Madeleine Castaing and the Art of Timeless Chic

We have always admired Madeleine Castaing's interiors – the strongly personal, whimsical uniqueness of the spaces she conjured up over the years. Her eye for the bold, the quirky and the unusual, together with her taste for colour and for pattern, known as le style Castaing, had a major influence on our own curatorial standards and still remains a great inspiration in home decorating. No doubt, we inherited her love for all things klismos, curule and x-form, as well as for the leopard print and the Greek key ornament.

'Making a house is creating. I make houses like others write poetry, make music, or paint. A house is more of a likeness than a portrait. Don’t be intimidated by audacity; be audacious, but with taste. You also need intuition, originality, vigour. Avoid reproduction, that easy and banal method. Don’t get taken in by fashion. A secret: love your house.' M.C.

Above: Madeleine Castaing photographed by Derry Moore in her Paris apartment.

Needless to say that we have been tremendously excited to uncover – quite unexpectedly – the provenance of a suite of seat furniture in our collection – not merely from an interior created by Madeleine Castaing, but from her own country house near Chartres (The Art of Interior Decoration, Hachette, London, 1962, vol. 1, p. 60.), and possibly later sold via her iconic Paris store in Rue Bonaparte. Made to a highly unusual design by Jaean-Joseph Chapuis (1765–1864), who supplied armchairs of this model to the Royal Palace at Laeken, near Brussels, circa 1805.

A number of extant pieces of this design are known, subtle differences in decoration suggesting different commissions, but this particular settee and the pair of armchairs flanking the stove (the third armchair in the background is evidently not en-suite and may be a period original) feature unique and distinctive neoclassical designs hand-painted on their backs, that correspond to our set, as well as the unique, previously unrecorded configuration with a two-seat bench could only suggest that they are indeed the same pieces.

The Madeleine Castaing's armchairs and settee at our salon in London. They look quite at home on a leopard-patterned carpet and under the neoclassical frieze both inspired by Castaing's interiors.

The settee, currently in our collection, available here.

The armchairs en-suite are now sold to a private collection.

This rarely published view of the dining room at Castaings' own Paris apartment above Madeleine's shop at the corner of Rue Jacob and Rue Bonaparte shows a set of English Regency klismos chairs and armchairs, almost certainly en-suite with the pair from our collection, recently sold (below).

An exceptionally fine early 19th century model of klismos form, related to designs by Henry Holland as well as to the Gillows' oeuvre; painted to simulate patinated bronze, echoing the remains of ancient furniture excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century.

A view of our salon in the spring of 2022, which Mme Castaing (hopefully) would have approved: featuring the klismos chairs (above), an Empire-patterned needlepoint rug, an exceptionally fine English Regency centre table by the Royal cabinetmaker George Oakley, one of a pair of the Second Empire ebonised bookcases dans le goût égyptien and a selection of objects in the neoclassical and Grand Tour style.

Le style Castaing managed to distinctively harmonise the prominent opulence of the French Empire Style with the simple yet elegant boldness of Regency Classicism.

Not without a taste for the hyperbolic, Castaing once noted that “when it comes to decoration, the marriage of English comfort with French taste is quite possibly the most important event of the mid-twentieth century” (Eerdmans 2010, 155).

A view of the enfilade at Maison de Lèves, featuring Georges Jacob's siege a l'etrusque, a superbly sculptural, timeless model. Despite the seeming riot of pattern, there is a degree of neoclassical sense of order and symmetry in this space.

A corner of the salon at Castaings' Paris apartment

Above and below: views of the green salon at Lèves.

It should be apparent by now that grasping le style Castaing in all its charm and evocativeness does not at all depend on historical accuracy let alone a specialist’s knowledge in the history of the Regency style, its relationship to history is rather one of memory and private commemorations.

A view of the celebrated grand salon at Lèves.

A room in Madeleine Castaing's shop Paris's St Germain de Pres. House and Garden, 1966.

Her first boutique opened on rue du Cherche-Midi in 1941 and was moved to rue Bonaparte in 1946; true to character, it carried an assortment of antique furnishings as well as fabrics of her own design. Indeed her boutique’s eventual success owed little to conventional methods. Le style Castaing was the only curatorial standard, one in which her distinct “eclecticism of period, style, and quality was in stark contrast to the prevailing ethos of connoisseurship and provenance emphasised by other dealers” (Eerdmans 2010, 91).

It’s a big moment and there’s a lot of emotion. But before anything there’s the discovery, the object that lures me, that lures me to the point that I buy it. And right away I know what should surround that object. Right away it creates is own atmosphere (Eerdmans 2010, 101).

I do a long psychological study. I live with the people who are entrusting me with their houses for two weeks. We eat together, we go to museums together, we take walks around Paris. And I talk to them a lot. They even talk to me about their lives. And I translate. I translate. Translation work, that’s what I do. Their houses, their portraits. That’s what you need. They give off a good feeling. No two houses look alike. But in each one, there’s something in common … There’s a life, a lived-in feeling, but there’s still a pursuit. There aren’t any ugly objects. If an object isn’t pretty, I put it in front as if it were an extraordinary wonder (Eerdmans 2010, 210).

For me, a client is always a friend. Doesn’t the mere fact that he comes into my shop prove that he has taste? When he comes in, I go towards him. I want to be friendly, to be useful to him. But I judge him. I follow his eyes. Are his eyes turning toward that dresser, toward that bibelot? I understand very quickly what he expects of me. So I take him into one of my rooms, we discuss literature, we reminisce. I absolutely need to understand his personality … (Eerdmans 2010, 209).

Below are some other items from our collection that resonate with le style Castaing. We hope that you are feeling inspired!