
Art, music, and youth, all in one. This image in red, white, and blue was made by composer Francis Poulenc, poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and artist Suzanne Lalique for Le Bestiare in 1919. That was the year that the twenty year old composer first heard the grand old man of Surrealsim (Apollinaire was all of thirty-nine at the time) give a performance of his poetry. When the score of this new work was published, it was illustrated by a twenty-seven year old theatrical designer, Suzanne Lalique.

Suzanne was born in 1892 and, although she never took formal art training outside the family setting, she grew up to design textiles, books, and theatrical productions, and a painter.


In 1916 Suzanne met Paul Burty Haviland, a photographer and heir to Haviland China Company. Paul was born in Paris, but graduated from Harvard and spent much of his early life in the United States. Called home ance to help manage the company in 1916, he immediately met Suza

Created in the midst of the Art Deco period, Suzanne Lalique's designs look surprisingly contemporary. Perhaps she learned early to put on her own creative blinders, to make her own way in art. She lived until 1989, a full life.


Image credit: Suzanne Lalique, book illustrations and fabric designs from the 1920s, in the collection of Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris.
For more, visit Maison du Limousin here.
For more, visit Maison du Limousin here.