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A Soviet Emigrant with Irreproachable Taste

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A Soviet Emigrant with Irreproachable Taste

28.01.2014

Elsa Triolet

On Tuesday, January 28, in the French Riviera town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, the creation of the Franco-Russian Foundation was announced. The aim of the organization is to foster cultural and scholarly exchanges, host exhibitions and welcome young Russian artists to Villefranche-sur-Mer. The first event of the brand new foundation is the exhibition “The Jewelry of Elsa Triolet,” which presents the renowned writer’s handmade jewelry from the 1920s and 30s.

Elsa Triolet was the younger sister of Lilya Brik, who she acquainted with Mayakovsky. In 1918 Elsa married the French cavalry officer André Triolet and emigrated from Soviet Russia. After divorcing her husband, Elsa, who was said to have impeccable taste, started creating sets of jewelry to make money in Paris and turned out to be quite successful at this endeavor. She worked with the leading fashion houses, including Chanel, and later wrote a rather stinging description of haute couture in her book Costume Jewelery for Haute Couture.

In France was the first woman to be awarded the Prix Goncourt. Her novels include Les Amants d'Avignon, Le Rendez-vous des étrangers and Roses à credit, among others. She translated into French the works of many Russian writers and poets. As legend has it, Triolet was an underground agent of Soviet influence in France.

In Paris in 1928 Elsa met writer Louis Aragon, once of the intellectual leaders of the Communist Party of France. She remained his muse until the very end of his life. After her death in 1970 Aragon presented 56 pieces of Triolet’s jewelry as a gift to the town of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, a commune in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.

Villefranche-sur-Mer has long-standing ties with Russia. It served as a naval base for the Russian Imperial Fleet in the 19th century. As a result a Russian oceanographic observatory was created in the city and it continues to function there to this day [Observatoire Oceanologique de Villefranche].

Yuri Kovalenko
Source: Newspaper Kultura

   
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