Paulette Howard-Johnston; Daughter of the artist Paul Helleu who knew Proust and Monet in the days of the belle époque
Hyfler/Rosner
Paulette Howard-Johnston, who has died aged 104, was one of
the last surviving connections with the belle �poque era of
Marcel Proust; her father was the artist Paul C�sar Helleu
(1859-1927), who created elegant images of the many
beautiful women in international society, including Consuelo
Vanderbilt and Gladys Deacon (both Duchesses of
Marlborough).
Published: 5:55PM BST 07 Aug 2009
In order to finance a mondaine lifestyle - he gave glamorous
parties while his children walked about barefoot - Paul
Helleu brought a succession of beautiful women to his yacht,
and made drypoint prints of them. These he sold (there were
2,500 Consuelo Vanderbilts). Though he normally sketched
women, he left a memorable image of Proust on his deathbed,
and of the poet and aesthete Robert de Montesquiou, who
wrote an elegiac biography of Helleu.
Paulette's mother was Alice Guerin, who came to be painted
in 1884 at the age of 14, as a result of which Helleu fell
in love with her. They married on July 28 1886, when she was
just 16.
The character of Elstir in Proust's � la Recherche du Temps
Perdu was largely based on Helleu, and the author frequently
visited the Helleus at their apartment in the rue
�mile-Menier, or on their yacht at Deauville. Whereas the
novelist was shy and tended to remain silent when in large
groups, he was loquacious when at ease in small company.
Paulette remembered an evening in 1918 or 1919 when Proust
brought her mother flowers. She had been allowed to stay up
late, and at around 11pm a chauffeur arrived with a bouquet
of flowers so enormous that he was invisible behind it. He
asked the Helleus if M Proust, who was waiting downstairs,
could come up and visit them.
A few moments later Proust appeared, wearing a heavy
overcoat despite the heat of a Paris summer night. Paulette
observed the darkness of his hair, in contrast to the pallor
of his face, and how he greeted her father with the words:
"Bonjour, Monsieur Elstir." But in later life, she was
disdainful about him: "Oh, Proust! We thought nothing of
him. He was a little man sitting in the corner."
Paulette Helleu was born in August 1904, and was a childhood
friend of Diana Mitford, later Lady Mosley, who recalled:
"Unlike her father, she was very critical and frank; she
thought my clothes awful, which they were, particularly
compared with hers, and she contradicted everything I chose
to say. Nevertheless I was very fond of her; her attitude
towards me was no more unflattering than my sisters', and I
was perfectly accustomed to snubs."
Life in the Helleu household was far from relaxed. Paulette
adored her mother, but enjoyed no intimacy with her father;
he did, however, teach her to paint, and she was to become
fiercely protective of his artistic reputation. He insisted
that it was more important for a girl to be beautiful than
to pass exams, but Paulette nevertheless read well and
learnt English by the age of six; by the age of 14 she was
more or less running the family home.
Paul had a terrible temper, and his daughter was terrified
of him. He once threw a leg of mutton out of the window
because it was overcooked; and when he caught the family
nanny playing the piano on board his yacht (on which the
family spent half the year), he ordered that it be thrown
overboard.
Paulette's first grown-up lunch was attended by the
politician, writer and wit Count Boni de Castellane. In 1924
she accompanied her father on a visit to Claude Monet at
Giverny, in the company of the painter and art historian
Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, who was writing a book about Edouard
Manet. The young Paulette was fascinated by Monet, noting
how small he was; his thick neck; his long and completely
white beard. She found him simple and straightforward, with
an air of rusticity which disappeared the moment he spoke.
Monet advised Paulette always to paint naturally "sur le
motif" and to copy what she saw. He told her: "You paint
like a bird sings." Allowed to explore the house, in his
bedroom she counted four Manets and 11 C�zannes.
She met the artist Giovanni Boldini, and was amazed that he
could create such delicate images with such fat fingers. He
used to sing to her, and she was aware of his
lasciviousness, and of his gaffes. He once asked a young
lady at a lunch: "Who is that old pinguoin over there?" - to
be told that it was her husband.
Robert de Montesquiou was also in evidence. Paulette
recalled that he had bad teeth, which he never showed, spoke
in a high-pitched voice like a peahen, tended to wear grey
and adored her mother.
Paulette decided not to marry in her mother's lifetime. She
enjoyed a full social life, invariably dressed by
Balenciaga, and turned down numerous proposals of marriage.
She was a fine horsewoman.
In 1955 she became the third wife of Rear-Admiral Clarence
Dinsmore "Johnny" Howard-Johnston, CB, DSO, DSC, who had
recently served as Chief of Staff to Flag Officer, Central
Europe. He was one of the Royal Navy's foremost exponents of
anti-submarine warfare and until his death in 1996
maintained old-fashioned good manners and style.
They lived partly in Paris, and for a time in Dolphin Square
in London. They then settled in a villa Paulette designed
near Biarritz, where she loved to play golf. The admiral
himself designed a superb water garden on a plot of land
nearby, later presented by Paulette to the municipality of
Biarritz. In later life Paulette Howard-Johnston relied
heavily on her friendship with the designer Karl Lagerfeld,
with whom she was in constant touch.
Having devoted much of her life to promoting her father's
work - and aware that she was almost certainly the last
survivor from that world - in 2001 she established the
Association des Amis de Paul-C�sar Helleu to continue this
mission and complete the catalogue raisonn� of her father's
pictures.
Paulette Howard-Johnston, who died on June 12, was appointed
a Chevalier of the L�gion d' honneur and an Officier des
Arts et des Lettres.
Published August 7 2009
Magnus
> Paulette Howard-Johnston, who has died aged 104, was one of
> Marcel Proust; her father was the artist Paul César Helleu
> (1859-1927), who created elegant images of the many
> beautiful women in international society, including Consuelo
> Vanderbilt and Gladys Deacon (both Duchesses of
> Marlborough).
>
Curious. Well over half the obit is dedicated to Paulette's mother and
father and the famous people she knew. (I suppose there is such a
thing as being famous for knowing famous people.) She only comes in at
the end, after all the famous ones are dead.
Interesting pictures of Proust, especially of his bringing flowers to
Paulette's mother, not in his own person but that of his chauffeur.
I've never been able to read Proust--got about three quarters of the
way through _Swann's Way, and gave it up--but the man himself has
always fascinated me. Nice then to read of such a connection to him.
Thanks for posting.
Magnus