The sale of the last memories of Jean-Claude Brialy will mark the end of an era of cinema, theater and social life.
They will be auctioned off July 3 and 4, at the Montpellier auction house.
Read also: Controversy over the cost of Jean-Claude Brialy's castle, bequeathed to the city of Meaux
The set represents more than a thousand pieces, including furniture, paintings and objects ranging from silver tableware to a famous clock. They were reunited by the actor in the castle of Monthyon, in Seine-et-Marne, where he lived between 1960 and his disappearance on May 30, 2007.
On the advice of his friend Marie-José Nat and Jean-Jacques Debout who had spotted the building, he offered it for his 27 years, without even taking the time to visit it. He knew instinctively that it was there, and not elsewhere that he should live. The amount of his savings being insufficient to pay the whole. Friends, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol, lent him half of the necessary sum. He quickly repaid them before regularly investing part of his fees in the creation of a universe inspired by a love of the spectacle which was the engine of his existence.
Among these memories, collected over nearly half a century, are dozens of tableware by Hermès, Dior, Tiffany and Puiforcat, as well as original works in which, according to the phrase dear to his heart,
“all his friends are there
”. In the large living room, Jean Cocteau remains present in his memory, through a portrait of Jean Marais, in pen and Indian ink, produced in 1945 and a gouache by Christian Bérard inspired by the decor of
Les monstres sacrés
, a play written by the poet on the eve of the war.
A sketch by Raymond Moretti showing, side by side, two faces of Alain Delon, at his beginnings and at the height of his glory, as well as a painting by Léonor Fini symbolically evoking a young woman in a white dress. also be ceded.
The 17th century is present, through a portrait of the Marquise de Montmorency, produced in the workshop of the Beaubrun brothers and that of a
"richly dressed" man
signed Jean-Baptiste Oudry.
The actor, always concerned with elegance, loved this period because he considered it to be that of enlightenment.
Artist residency
The centerpiece of this auction will be an oil on canvas by Bernard Buffet dated 1954. It represents Jacques Chazot, adding, on the back, in his hand:
"For Jacques Chazot, his friend Bernard Buffet."
A memory particularly dear to the heart of Brialy, who, in 1990, hosted the star dancer pursued by the tax authorities, and fighting against lung cancer. He passed away three years later and has been resting in a corner of the park ever since. It is also in this castle that in 1981, Romy Schneider, devastated by the accidental death of her son David, found a discreet refuge.
A few days ago, this collection definitely left a building where major renovations are underway. In 2007, a year before his death, Brialy bequeathed this property to the city of Meaux, against the promise, by Jean-François Copé, the mayor, that it would eventually become an artists' residence.
Bruno Finck, the actor's companion, retained the usufruct until last year, then settled permanently in Provence. The opening of the place is scheduled for 2022. Artists will have the opportunity to work or live there. The public will be able to walk in the alleys where Jean-Pierre Melville produced the final scene of
The Red Circle
and where Jean-Claude Brialy shot, in 1970, part of his first feature film,
Eglantine
. A story inspired by the memories of youth of a man who, in the depths of his heart and his soul, never ceased to remain a big child.
