Eliette von Karajan

Eliette von Karajan (née Mouret; born 13 August 1939[1]) is a French former fashion model who was "discovered" by Christian Dior when she was 18. She came to wider prominence as the wife of the celebrity-conductor Herbert von Karajan whom she married in October 1958. As a widow she remained in the public eye through her promotion of her late husband's abundant artistic legacy and as a patron of the arts more broadly, partly through the establishment of several generously endowed artistic foundations and institutes and partly through her on-going involvement, until 2020, as hands-on honorary president of the Salzburg Easter Festival.[2][3][4][5][6]

Eliette von Karajan
Born
Eliette Mouret

(1939-08-13) 13 August 1939
Mollans-sur-Ouvèze, Drôme, France
OccupationFashion model
Celebrity spouse
Arts patron
Spouse(s)Herbert von Karajan (1958–1989; his death)
ChildrenIsabel 1960
Arabel 1964

Life

Provenance and early years

Eliette Mouret was born at Mollans-sur-Ouvèze, a little hill-town behind Avignon where her parents owned a holiday home. They were both teachers.[7] There was a sister who was twenty years her senior: she was still very small when her father died.[7] She later told an interviewer that her mother "was a teacher with a passion for playing the piano, but no time for me. I ended up with a 'foster mother'".[4][lower-alpha 1] She attended a boarding school run by nuns, and grew up in Nice.[2]

Karajan

She was "discovered" by Christian Dior when she was 18. Mouriet worked for Dior as a long legged photo-model, showing off wedding dresses and other high-class outfits in Europe's competing "fashion capitals". At some point during the early 1950s she first met Herbert von Karajan on a friend's yacht at St. Tropez.[8] She was reportedly seventeen at the time, though according to one jaded - albeit self-evidently numerate and eminently "serious" - biographer, "like many very beautiful women ..... [she] was seventeen for an awfully long time".[7] Being at sea often made her sick: on this occasion it was the smell of frying fish that set her off, and she had to be escorted ashore: Herbert von Karajan volunteered for the task.[9] In 1955 they met up again in London, by which time she had become obsessed with the maestro,[7] During the early 1950s she accompanied him as his "girl friend" on visits to the island of Ischia where they would meet up with fellow musicians (and others) including William Walton and his garrulous wife. Lady Walton later recalled that Eliette "was always seasick", when taken sailing before breakfast, but "never complained". Another of Lady Walton's more striking vignettes from those visits to the Bay of Naples featured Karajan and girlfriend sharing a Vespa, with Eliette sitting side saddle on the back as they scootered back and forth across the island.[7] Hebert and Anita von Karajan were divorced in 1958: he and Eliette Mouret then married at Megève on 6 October 1958.[7][9] The life of a fashion model was exchanged for that of a "jet set wife" and, a few years later, mother.[9] She was the third of Karajan's three wives: they would remain married for 31 years.[9] Later still she would tell an interviewer that the first present she received from her husband was a pair of hiking boots.[4]

The couple's elder daughter, Isabel, was born on 25 June 1960 in Vienna. Eliette would explain that the name "Isabel" was in honour of a favourite hotel on Ischia. Isabel Karajan has subsequently achieved notability as an actress. The Karajans' younger daughter was born at Samaden on 2 January 1964.[10] This time a more overtly musical connection is cited: Arabel received her name as a tribute to the not quite eponymous sugar-coated Strauss opera Arabella.[4] Many children are provided with Godparent's at or shortly after birth. The "Godparents" assigned to Isabel and Arabel Karajan were respectively the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras.[11]

