Baron Alexis de Rédé
Encyclopedia
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
aesthete, collector of French 18th-century furnishings and decorative arts, and socialite both in European circles and in New York. It was not generally realized that he was writing his memoirs. He was named to the International Best Dressed List
International Best Dressed List
The International Best Dressed List was founded by fashionista Eleanor Lambert in 1940 as an attempt to boost the reputation of American fashion at the time.People who have been on the list include from A to Z:-The International Hall of Fame: Women:...
Hall of Fame in 1972.
Birth
He was born as Alexis Dieter Rudolf Oscar von Rosenberg in ZürichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and was the son and youngest child of Oscar Adolphe von Rosenberg, a Jewish banker from Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
. Alexis de Redé's father became a citizen of Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
and was given the title of Baron de Redé by the Emperor of Austria in 1916. Oscar von Rosenberg later committed suicide. Alexis's mother was descended from the von Kaullas, an ennobled German-Jewish family, who had been part owners of the Bank of Württemberg with the kings of that country. Redé and his brother Hubert von Rosenberg (1919–1942) were educated at Le Rosey in Switzerland. They also had a sister, Marion, born in 1916. Following his father's suicide in 1939, he set off alone for New York. In 1946 he returned to Paris, in the entourage of Elsie de Wolfe
Elsie de Wolfe
]Elsie de Wolfe was an American actress, interior decorator, nominal author of the influential 1913 book The House in Good Taste, and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society...
, who was now Lady Mendl.
Baron de Redé
- Oscar Adolphe von Rosenberg, First Baron de Redé (1916–1939)
- Hubert von Rosenberg, 2nd Baron de Redé (1939–1942)
- Alexis Dieter Rudolf Oscar von Rosenberg, 3rd Baron de Redé (1942–2004)
Aesthete
The Baron de Redé was a committed aestheteAestheticism
Aestheticism was a 19th century European art movement that emphasized aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design...
. In 1949, he moved into the ground floor of the 17th century Hôtel Lambert
Hôtel Lambert
Hôtel Lambert is a hôtel particulier, a grand mansion townhouse, on the Quai Anjou on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, Paris IVème; the name, Hôtel Lambert, was a sobriquet that designated a 19th-century political faction of Polish exiles, who gathered there.-Architectural history:The house...
on the Île Saint-Louis
Île Saint-Louis
The Île Saint-Louis is one of two natural islands in the Seine river, in Paris, France . The island is named after King Louis IX of France ....
in Paris and restored the building and its décor. In 2003, he was appointed a commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
, for his restoration of the Hôtel Lambert.
Redé's notoriety rested on being the best-kept man in Paris: his wealth derived from his lover Arturo Lopez-Willshaw (1900–62), who continued to maintain a formal residence with his wife in Neuilly
Neuilly
Neuilly is a common place name in France, deriving from the male given name Nobilis or Novellius:...
. The Hôtel Lambert dinner parties were at the center of le tout Paris. Philippe Jullian
Philippe Jullian
Philippe Jullian was a French illustrator, art historian, biographer, aesthete, novelist and dandy.Jullian was born in Bordeaux in 1922...
described the world of Lopez-Willshaw and Redé as like a small 18th-century court: Members of the circle included the poet and patron of the Surrealists, Marie-Laure de Noailles
Marie-Laure de Noailles
Marie-Laure de Noailles, Vicomtesse de Noailles , was one of the 20th century's most daring and influential patrons of the arts, noted for her associations with Salvador Dalí, Balthus, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray, Luis Buñuel, Francis Poulenc, Jean Hugo, Jean-Michel Frank and others as well as her...
(1902–70); such musicians as Henri Sauguet
Henri Sauguet
Henri Sauguet , was a French composer. Born in Bordeaux as Henri-Pierre Poupard, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his pseudonym. His output includes operas, ballets, four symphonies , concertos, chamber and choral music and numerous songs, as well as film music...
