Inside Rudolf Nureyev’s Paris Apartment | Cultured Elegance

Inside Rudolf Nureyev's Extraordinary Paris Apartment Rudolf Nureyev owned seven properties by the end of his life, but the home he occupied most often was his apartment at 23 Quai Voltaire in Paris. He bought it in 1979. The duplex faced the Seine and the Louvre and placed him within walking distance of the antique dealers of the By 1985, when Architectural Digest photographed the apartment, Nureyev had filled it with paintings, rugs, Russian furniture, old textiles, books, musical instruments, and objects gathered during years of international touring. Designer Emilio Carcano renovated the duplex in what Architectural Digest later described as a romantic early 19th century mode. He worked with architect Pierre François and François' sister Douce, one of Nureyev's close friends. Carcano created much of the architectural framework. Nureyev brought in the collections. The Salon The salon became the best-known room in the apartment and appeared with Nureyev on the September 1985 cover of Architectural Digest. Its walls were covered with centuries-old Cordoba leather. This embossed decorative leather, historically associated with Spanish interiors, created a deeply patterned surface in shades of brown, red, and gold. Above it, Carcano installed a neo-Gothic mirrored cornice. The same Gothic vocabulary continued around the mirrored chimney piece, while specially designed wainscoting incorporated Oriental motifs lower on the walls. The sofas were enormous. Architectural Digest described them as covered in Genoese velvet and striped with gold passimentary. One double-sided sofa from Nureyev's collection later appeared at Christie's. It measured approximately 85 inches wide and 63 inches deep, meaning it projected more than five feet from front to back. That scale helps explain why the room looks almost theatrical in photographs. The sofas were piled with patterned cushions. Around them were low tables, lamps, books, framed photographs, sculpture, and more textiles. Underneath everything was parquet de Versailles, partly covered by kilins. Nureyev collected rugs obsessively. During his travels, he bought kilims, cashmere shawls, brocades, caftans, kimonos, and Japanese obis. By the end of his life, he owned hundreds of rugs, museum documentation records that many were simply piled beneath furniture in his different homes. The windows were treated just as elaborately. Carcano designed eight enormous patchwork curtain panels from old silks, damask brocades, and velvets, dating from the 18th through 20th centuries. Each panel was approximately 148 inches long, more than 12 feet. They were finished with brown and pink wool tasseled tiebacks. Those curtains later entered the collection of Anne and Gordon Getty and were adapted for the windows of their San Francisco music room. Large Polish brass chandeliers hung overhead, crowded with candle-shaped lights. Designer Stephen Sills later remembered the chandeliers seeming almost covered in candles. Then, beside the sofas stood one of the most recognizable objects in the apartment, a huge Victorian terrestrial globe. Sills first noticed it when he saw Nureyev's apartment in Architectural Digest in 1985. He remembered it for ten years. When Nureyev's possessions came to auction at Christie's in 1995, Sills bought the globe. One of Nureyev's large sofas also eventually reached the Getty home in San Francisco, so several objects seen in these 1985 photographs went on to become part of other famous interiors. The paintings. Paintings covered almost every available section of wall. Large canvases hung above sofas and consoles. Smaller pictures were fitted between doors or grouped around larger works. Nureyev had a strong interest in 19th-century academic painting, particularly male figures and nudes. In the dining library, Architectural Digest specifically described French academic nudes in the manner of Theodore Géricault. His interest extended to engravings. Nureyev collected architectural views, city scenes, theatrical designs, and studies of the human figure. His wider collection included 25 prints after Charles Antoine Coypel illustrating Don Quixote, and 12 theatrical prints after Ludovico Bernatini showing stage designs created for the Viennese court during the 17th century. He also owned Japanese woodblock prints. Old prints filled his private rooms as well. The walls of his Paris bedroom were covered with engravings dating from the 16th through the first half of the 18th century. They depicted cathedrals, monuments, and cities including Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Verona, and Florence. There was very little empty wall left anywhere. The dining room and library. The dining room doubled as a library. Architectural Digest described it as stone-paved. The photographs show pale stone arranged geometrically with darker squares. At the center stood a large rectangular table made from verre de Pyrénées, a deep green marble from the Pyrenees. Around it were Russian Biedermeier pieces upholstered in paisley, with more patchworked kilims appearing elsewhere in the room. And we know the marble table was actually used. When Vanity Fair visited Nureyev in 1986, his cook and manservant Manuel served lunch there. The meal was consommé, steak