Working marriage
  • "Life was not all roses .... Endless flights, trips to the hair-dressers, in high-heels all day, photographers everywhere .... Sometimes it was much too much ... then I protested too. Thank God I had the temperament. Sometimes too much. Then the coffee cups flew. Often I'd already packed my bags. And then he'd come and ask, 'What's with the suitcase?' Took me in his arms and everything was good again."[4]
  • "Das war nicht immer rosig .... Immer wieder Flugzeug, Friseur, Reisen auf hohen Absätzen, zig Fotografen überall .... Manchmal wurde es mir viel zu viel ... dann habe ich auch protestiert. .... Das Temperament hatte ich, Gott sei Dank. Eher zu viel manchmal. Da flogen dann schon auch mal die Kaffeetassen. Oft hatte ich schon meine Koffer gepackt Oft hatte ich schon meine Koffer gepackt. Oft hatte ich schon meine Koffer gepackt. Und dann kam er und fragte: „Was willst du mit dem Koffer?“ Nahm mich in den Arm und alles war wieder gut."[4]Eliette von Karajan in conversation with Dagmar von Taube, 2014

Over the next three decades Eliette von Karajan accompanied her husband "everywhere", matching his formidable programme of travel and performances with her own remarkable blend of patience, devotion and commitment, moving among his fans and admirers and attempting to shield him, as far as possible, from some of the more oppressive aspects of the celebrity which he courted and craved. Through it all, unbreakable iron discipline and bottomless energy were vital elements in the life they shared.[4] Karajan also very much valued her musical judgment precisely because she was neither a trained musician nor a professional musicologist: as a "mere music lover" he knew that she was more representative of concert goers and record buyers than any pundit or professional rival.[7] She alone sat with him through the agonisingly tense waits behind the curtain, as he studied a score and arranged for her to have a foot massage, before he headed out towards the podium and she, as decorously as possible, rushed to take her place, habitually placed in the front row of the audience. A pattern was quickly established, and then, as the Karajan era reached a third decade, one or two less charitable commentators emerged to imply that there was an element of careful choreography in the way the Karajans presented a public face of their intense partnership.[12] Between concerts she would quietly sit in on orchestral rehearsals for hours on end.[4]

The life they led meant that Karajans became were part of a network of cerebral artist-celebrities with a taste for the high-life. Carefully honed media presentation came with the territory. Friends included Jean Cocteau,[13] Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Henri-Georges Clouzot,[14] Helmut Schmidt, Marc Chagall,[15] and the actress Romy Schneider, with whom Eliette liked to "flirt", although relations cooled a little after Schnieder, while staying as a house-guest, used a lipstick to scrawl graffiti all over the large mirror in the bathroom: "very awkward for my staff", Eliette later recalled.[4][lower-alpha 2]

Much of the couple's married life was spent travelling in connection with Herbert von Karajan's work. From around 1961, when they did come home, it was to St. Moritz (in Winter), St. Tropez (in Summer) or Karajan's small estate at Anif, on the southern edge of Salzburg (especially during the festival).[16] In each of these municipalities they lived in some style, supported by staffs of domestic servants.[9] Since she was widowed in 1989 the pace of the travelling has become very much less frenetic, and Eliette von Karajan has for the most part simply alternative between living at the homes the couple had shared at St. Tropez and Anif.[17]

Painting

Herbert von Karajan was particularly enthusiastic about Eliette's emergence as an artist:

  • "In her entire artistic thought and expression she is someone whose starting point is the visual image. She brings a fantastic imagination to the way she sees things. It really was only a matter of time before she would be driven to [re]start her painting. She made a very tentative start, but then the breakthrough came. For me it is [also] a massive piece of good fortune, because now she must for herself find out how the ups and downs of artistic creativity operate. You cannot expect to succeed every time!"[18][19]
  • "In ihrem ganzen künstlerischen Denken und Fühlen ist sie ein Mensch, der zuerst vom Bild her kommt. Sie hat eine ungeheure Phantasie in ihrer Art, die Dinge zu sehen, und es war eigentlich nur eine Frage der Zeit, wann sie mit der Malerei beginnen mußte. Zuerst hat sie ganz schüchtern angefangen, dann ist es zum Durchbruch gekommen. Für mich ist das ein riesiges Glück, denn sie mußte natürlich auch einmal erfahren, wie es um das Hoch und Tief künstlerischen Schaffens bestellt ist. Man kann nicht erwarten, daß alles gelingt!"[18]
Herbert von Karajan,
quoted by Ernst Haeussermann (1978) and Harriet von Behr (2020)

