Washington Winter Show 2017

48 Le : “I am a Soldier.” Marion Hewle wearing fancy dress, c. 1918. Right: Marion, aged about 12 years old, dressed in formal menswear style for fancy dress, with her horse in the background. She rode most days. Her horse, called Blanche McDonald, was stabled in Golden Gate Park. she enjoyed skyscapes and poetic views of rooftops, the Seine, and the city. While she usually painted portraits in her studio or her sitters’ private spaces, she often worked in public too acquiring a permit to work as a copyist at the Louvre. She also set up easel and paints on the Pont Neuf and the street, where she captured daytime and nocturnal scenes. We have included some of these paintings in the exhibition. Marion was introduced to Coco via Frederick “Freddie” Brisson, whose wife, Roz, actress Rosalind Russell, was one of the artist’s great friends in Los Angeles. Freddie had met Chanel in 1954 when he proposed that he produce a Broadway musical about her life. He pursued this idea for the next twelve years, visiting the couturière, often with Roz, each time he was in Europe until she eventually agreed, by which time the three had become friends. It is for this reason—from among the scores of portraits Marion painted—we chose to exhibit one of Rosalind Russell. When Marion went to meet Chanel in February 1967, the painter was 54, the couturière 84. Coco was in the process of selecting fabrics. Without acknowledging her guest’s presence, she continued to work for an hour or so. Marion, Exhibition installation at London College of Fashion. who always carried a sketchpad and whose hands were never idle, contentedly worked to record the scene. By the time Chanel came over to greet her, she had completed several sketches. Chanel took one look and flashed Marion a smile, announcing “Vous avez la main d’une artiste .” Chanel then removed her scarf and encircled it around Marion’s neck. “This is a souvenir of our first meeting—I know we are going