and lemon tea. Russian furniture appeared throughout Nureyev's collection. He was especially drawn to Karelian birch, the figured pale wood. A 19th-century Karelian birch table from his collection would later sell at Christie's for $116,475. The paintings continued across the dining room walls, including large male figures in gilded frames. Books filled shelves and cabinets. Then, among the marble, Russian furniture and old paintings were hundreds of videocassettes. Nureyev loved film and recorded dance. Vanity Fair found tapes filling an antique walnut cabinet in the dining room. More were piled near a new video camera in a spare room. A large television stood in the drawing room, surrounded by old furniture, paintings and textiles. It is one of the best reminders that this was an actual home in the 1980s. The Bedroom The bedroom carried the same density into a smaller space. The walls were deep in color and packed with paintings and engravings. The bed had a curved wooden frame and was covered with patterned textiles. Heavy curtains framed the window. A polished wooden cabinet beside the bed held a lamp and framed photograph. Books were stacked on the floor nearby. Nureyev often stayed awake late reading. Music also became increasingly important to him. His collection included large numbers of classical recordings devoted to ballet, symphonic music, chamber music, baroque music, and early music. One of his most important instruments was a double manual harpsichord made by Johannes Ruckers in 1627. Contemporary visitors remembered Nureyev playing the harpsichord at home. It later appeared in the Christie's sale of his collection and sold for approximately $59,000. Conducting eventually became another major part of his life. His conductor's batons were reportedly kept in a container beside his bed. The Textiles Textiles appear almost everywhere in the photographs. Across the beds, at the windows, on the floors, over furniture. Nureyev bought them throughout his travels. He collected Japanese obi sashes, 19th century cashmere shawls, caftans, kimonos, brocades, and historic European clothing. Killings became one of his greatest obsessions. He owned hundreds of them. Some were laid across the parquet floors. Others were folded, stacked, or stored beneath furniture. The quantity became especially clear after his death. When Christie's sold Japanese obis, cashmere shawls, 18th century velvet gaming purses, waistcoats, court dress, and other textiles from his collection, the apartment was continually absorbing new objects. Collecting in Paris. Nureyev had chosen an ideal neighborhood for someone who loved antiques. The Quai Voltaire and Rue de Lille were filled with dealers. Contemporary accounts describe him moving through the shops, wearing a fur coat and hat, looking for furniture, paintings, and objects. His purchases eventually spread across properties in Paris, London, New York, Virginia, Monte Carlo, San Bartolome, and the Ligali Islands off the Italian coast. Yet Quai Voltaire remained the residence he used most often. It was also a gathering place for people from the ballet world. Margot Fonteyn stayed there. Jane Herman spent Christmas there. His longtime friend Maude Gosling visited regularly. Dancer Lynn Seymour later recalled staying in a studio above Nureyev's apartment. In 1987, Nureyev hosted members of the visiting Kirov Ballet for dinner at Quai Voltaire, including Farukh Ruzimatov and Altynai Asylmuratova. These rooms were constantly in use for meals, guests, reading, music, and work. What happened to the apartment? Nureyev died in January 1993 at the age of 54. In November 1995, much of the contents of his Paris residence went to Christie's in London. The two-day sale included Russian furniture, paintings, kilims, Japanese obis, cashmere shawls, clothing, musical material, textiles, and his 17th-century Rucker's harpsichord. The auction brought approximately $2.79 million. A 19th-century Russian Karelian birch library table sold for more than $116,000. The Rucker's harpsichord brought about $59,000. Four paintings attributed to Géricault were expected to be among the major attractions, but failed to sell. The apartment Nureyev had spent years filling was gradually dispersed. Some objects entered major private collections. Others eventually became part of the Nureyev collection at the Centre National de Costumes de Seine in Moulins, France. The museum now preserves furniture, paintings, engravings, sculpture, clothing, films, musical material, and textiles connected with Nureyev. Part of its permanent display recreates the atmosphere of his interiors using surviving pieces from his homes. And one of Nureyev's greatest collecting obsessions followed him beyond the apartment. The kilim, after his death, his friend and theatrical designer Ezio Frigario designed Nureyev's grave at the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois outside Paris. The tomb appears to have a richly patterned kilim draped across it. The folds, fringe, and geometric patterns are actually made entirely from mosaic. It is a remarkably specific final reference to the rugs that once covered the floors of Nureyev's apartment at 23 Quai Voltaire. Thank you everyone so much for watching Cultured Elegance. 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