Étienne Balsan
Fulcran Étienne Balsan (born February 11, 1878 in Paris ; † 1953 ) was a member of the French upper class, corporate heir, officer , horse breeder , gentleman rider and polo player . He was the original sponsor of the future fashion designer Coco Chanel .
Life
Étienne Balsan came from a family of wealthy industrialists from Châteauroux ; his grandfather Jean-Pierre Balsan (1807–1869) had bought a textile company founded in 1751 in 1856 and renamed it Balsan , which among other things also provided the army with uniforms and produced the famous Poilus uniform called “bleu horizon”. His father was Auguste Balsan (1836-1896), his oldest brother was Jacques Balsan . He also had two sisters and another brother, all older than him.
Étienne Balsan served as a lieutenant in the cavalry , but then ended his military career to devote himself to horse breeding and equestrian sports. Among other things, he had a love affair with Émilienne d'Alençon before he met the young seamstress Gabrielle Chasnel, who later became known as a fashion designer under the pseudonym Coco Chanel, during his military service at the 10e régiment de chasseurs à cheval in Moulins in 1904.
He then had a relationship with Coco Chanel, whom he brought from the province of Moulins to his castle near Compiègne from 1906 . He introduced her to Parisian society and eventually made his city apartment in Paris available to her for her hat studio . The relationship lasted until 1910. Coco Chanel also met British polo player Arthur “Boy” Capel through Balsan in 1909 , with whom she subsequently had an intense affair that lasted until 1918. He was her second sponsor after Balsan.
In George Kaczender's film Unique Chanel (1981) Rutger Hauer played the role of Étienne Balsan, in Anne Fontaines Coco Chanel - The Beginning of a Passion (2009) it was Benoît Poelvoorde .
Étienne Balsan married Susanne Bouchard on December 2, 1920 in Anglet .
Web links
- Coco Chanel & Gustav Klimt. The art of silence. Play in 4 acts, The smallest salon theater; The Burg - Theater on Biedermannplatz , Hamburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ Autumn Polo at Valliere (near Paris). In: The Polo Monthly. Dec. 1909, London 1909, p. 286. ( PDF )
- ^ Mary S. Lovell : The Churchills. A Family at the Heart of History - from the Duke of Marlborough to Winston Churchill. Hachette, London 2011, p. 286. ( limited preview in Google book search)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Balsan, Etienne |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Balsan, Fulcran Étienne (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French corporate heir, horse breeder and equestrian; Coco Chanel sponsor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 11, 1878 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1953 |