While still working as a professional fashion model Eliette Mouret enrolled briefly at an art academy in London. Professional pressures, followed by a full-time marriage accompanied by motherhood, meant that she never finished the course. After a visit to the "Visuals Academy" (" Internationale Sommer Akademie für Bildenden Künste") set up in Switzerland by Oskar Kokoschka she returned to her art, however.[18][20] She was supported by several "famous name artists" of the time who were also friends. These included "late surrealists" such as Ernst Fuchs, Jörg Immendorff and Marc Chagall whom she visited frequently at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.[11] Her teacher, the painter Herbert Breiter, was also a very important artistic influence.[21] Her husband was particularly enthusiastic about Eliette's emergence as an artist.[18]

Till 1982 Eliette's art remained an entirely private passion. Then a series of her paintings were featured on record sleeves (with more in a separate accompanying supplement) for a special anniversary collection of Karajan recordings issued to celebrate the centenary of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestras (of which Herbert von Karajan had been principal conductor since 1956). The entire set, which had originally comprised 50 LP discs, was re-issued on 5 April 1988 as a set of 25 CDs to mark von Karajan's eightieth birthday.[16]

Widow and benefactress

Herbert von Karajan suffered what turned out to be his fatal heart attack on 15 July 1989 and died the next day. While he was alive the management of his media image had been an important skill, and following his death employed Eliette adeptly applied "secrecy and speed" in order to ensure that, on this occasion, his funeral did not become a press spectacle. Only around ten people knew of the arrangements for the private funeral ceremony in the little cemetery at Anif. As matters turned out, the burial was delayed for several hours after a large long forgotten stone plinth was found a few centimeters under the surface at the position agreed, many years before, as the maestro's last resting place. Everything ground to a halt while a farmer was found to use a heavy tractor with lifting tackle to drag the subterranean impediment away. It was dark by the time the body of Herbert von Karajan could be buried, but the entire ceremony nevertheless remained a private family matter.[7]

Eliette von Karajan faced questions over the closure, in 2006, of the "Herbert von Karajan Center" in Vienna:

  • "It did not develop in the way I had anticipated. It became ever more commercialised. They sold ash-trays and Karajan umbrellas. And I am really not rich enough to back that sort of thing. Besides, I hate umbrellas. I never take an umbrella; and in Salzburg [where von Karajan has her winter home], as I do not need to tell you, it rains a lot".[22]
  • "Es hat sich nicht so entwickelt, wie ich es mir vorgestellt habe. Es wurde immer mehr kommerzialisiert. Sie haben Aschenbecher verkauft und Karajan-Regenschirme. Und um das zu fördern, bin ich nicht reich genug. Übrigens, ich hasse Regenschirme überhaupt. Ich gehe immer ohne Schirm, und in Salzburg, das können Sie mir wirklich glauben, regnet es sehr oft." Eliette von Karajan, interviewed by Peter Vujica in 2008

It was at the widow's instigation that in 1995 the "Herbert von Karajan Center" was set up in Vienna, across the road from the "Staatsoper". It accommodated a comprehensive archive of Herbert von Karajan's many audio and video recordings. The centre closed in 2006. As usual with the Karajans. the press were there to ask questions: Eliette was, it seemed, disappointed that it had become necessary to turn the front of the Karajan Center into a tacky souvenir shop. It was no coincidence that the closure of the Karajan Center opposite the Vienna's principal Opera House followed shortly after the opening, in December 2005, of the Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute.[23] Michael Dewitte, the director of the Salzburg Easter Festival, was appointed Geschäftsführer (loosely, "CEO") of the institute, into which the Vienna-based Karajan Center's surviving activities were to be incorporated.[23] It was explained that the institute, for which an annual budget of €1.5 million had been set aside, would co-ordinate concert planning in connection with the forthcoming centenary, in 2008, of Herbert von Karajan's birth. It was located not, as might have been expected, in Vienna, but in Salzburg, emphasizing the Karajans' close artistic and personal connections with that city.[23] In the longer term, the ambition was for the institute to celebrate and to make more widely known the maestro's exceptional achievements, along with the associated elements of his character, both as interpreter and artist, and as promoter of talent and excellence, educator and entrepreneur-artist.[23] Activities of the institute would involve organising symposia and exhibitions.[23] Continuing skilful media engagement were also central to the project. Geschäftsführer Dewitte stressed the importance attached to the "Nachhaltigkeit" (loosely, "sustainability") of the project. In practical terms this has been expressed through a particular emphasis in discovering and supporting younger musicians and other artists.[23]

