Misia : The Life of Misia Sert

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and entertaining
Review: I simply love this book. I was twelve when I first read it and dogeared and yellow as it is, it never leaves my bedside table to this day. It is also my heavy-duty travel companion for it is laden with interesting anecdotes of the crème de la crème artists of the turn of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. Misia was the daughter of a Polish sculptor and grew up in haute bourgeoisie Paris. Through her different marriages to the editor of an influential art magazine, a media mogul and a Spanish painter, she had the chance to hobnob with the likes of Verlaine, Mallarmé, Débussy, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Vuillard, Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Satie, Picasso, Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Reverdy or Coco Chanel. Try reading it before you undertake your next trip to Paris or while you listen to Débussy's Faune or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. It'll give you new insights on your next visit to the Musée D'Orsay. A fascinating account of a fascinating period in art history.

Rating:
Summary: What a life she led!
Review: The list of Misia Sert's friends would read like a who's who of the cultural elite of Paris from the end of the Second Empire-World War II. Lautrec, Picasso, Coucteau, Chanel, the whole Ballet Russe crowd, and of course Proust. She was more a muse than creative genius herself, although she was supposed to have played the piano quite well, something we will never know for sure. This book is an enjoyable read and demonstrates just how wonderful life can be if one is good-looking, wealthy and well-connected.