, Georges Auric
Georges Auric
Georges Auric was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Georges Caussade, and under the composer Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum...
, and Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
; and the artist Christian Berard
Christian Bérard
Christian Bérard , also known as Bébé, was a French artist, fashion illustrator and designer.Bérard and his lover Boris Kochno, who directed the Ballets Russes and was also co-founder of the Ballet des Champs-Elysées, were one of the most prominent openly homosexual couples in French theater during...
. Important influences were the interior decorators Georges Geffroy
Georges Geffroy
Georges Geffroy was a post-war French interior designer.-Biography:"an eighteenth-century gentleman, a figure from another era, one of a breed of decorators that is extinct today,” remembers couturier Hubert de Givenchy,...
and Victor Grandpierre. Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
photographed Nina Ricci
Nina Ricci (designer)
Maria Nina Ricci was a French fashion designer of Italian origin.-Life and work:Maria Nielli was born in Turin, Italy in 1883, she moved to Florence, Italy with her family at age 5 and then to France in 1895 at age 12. She was nicknamed Nina. At the age of 13, she began an apprenticeship at a...
's costumes for "the elegant aesthete" at the sensational 1951 Bal oriental given by his friend Carlos de Beistegui
Carlos de Beistegui
Don Carlos de Beistegui y de Yturbe , also known as Charles or Charlie de Beistegui, was an eccentric multi-millionaire art collector and interior decorator and one of the most flamboyant characters of mid-20th century European life. His ball at the Palazzo Labia in Venice in 1951 is still...
at his Venetian palace, the Palazzo Labia
Palazzo Labia
Palazzo Labia is a baroque palace in Venice, Italy. Built in the 17th-18th century, it is one of the last great palazzi of Venice. Little known outside of Italy, it is most notable for the remarkable frescoed ballroom painted between by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, with decorative works in trompe...
.
Redé had met Lopez-Wilshaw in a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
restaurant. Lopez-Wilshaw was married to his own cousin, Patricia (née Lopez-Huici). He offered to take Redé to Paris, where he had a house in Neuilly. "I was not in love," Redé recalled, "but I needed protection, and I was aware that he could provide this." Patricia Lopez-Willshaw (1912–2010) was cool to Redé. In 1962, Redé inherited half of Lopez-Wilshaw's fortune; and, to manage it. he joined Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein in taking control of Leopold Joseph & Sons, a bank where he served as Deputy Chairman. With Loewenstein, he was closely involved in managing the money of the Rolling Stones; and he was a founder of Artemis, an investment fund specializing in the purchase of fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
.
Bal des Têtes and Bal oriental
In 1956, at Alexis de Redé's Bal des Têtes, young Yves Saint-Laurent provided many of the headdresses—the Duchess of Windsor being one of the judges—and received a boost to his career. When Diana VreelandDiana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman...
heard of the plans for Redé's upcoming Bal oriental, to be given on 5 December 1969, she promptly contacted the Baron expressing her interest in having the event photographed by Vogue. The guest list was the "creme de la creme" of the International High Society including;
- Baroness Marie-Hélène de RothschildMarie-Hélène de RothschildMarie-Hélène de Rothschild was a French socialite who became a doyenne of Parisian high-society and was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France....
- Baron Guy de RothschildGuy de RothschildBaron Guy Édouard Alphonse Paul de Rothschild was a French banker and member of the Rothschild family. He chaired the bank Rothschild Frères from 1967 to 1979, when it was nationalized by the French government, and maintained possessions in other French and foreign companies including Imerys...
- Baron David René de RothschildDavid René de RothschildDavid René James de Rothschild is a banker and a member of the French branch of the Rothschild family. He is the chairman of Rothschilds Continuation Holdings, a Swiss holding company...
- Baroness Philippine de RothschildPhilippine de RothschildBaroness Philippine Mathilde Camille de Rothschild is the owner of the French winery Château Mouton Rothschild. She also has acted under the stage name Philippine Pascale....
