a collector, tend to detect what is the engine of its acquisitions. But Doucet, him, is indistinguishable. The art critic Pierre Cabanne, in his book on great collectors (1), speaks to his words of "impassive curiosity".Cold, remote, loving luxury, but for an indefinable thing called the vanguard. As his biographer, François Chapon (2), he noted with spirit that the secret of the balance of its collections is certainly the fact that "perhaps, he had the mental habits of his profession the meaning of the sets".The anomaly in his attitude, however, was its discretion. Doucet has pushed the honours that he offered the official. "" The representative of the Minister, come offer red tape, he replied: "give it to my Secretary, it will be more useful". "." He wished also to the de-escalation of its generous gestures. Thus, when the President of the Republic inaugurated the new premises of its library, it makes available to the public, and he asked about the reasons that led it to its creation, he replied: "because this me playing."

But who was this singular character

Jacques Doucet is a couturier, installed peace Street. One of the best-known in the Belle Epoque Paris. It's like this that the son of a merchant of lingerie made his fortune. It follows the social rise of the new bourgeois class in evil pomp and refinements. Marcel Proust in "The prisoner" is the symbol of Supreme chic name. Albertine wants "such bathrobe Doucet rose doubled sleeves. Curiously however, human ill assumes his craft. In 1903, in the elegant life magazine "Femina", a journalist wrote: "to say not especially since it is Sartorius." Mr. Jacques Doucet is collector. "The birth of the 20th century, Jacques Doucet already brought a classic collection of furniture and paintings of the 18th century French. The Tower, Chardin, Watteau, and furniture of Roentgen or Jacob. He is preparing his home for his marriage with a young woman born of a noble family. 1912: the wedding is cancelled. Then he sold at auction, a coup. Newspapers titreront "The sale of the century" after the 15 million francs gold for this operation already very media.

The specialists present Doucet as suffering from a certain social exclusion on the part of the elite. "Of such a situation, which led him to know until the physical intimacy of the great ladies, it is that the designer was seen as a piece of furniture."And then "Mr Jacques", as it called his clients did not really culture. "I've been raised with the pigs", he said about his country education.

But after the surrender of his first collection at auction, his stroke of Genius will be to know to choose the ideal people, visionary minds who will direct his gaze towards new territories. The charge of the debut of its collection of books and manuscripts is André Suarès, strong Marseille writer in verve. The torch is taken over in 1920 by the young André Breton, that it not only buy avant-garde, but still all or almost all writings that modern art provides more relevant in the Paris of the time. After a falling-out due to ridicule of the young surrealists and Breton Communist party registration, Marcel Duchamp used punctually intermediate.

Several houses

Doucet analysis: "I set up successively the collection of my grandfather, my father and my own."The great lover of art took several houses, but at the end of his life, in addition to his home, he has a studio, art deco jewel, to accommodate the best of its collections. In the pale green lobby stand "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", Madame Doucet had wanted their home, on the pretext that it was a scene of prostitutes. It opens on an oriental cabinet filled with Chinese porcelain, Crystal, enamel and Buddhist statues. In the main room, the Cubist paintings of Braque and Picasso are lavishly framed - Doucet was particularly sensitive to "dressing" of the paintings and books-, not far from primitive works of Ivory Coast and Central Africa. Games of lines, volumes provisions... He was looking for a harmony of forms and colors. But without ever losing the meaning of the business: all works had been bitterly negotiated and systematically paid in several treaties, including artists.

The couturier died in 1929 as a result of heart disease. It is lonely. The surrealists were turned back and, in the elite, few people move to attend the funeral of the patron. See today a few bits of this exceptional together, to go to Avignon, a little known Foundation that has been created by heirs to Doucet, Jean Angladon-Dubrujeaud and his wife Paulette Martin. There, in a provençal mansion of the 18th century, one can admire a Van Gogh, a Cézanne, a Degas, five Picasso and Vuillard, Modigliani, Foujita among others... In the last years of his life, Doucet had written about his studio in Neuilly: "I am delighted with the idea of living in St. James, to make my last quiet home with what I like."This home, top of the French taste of the 1920s, nothing remains. It was demolished some time after his death.

The site of the Doucet library, the detail of the collections: