The St Germain flat of the founders of Atelier Vime is a window into Parisian history
In the early 1950s - 1953 to be exact - Benoît Rauzy’s father moved into a vast duplex apartment on the top floors of an early eighteenth-century building on Paris’s Rue des Saints-Pères. This street links Saint-Germain-des-Prés - the intellectual, student, and party district, full of jazz clubs, cafés, and galleries - to Faubourg Saint-Germain (the area around the Basilica of Saint Clotilde), the last bastion of the aristocracy, where a certain Proustian spirit still lingers in the air. While the nearby stores were mainly occupied by antique dealers, there were still a few workshops tucked away in the courtyards. People lived in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, not for the luxury, but for the culture. Benoît’s father was a dentist had his practice on the first floor of the building, with the family’s home spread out on the floors above. Artist friends would stay for periods of time. ‘It was a beautiful life,’ Rauzy says, ‘because it was full of people.’
The apartment on Rue des Saints-Pères was full of books and paintings, some left behind by artist friends who had stayed there for a few months in the servants’ quarters on the seventh floor. Benoît's walk to school was a rite of passage in itself. The first gallerists that he encountered as a child were, among others, the voluptuous and vivacious Dina Vierny - a former model for Matisse and Maillol - whose gravelly voice could be heard belting out songs from Kolyma; Madeleine Castaing, a renowned interior designer also known as the “woman with the elastic” (a reference to the elastic strap tucked under her chin that simultaneously kept her wig in place and restored her face to the taut, perfectly oval shape of her youth); and Gilles Bernard at the Galerie Proscenium, a small but extraordinary place that exhibited works by Christian Bérard, Erté (Romain de Tirtoff), Tom Keogh, and others long before the market showed any interest in these artists.
Although the area has clearly changed a lot since the 1950s and the subsequent era when Benoît was a student at Sciences Po, just a few streets away, the spirit of those times can still be felt. Benoît returned to the apartment when his father was ill, and much of it has remained unchanged since his death. As you walk from room to room, it feels as though you are turning the pages of a book: your gaze alights first on the parquet floors and original tiles, then on a painting by Anton Räderscheidt, a German artist who was a member of the New Objectivity movement. It is a place where a collection of old books is at home beside drawings by Pablo Picasso and Eugène Boudin and contemporary work the couple’s friend Wayne Pate.
Each of their houses demonstrates the same taste for combining pieces from different eras. In the study, a Tit Mellil chair by Mathieu Matégot, designed in 1955 for Casablanca Airport, provides a counterpoint to the formalism of a rustic desk from the Louis XVI era. In the living room, a chest from the Haute Époque (a term that refers to pieces from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and early Baroque period) is illuminated by an Atelier Vime rope lamp, while a daybed by Louis Sognot stands on the original chevron parquet floor next to a Louis XV armchair. Anthony and Benoît place their current favourite pieces here for a while before they put them up for sale, creating ephemeral decorative arrangements and at times a showroom for their work.
Astute colour choices ground the eclectic mix of pieces: beige and brown in the round rug by Paule Leleu and the woven rope sofa designed by Giuseppe Pagano, or the mahogany chair by Djo Bourgeois that complements the red on the walls of the study in the background. The open spaces and original features of the servants’ rooms have been preserved in the attic bedrooms, where artist friends often stayed. A large rattan easy chair by Louis Sognot and a tree stump (probably left over from the construction of the building’s structural framework) is used as a coffee table. The view over the rooftops of Paris stretches as far as the Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tower. Just like their homes in Provence, Brittany, and Normandy, it is imbued with a touch of magic.
Anthony Watson1/17A costume design by Pavel Tchelitchev for Jean Giraudoux’s Ondine.
Anthony Watson2/17A sketch of a woman in a leotard by Charles Despiau is placed on the floor beside a rattan table with a bust by Margaret Cossaceanu, a Romanian sculptor who trained under Antoine Bourdelle.
Anthony Watson3/17In an ode to simplicity, a bird sculpture by brothers Jean and Joël Martel and a rope lamp by Atelier Vime are showcased on a seventeenth-century table. The table is framed by two brutalist chairs and an ink portrait by Ossip Zadkine.
Anthony Watson4/17Astute colour choices reflect the eclectic mix of eras: beige and brown in the round rug by Paule Leleu and the woven rope sofa designed by Giuseppe Pagano, or the mahogany chair by Djo Bourgeois that complements the red on the walls of the study in the background.
Anthony Watson5/17In the study, a Tit Mellil chair by Mathieu Matégot, designed in 1955 for Casablanca Airport, provides a counterpoint to the formalism of a rustic desk from the Louis XVI era. Bookshelves were built into the alcoves formed by the old chimney flues that passed through the study’s walls. Here, again, is another eclectic mix of genres with a Louis XVI desk, a chair by Charlotte Perriand, a Kadjar lamp, and, placed on the stool, a photograph by Jacques Léonard, from the Anne Clergue Galerie.
Anthony Watson6/17Among the numerous copies sits a photo of Anthony Watson and Alma, their Podenco Andaluz warren hound, by Philippe Sardin.
Anthony Watson7/17Each of their houses demonstrates the same taste for combining pieces from different eras, as well as a love of books—antiquarian books, literature, fine art books—like a common thread running through their homes.
Anthony Watson8/17The space leading to the dining room is decorated with both antique and contemporary artworks, with a mural by Wayne Pate behind a Medici vase and pedestal.
Anthony Watson9/17The dining room blends the classicism of a marquetry chest of drawers and furniture by Eero Saarinen with two caricatures from the 1940s and a black hemp rug by Codimat.
Anthony Watson10/17A detail of the wicker panels and Edith lamp by Atelier Vime.
Anthony Watson11/17Anthony Watson, whose mother is from Provence, has always known his family to collect ceramics, especially marbled pottery—a passion that he has also inherited. They may look identical from a distance, but in reality each piece is unique. He is particularly fond of nineteenth-century items made by Maison Pichon in Uzès. Facing page: A fabric by Décors Barbares provides the perfect backdrop for pieces from the collection.
Anthony Watson12/17Benoît Rauzy and Anthony Watson have gone for a total green look in the kitchen, with paint by Farrow & Ball, the backsplash is a design by Andrée Putman for Bisazza.
Anthony Watson13/17
Anthony Watson14/17The open spaces and original features of the servants’ rooms have been preserved in the attic bedrooms, where artist friends often stayed. A large rattan easy chair by Louis Sognot and a tree stump (probably left over from the construction of the building’s structural framework) used as a coffee table and holding an Odetta vase. To the left of the doorway, a self-portrait by Pierre Bompard, who was Peintre de la Marine (official painter of the fleet), is displayed, and, on the right, a lampshade by Wayne Pate can be seen. In the background are chairs by Roger Landault.
Anthony Watson15/17In the study area, eighteenth-century armchairs stand in front of the hearth, with an Atelier Vime potholder on the mantel. Among the works on the wall are Le Tailleur by Max Jacob, a drawing by Natalia Goncharova, and a watercolor by Alexandre Benois.
Anthony Watson16/17This bedroom on the seventh floor boasts a view over the rooftops of Paris that stretches as far as the Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tower. Above: Through the doorway, the Edith lamp by Atelier Vime can be glimpsed. Facing page: An Atelier Vime mirror hangs on the wall, and an Uzbek suzani fabric, which Benoît Rauzy brought back from one of his many trips, covers the bed.
Anthony Watson17/17The Vime bag is showcased beside a seated nude sculpture by Charles Despiau; above them hangs an ink portrait by Ossip Zadkine. Alma, the Podenco Andaluz, poses in front of the desk.