- Monsieur Antenor PatiñoAntenor PatiñoAntenor Patiño Rodríguez was a Bolivian tycoon, heir to his father Simón I...
, - Madame Beatriz Patiño
- Vicomtesse Jacqueline de RibesJacqueline de RibesComtesse Jacqueline de Ribes is a French socialite and fashion designer. She is also a member of the International Best Dressed List since 1962.-Early life:...
- Aline Griffith, Countess of Romanones
- Duke of CadavalDuke of CadavalThe Dukes of Cadaval have their origins in Álvaro of Braganza, Lord of Tentúgal, Póvoa, Buarcos and Cadaval, 4th male son of Ferdinand I, 2nd Duke of Braganza. Dom Álvaro married Dona Phillipa of Melo, the rich daughter and heir of Rodrigo of Melo, 1st...
- Duchess of Cadaval
- Monsieur James DouglasJames Douglas-Lords of Angus:* James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus , Scottish nobleman* James Douglas, Earl of Angus , son of the 2nd Marquess of Douglas-Lords of Douglas:...
- Madame Pierre (Sao) Schlumberger
- Baron Arnaud de Rosnay
- Monsieur Guy Baguenault de Puchesse
- Vicomtesse de Bonchamps
- Madame Vincente Minelli
- Mademoiselle Marie BellMarie BellMarie Bell , born Marie-Jeanne Bellon, was a French tragedian, comic actor and stage director. She was the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris from 1962 onwards, and this theatre now bears her name....
- Madame Arturo Lopez-Willshaw
- Madame Graham Mattison
- Madame Aimée de Heeren
- Prince Rupert zu Loëwenstein
- Baron Thierry Van Zuylen van NijeveltVan Zuylen van NijeveltVan Zuylen van Nijevelt This family must not be confused with the old noble family from Utrecht, Van Zuylen van Nievelt-Origins:During the 19th C. members of this family tried to prove that they were descendants of the Utrecht noble family. This has later been found impossible to prove.Their...
- Baroness Gaby Van Zuylen van NijeveltVan Zuylen van NijeveltVan Zuylen van Nijevelt This family must not be confused with the old noble family from Utrecht, Van Zuylen van Nievelt-Origins:During the 19th C. members of this family tried to prove that they were descendants of the Utrecht noble family. This has later been found impossible to prove.Their...
- Baroness de Günzburg
- Baron Gérard de Waldner
- Monsieur Oscar de la RentaOscar de la RentaOscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...
- Madame Françoise de la Renta
- Madame Hélèn Rochas
- Madame Michel David-WeillMichel David-WeillMichel David-Weill is a French investment banker and former Chairman of New York City based Lazard Frères.He is the son of Berthe Haardt and Lazard Frères chairman Pierre David-Weill...
- Madame Jean-Claude Abreu
- Madame José Espirito Santo Silva
- Madame Angelica Lazenska
- Monsieur Serge LifarSerge LifarSerge Lifar ; 15 December 1986) was a French ballet dancer and choreographer of Ukrainian origin, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century.-Biography:Lifar was born in Kiev, Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire...
- Monsieur Kenneth Jay LaneKenneth Jay LaneKenneth Jay Lane is an American costume jewelry designer.- Biography :Born in Detroit, Michigan he is an alumnus of Detroit Central High School, the University of Michigan and the Rhode Island School of Design....
- Madame Konrad Henkel
- Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis
- Madame Porfirio RubirosaOdile RodinOdile Rodin, born Odile Marie-Josèphe Léonie Bérard in Lyon in 1937, was a French actress and covergirl before she became the fifth and last wife of Porfirio Rubirosa....
- Madame Aileen MehleAileen MehleAileen Mehle is an American columnist, most active in the 1960s. She is perhaps best known as an occasional panelist on the game show What's My Line?...
