Christian Bérard also known as Bébé, was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 artist, fashion

Fashion

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...

 illustrator

Illustrator

An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...

 and designer

Fashion design

Fashion design is the art of the application of design and aesthetics or natural beauty to clothing and accessories. Fashion design is influenced by cultural and social latitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories....

.

Bérard and his lover Boris Kochno

Boris Kochno

Boris Kochno was a Russian poet, dancer and librettist. He was close with Karol Szymanowski who gave him as a gift a Russian translation of the chapter The Symposium from Efebos, the composer's unpublished novel. Szymanowski also dedicated four poems to him...

, who directed the Ballets Russes

Ballets Russes

The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...

 and was also co-founder of the Ballet des Champs-Elysées, were one of the most prominent openly homosexual

Homosexuality

Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 couples in French theater during the 1930s and '40s.

Early life

Born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1902, Bérard studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly

Lycée Janson de Sailly

Lycée Janson de Sailly is a lycée located in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris, France. It is generally considered as one of the most prestigious lycées in Paris...

 as a child. In 1920, he entered the Academie Ranson

Académie Ranson

The Académie Ranson was founded in Paris by the French painter Paul Ranson , who himself studied at the Académie Julian, in 1908.- History :...

, where his style was influenced by Edouard Vuillard

Édouard Vuillard

Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...

 and Maurice Denis

Maurice Denis

Maurice Denis was a French painter and writer, and a member of the Symbolist and Les Nabis movements. His theories contributed to the foundations of cubism, fauvism, and abstract art.-Childhood and education:...

.

Career

Bérard showed his first exhibition in 1925, at the Gallery Pierre. From the start of his career he had an interest in theatrical scenery and costume designs, and played an important role in the development of theatrical design in the 1930s and 1940s. In the early '30s Bérard worked with Jean-Michel Frank

Jean-Michel Frank

Jean-Michel Frank was a French interior designer known for minimalist interiors decorated with plain-lined but sumptuous furniture made of luxury materials, such as shagreen, mica, and intricate straw marquetry.-Life and career:...

, painting screens, wood-work and drawing projects for carpets. He also worked as a fashion illustrator for Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...

, Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators...

, and 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...

. Bérard's most renowned achievement was probably his lustrous, magical designs for Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...

's 1946 film La Belle et la Bête

Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)

Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of the traditional fairy tale of the same name, written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont and published in 1757 as part of a fairy tale anthology . Directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette...

.

Bérard died suddenly from a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 on 11 February 1949, on the stage of the Théâtre Marigny

Théâtre Marigny

The Théâtre Marigny is a theatre in Paris, situated near the junction of the Champs-Élysées and the Avenue Marigny, in the 8th arrondissement. It was originally built to designs of the architect Charles Garnier for the display of a panorama, which opened in 1883...

. 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...

's Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater (Poulenc)

Stabat Mater is a musical setting of the Stabat Mater sequence composed by Francis Poulenc in 1950. Poulenc composed the piece in response to the death of his friend, artist Christian Bérard; he considered writing a Requiem for Bérard, but, after returning to the shrine of the Black Virgin of...

was composed in his memory, and Jean Cocteau dedicated his 1950 film Orphée to him.

External links