Eliette also turned her formidable energies to supporting a new generation of artists in their work. One manifestation of this was the "Eliette von Karajan-Kulturfonds" ("Eliette von Karajan Culture Fund") launched in 2001, which made available annually, initially for a term of five years, at least 100,000 US dollars or 150,000 Swiss francs to support cultural initiatives and activities in the Canton of Graubünden, where the family had made a ski-season home together at St. Moritz since 1961. Characteristically, the allocation of grants was to be prioritized according to certain carefully thought through and specified criteria such as "internationality", "reflection of contemporary culture", "involvement or benefit of/for young people" and "cultural or inspirational usefulness to the canton or individual regions within the canton". Early award winners included a young violinist/composer, a young clarinettist, a young author of film and theatre texts, and a youthful theatre director. The unifying theme was the exceptional level of talent and early achievement already demonstrated by each of the recipients. Former award recipients who have already built significant reputations include the recorder player and conductor Maurice Steger, the mezzo-soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling and the theatre director Felix Benesch.[2]

Another major initiative was the "Prix Eliette von Karajan", reflecting her own commitment to painting. High-profile recipients include the English artist-entrepreneur Damien Hirst in 1995,[24] the sculptress Rachel Whiteread in 1996,[25][26] the German artist Helmut Dorner in 1997[27] and the Graubünden singer-lyricist Corin Curschellas in 2003.


Notes
  1. "Meine Mutter war Lehrerin, die eine große Leidenschaft fürs Klavierspiel hatte, aber keine Zeit für mich. Ich kam zu einer Pflegemutter."[4]
  2. ..."unangenehm vor meinen Angestellten"."[4]

