furniture. She experimented with colors, patterns and
styles, circling back always to the mid-nineteenth century
d��cor she remembered from her grandparents��� villa and
from her reading of the novels of Balzac, Stendhal and
Zola in which rooms are mirrors of the characters that
inhabit them. ���Leves is without question Madeleine���s
masterpiece and the supreme example of le style
Castaing,��� writes Eerdmans.
What is le style Castaing? Central to Castaing���s vision
of decorating was a blurring of the in- and out-of-doors,
choosing interior wall colors to harmonize with greenery
viewed through floor to ceiling windows. Her signature
colors were opaline blue or sky blue for the walls of formal
rooms, bright shell pink or floral chintz for bedrooms.
She added English Regency furniture, Napoleon III���
considered ���bad taste��� by Castaing���s contemporaries.
She then softened the severe lines of Neoclassical
furniture with a feminine concern for fabric. She designed
a floral garland striped fabric called ���Rayeure Fleurie���
which continued the views of the garden���s allees onto
the walls of her Winter Bedroom. She tented ceilings and
canopied beds; she covered floors in leopard-patterned
carpet. Fantasy���even eccentricity���ruled her choices.
The rooms of Leves are so beautiful we scarcely notice
their oddity.
HYLAND
