Chic Savage Mrs. Charles B. Wrightsman. Jaynes World. Art Collector Jayne Wrightsman. Vanity Fair. January, 2. Intensely private and utterly controlled, Jayne Wrightsman inhabits the pinnacle of New York society as one of the late 2. But even friends know little of her life before she married Charles Wrightsman, who left her his vast oil fortune in 1. From Wrightsmans turbulent youth to her bond with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, to her impact on the Metropolitan Museum of Art, FRANCESCA STANFILL charts the making of a grande dame. October 3, 2. 00. The opening night concert of the Carnegie Hall season was about to begin. That music would resume, that the Berlin Philharmonic had not canceled these were hopeful symbols to a city still shattered less than a month after the terrorist attacks of September 1. The late arrival of Peter Jennings seemed to cause a collective sigh of relief reassurance, perhaps, that there would be no late breaking crisis that night. No seat remained empty New Yorks elite filled the hall music as elixir, but also as social draw. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. The 1950s pronounced nineteenfifties commonly abbreviated as the 50s or Fifties was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1950, and ended. I hate opera, but I love my wife, financier Saul Steinberg once famously remarked. The mood was highly charged, though the audience itself looked subdued, with few of the glittering necklaces and important brooches that signify, in that rarefied world at least, the ebb and flow of affluence. Free Video Dub 2 0 13 821. In their stead the severe, driven chic intrinsic to a certain echelon of New York society and which seemed, that night, more than usually appropriate. After the audience joined in an emotional chorus of God Bless America, it leapt to its feet to applaud Daniel Rodriguez, the Police Department tenor who had sung it onstage. Among those who rose, in Box 4. Two would be familiar to many in the audience or, indeed, to anyone who knew the highly chronicled beau monde of New York City on one side, Annette de la Renta, philanthropist and elegant wife of the designer Oscar de la Renta, and, on the other, Mercedes Bass, second wife of Texas billionaire Sid Bass. The fragile looking older woman whom they flanked and who continued to clap in her singular slow, intense way was a far less familiar figure rarely photographed, intensely private, deeply shy, wary of publicity, seemingly chilly and excluding to those beyond her protective inner sanctum, Jayne Wrightsman is nevertheless considered by many to be the grande dame of New York society and one of the great art collectors and museum patronesses of the last part of the 2. Galleries of French decorative arts in her and her late husband Charless name remain among the treasures of New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art. A close friend of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, with whom she shared a love of France, an elusiveness, and an ability to keep secrets, she served as the First Ladys mentor during the 1. White House while giving Jackie all the credit, according to Washington philanthropist Deeda Blair, who knew both. As a collector, shes very high up in the pantheon, in the league with Paul Mellon and Norton Simon, says banker Jacob Rothschild, a close friend. Xls Regenerator 2.12 Serial Key Generator. She has given her life to the Met. In Metropolitan director Philippe de Montebellos words, her contribution to the museum has been substantial and, in the aggregate, colossal. Recalled the late J. Carter Brown, a former director of Washingtons National Gallery of Art, several months before his untimely death in June of last year, I always championed her, because so few who have money also have the taste and the smarts. She really understands, and she really loves art. To her old friend British publisher George Weidenfeld, Wrightsman exemplifies the last of a certain breed a code of behavior that is dying out, he explains, that code being American patrician with a blend of the French aristocratic, with an emphasis on aesthetics and a fastidiousness in terms of interests and people. Many elements contribute to the Wrightsman mystique, not the least of which is her membership in that exclusive club of those who have owned one of the worlds 2. Vermeers and lived with furniture made for the Kings of France. There is her moated life, laced with curators and Fifth Avenue luxury her marriage of over 4. The Agony of Anna Kournikova by D. R. Disclaimer This story is restricted to readers aged 18, if youre not please go away and come back when youre older Main Street Vegan is a lively hour devoted to your health, wellbeing, and ways to live lightly and lovingly on planet Earth. Host Victoria Moran will entertain you. The Scholastic Reading Club announces James Pattersons 1. Million Pledge to Libraries. Nominate your school to receive a grant from James Patterson to support. Annette Larkins Book' title='Annette Larkins Book' />Charles Wrightsman, a brilliant but brutal wildcatter born in Oklahoma and her enigmatic beginnings in the Midwest and in Hollywood. Lacking a formal education, she has nevertheless become known as an expert on French decorative arts and European painting. Born to a modest family, she has become one of the undisputed leaders of New York society. She has vaulted ahead of the people to whom she once aspired, says an art world insider. In that group of power and money, says a European observer, if youve made it, you have to be close to Jayne. The life of Jayne Wrightsman is a uniquely American saga of power, patronage, sublimation, and self invention. To former Metropolitan director Thomas Hoving, who observed her as an extraordinarily responsive and meticulous wife, she was the quintessential American geisha another observer, citing the studied mix of her circle and her role as mentor to certain ambitious society women, calls her a Proustian figure, like Madame Verdurin. Shes not Jay Gatsby but shes not far from it, either, says a longtime veteran of the board of the Metropolitan. Museum. She is an extraordinarily disciplined person, emphasizes her close friend Henry Kissinger, adding, Whatever she seeks to achieve she does so unobtrusively. A vivid contrast, in other words, to one of New Yorks other and far more visible grandes dames, the still saucy 1. Brooke Astor, with her expansive range of causes and acquaintances and flair for publicity. Though the two women are friends, another art world insider confides, The only one Brooke used to be jealous of is Jayne. Privacy and control loom large in Wrightsmans life. This is partly inherent in one who is by nature formal and armored, and partly owing to her anger following a flippant 1. Khoi Nguyen in the now defunct Connoisseur magazine, which portrayed the Wrightsmans as social climbers and claimed that her mother had run a nightclub. Vat6vbDiMok/VXOtG9YnYXI/AAAAAAAACTI/383dl3BIlu4/s1600/annette%2Blarkins3.png' alt='Annette Larkins Books' title='Annette Larkins Books' />When I wrote to Mrs. Wrightsman last spring offering her a chance to correct any inaccuracies in that article, she responded, The article was almost entirely wrong in particular about my early life, my mother and my marriage so that I would hardly know where to start correcting it. Only when her friends had been given her approval did they slowly and very reluctantly agree to speak. If we are protective, says Barbara Walters, it is because her shyness and sense of privacy are genuine. She is truly self effacing. That said, she is not without a certain steeliness and can also be terribly grand and aloof with people, says the European observer. Annette Larkins Book' title='Annette Larkins Book' />Notes one normally loquacious quote giver with a nervous laugh, before refusing to talk, If youre a friend of Mrs. Wrightsman, you mind your ps and qs. In response to my written request for an interview came a note, typewritten on cream colored Cartier paper engraved with Mrs. Charles Wrightsman in notably unshy red ink, its signature in an even hand devoid of finishing school flourishes. The tone is practiced, polite, and, at times, arch. I feel over honoured, she writes, but it has been an ironclad rule of mine never to grant interviews either about friends or about myself. At the recent launch of Glorious Galway Book which is now on sale Back Row left to right Pat McDonagh Supermacs, Michael Larkin Chairman Galway Hurling. LOOKING FOR. can you help Below is a list of people and information whom friends and shipmates are looking for. If you know the where abouts or have contact or any.