References
  1. Eliette von Karajan: Mein Leben an seiner Seite. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 15 and p. 9. When she met Herbert von Karajan in 1957, she was, according to her autobiography, 18 years old, which would make the year of birth 1939. The other sources referenced here indicate that she met Karajan some years earlier than 1957, and had already met him and become "obsessed with him" in 1955 when they bumped into each other in London, which seems to have been the point at which the relationship became more "serious". If she was 18 when she was "discovered" by Christian Dior in 1950, and became a photo-model "in the early 1950s", then a birth year around 1932 or 1933 becomes more plausible.
  2. "Eliette von Karajan Kulturfonds". Standeskanzlei Graubünden, Chur. 8 August 2001. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  3. "Eliette & Herbert von Karajan Institut". Eliette & Herbert von Karajan Institut, Salsburg. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  4. Dagmar von Taube (20 July 2014). ""Herbert hat mich bestrahlt"". Axel Springer SE (Welt), Berlin. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  5. "Snapshot, 1967: Why so glum, Herr von Karajan?". Classic Driver (Schweiz) AG, Zürich. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  6. "Eliette von Karajan übergibt Stiftung an Töchter". Salzburger Nachrichten Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H. & Co KG. 5 February 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  7. Richard Osborne (1999). The girl with the flaxen hair. Herbert Von Karajan: A Life in Music. Pimlico. pp. 328–332. ISBN 978-0-7126-6465-3.
  8. Eliette von Karajan: Mein Leben an seiner Seite. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 10.
  9. Frederik Hanssen (17 January 2008). "Die Göttergattin (book review)". Bei der ersten Begegnung mit Herbert von Karajan wird ihr schlecht. Eliette von Karajan war die Frau an seiner Seite: Jetzt hat sie ein Buch über ihr Jetsetleben geschrieben. Verlag Der Tagesspiegel GmbH, Berlin. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  10. "Geburten .... Eliette von Karajan". Register. Der Spiegel (online). p. 76. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  11. "Herbert von Karajan (* 1908 Salzburg; † 1989 Anif, Salzburg)". Herbert von Karajan war ein Superstar der Klassik, von dem sich die weltbesten Orchester willig befehligen liessen und dem das Publikum zu Füssen lag. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 29 June 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  12. "Das Imperium Karajan fällt zusammen". Rund 1400 Konzerte und über 300 Langspielplatten haben die Berliner Philharmoniker und ihr Chefdirigent Herbert von Karajan in drei Jahrzehnten gemeinsam bestritten. Nun ist die künstlerisch wie kommerziell beispiellos erfolgreiche Partnerschaft am Ende: Das Orchester hat dem Maestro die Treue aufgekündigt. *publisher 18 June 1984. Der Spiegel (online). Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  13. Christian Seiler (5 March 2012). André Heller: Feuerkopf. Die Biografie. C. Bertelsmann Verlag. p. 250. ISBN 978-3-641-06844-8.
  14. "A ses côtés: Eliette Von Karajan, Bertrand Vacher (Traducteur)". résumé of a book translation. PAYOT SA, Lausanne. 2008. ISBN 9782809800418. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  15. "Arte, Samedi 5 avril 2008 à 23h". Herbert von Karajan, documentaire. “Maestro, maestro!” Arte, Samedi 5 avril 2008 à 23h .... Maestro, maestro ocumentaire. Réalisation: Claire Alby et Patricia Plattner (1999, 52mn). Rediffusion du 19 février 2003. (review of television documentary). Philippe Alexandre PHAM, CNC – CLASSIQUENEWS, Châtillon. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  16. "Karajan - Der Dirigent - Der Techniker" (PDF). Wenn visionene wahr werden. Wolf von Schilgen, Salzburg. p. 87. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  17. "Eliette von Karajan: "Wünsche mir Happiness!"". 75. Geburtstag: Eliette von Karajan feierte ihren Ehrentag im kleinen Kreis. Telekurier Online Medien GmbH & Co KG, Wien. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  18. Harriet von Behr. "Eliette von Karajan". Herbert von Karajan, ein Jahrhundertdirigent .... Visionär, Klangästhet, Perfektionist. BlackMountain GmbH (TheMan), Wien. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  19. Ernst Haeusserman: Herbert von Karajan. Eine Biographie. Verlag Fritz Molden, Wien u. a. 1978, p. 229.
  20. "Paintings". Eliette und Herbert von Karajan Institute. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  21. "Breiter, Herbert". art4public, Salzburg. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  22. Peter Vujica (20 March 2008). "Ein Traum und seine Folgen". Ein Besuch bei Eliette von Karajan, nun Ehrenpräsidentin der Salzburger Osterfestspiele. Der Standard, Wien. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  23. "Neues "Eliette und Herbert von Karajan Institut" in Salzburg". Wiener Karajan-Centrum in neue Salzburger Gesellschaft eingegliedert. Der Standard, Wien. 30 November 2005. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  24. Amie Corry (compiler-editor); Anna Godfrey (compiler-editor). "Exhibitions ... Prix Eliette von Karajan '95". Solo Exhibition. Max Gandolph-Bibliothek, Universitat Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria. Damien Hirst / Science (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  25. "Rachel Whiteread's Biography". Rachel Whiteread Exhibited at The Saatchi Gallery. Saatchi Gallery, London. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  26. Günther Berger (2009). Englisches Wien. Relazioni. Peter Lang. p. 109. ISBN 978-3-631-56922-1.
  27. Frauke Syamken (1997). "Helmut Dorner". ZKM: Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
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