- Monsieur Salvador DalíSalvador DalíSalvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
- Monsieur Valérian Styx-Rybar
- Monsieur Jean-François Daigre
- Madame Dolores GuinnessDolores GuinnessDolores Guinness born 31 July 1936 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, Germany, is a German born Freiin , socialite, fashion icon and jet set member of the 1950s and 1960s. She is also a member of the International Best Dressed List since 1970...
- Brigitte BardotBrigitte BardotBrigitte Anne-Marie Bardot is a French former fashion model, actress, singer and animal rights activist. She was one of the best-known sex-symbols of the 1960s.In her early life, Bardot was an aspiring ballet dancer...
- Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
- Henrik, Prince Consort of DenmarkHenrik, Prince Consort of DenmarkHenrik, Prince Consort of Denmark , is the husband of the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II.-Early life:Henrik was born in Talence, Gironde, France...
Later life
In 1972 Redé had his portrait painted by the fashionable painter Anthony Christian. In 1975 the Hôtel Lambert was purchased by Baron Guy de RothschildGuy de Rothschild
Baron Guy Édouard Alphonse Paul de Rothschild was a French banker and member of the Rothschild family. He chaired the bank Rothschild Frères from 1967 to 1979, when it was nationalized by the French government, and maintained possessions in other French and foreign companies including Imerys...
, whose wife, Marie-Hélène de Rothschild
Marie-Hélène de Rothschild
Marie-Hélène de Rothschild was a French socialite who became a doyenne of Parisian high-society and was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France....
was a close friend of Redé, who inherited her beloved dachshund "Whiskey"; the Rothschilds henceforth used it as their Paris residence.
Opinions
He was described as "the Eugene de RastignacEugène de Rastignac
Eugène de Rastignac is a fictional character from La Comédie humaine series of novels by Honoré de Balzac. He appears as a main character in Le Père Goriot and his social advancement in the post-revolutionary French world depicted by Balzac can be followed through Rastignac's various appearances...
of modern Paris" by Sir Henry 'Chips' Channon
Henry Channon
Sir Henry "Chips" Channon was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. Channon moved to England in 1920 and became strongly anti-American, feeling that American cultural and economic views threatened traditional European and British civilisation. He wrote extensively...
and as "the best host in all Europe"; his parties were famous. In 1953, author Mégret Christian published Danaé, a roman à clef based on Redé's life.
Baron de Redé was for the most part unknown to the public at large. He did, however, live a life of immense luxury which infiltrated all areas of his life. His estate (the contents of his apartments at the Hôtel Lambert
Hôtel Lambert
Hôtel Lambert is a hôtel particulier, a grand mansion townhouse, on the Quai Anjou on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, Paris IVème; the name, Hôtel Lambert, was a sobriquet that designated a 19th-century political faction of Polish exiles, who gathered there.-Architectural history:The house...
) was auctioned after his death by Sotheby's
Sotheby's
Sotheby's is the world's fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.-History:The oldest auction house in operation is the Stockholms Auktionsverk founded in 1674, the second oldest is Göteborgs Auktionsverk founded in 1681 and third oldest being founded in 1731, all Swedish...
in a specially held sale and realized millions of pounds. Included in the many items, which comprised three catalogues, was a 32-light chandelier expected to sell for between one and two million euros.
He died suddenly at the home of a friend, Carmen Saint, at the age of 82. His memoirs Alexis: The Memoirs of the Baron de Redé were published posthumously in 2005. Hugo Vickers is credited as editor, but was also the ghostwriter.
External links
- Photograph of the Baron de Redé *http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/list/images/07_15_04/Alexis-and-Mariat-Ball.jpg
- Telegraph: Obituary
- New York Social Diary
- New York Social Diary obituary
- Photos from different times of the Baron de Rede with his friend Aimee de Heeren
- Alexis von Rosenberg, Barón de Redé
