Eliette von Karajan

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Eliette “von” Karajan , née Eliette Mouret (born August 13, 1939 in Mollans-sur-Ouvèze , France ), is the widow of the conductor Herbert von Karajan and a respected art patron.

Life

Eliette Mouret grew up in Nice , southern France, and was discovered at the age of 18 by Christian Dior , for whom she worked as a photo model. In 1957 she met her future husband: They first met on a yacht in Saint-Tropez . A year later they met again in London and married on October 6, 1958. Eliette was Karajan's third and last wife.

The first daughter Isabel was born on June 25, 1960, and was sponsored by the Vienna Philharmonic . The second daughter Arabel was born on January 2, 1964 ; the Berliner Philharmoniker took over the sponsorship for them .

Eliette accompanied Herbert von Karajan on trips and guest performances and led a life among the admirers of the "Maestro", whom she also shielded if possible. The couple maintained contacts with important personalities of their time such as Jean Cocteau , Elisabeth Schwarzkopf , Henri-Georges Clouzot , Helmut Schmidt , Romy Schneider and Marc Chagall . Unless they were traveling, the couple lived in St. Moritz , and since 1961 in Saint-Tropez and Anif .

Eliette von Karajan has devoted herself to painting for decades and is now an internationally renowned patron of the arts and musician, as well as being honorary president of the Salzburg Easter Festival founded by her husband .

At her instigation, the Herbert von Karajan Center with the archive of all of his audio and video recordings was set up in Vienna in 1995 opposite the State Opera. On December 1, 2005, she founded the Eliette and Herbert von Karajan Institute , which is dedicated to supporting her work as a patron of the arts and looking after her husband's legacy.

painting

During her time as a model, she attended the painting academy in London, initially not completing it because of her professional and later because of her many obligations as a wife and mother. After a visit to the “School of Seeing” founded by Oskar Kokoschka , she began to paint again. She was supported in her own artistic work by numerous artist friends, such as the surrealist Ernst Fuchs , Jörg Immendorff or Marc Chagall , whom she often visited in his residence in Saint Paul de Vence. Her teacher, the painter Herbert Breiter , also had a great influence on her work .

Her husband supported her in her artistic endeavors and saw them as an enrichment: “In all of her artistic thinking and feeling, she is a person who first comes from the picture. She has a tremendous imagination in the way she sees things, and it was really only a matter of time before she had to start painting. At first she started very shyly, then she broke through. For me this is a huge stroke of luck, because of course she also had to find out what the ups and downs of artistic creation are like. You can't expect everything to work out! "

Her pictures, which until then had never been publicly exhibited or published, were used or added as the cover and individual inserts of a special edition in 1982 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Berliner Philharmoniker. The edition of fifty records (100 masterpieces - gallery series) with various world-famous soloists and concert singers under the direction of Herbert von Karajan was released by Deutsche Grammophon and was reissued on 25 CDs on the occasion of the conductor's eightieth birthday (1988).

Artist funding

Eliette von Karajan is intensively dedicated to promoting artists and founded the “Eliette von Karajan Cultural Fund” and the “Prix Eliette von Karajan” for this purpose.

The "Eliette von Karajan Culture Fund" was created in 2001 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the von Karajan's family residency in Graubünden and is dedicated to the promotion of cultural workers in Graubünden . Previous winners include the recorder and conductor Maurice Steger , the mezzo-soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling , the violinist and composer David Sontòn Caflisch , the singer Letizia Scherrer , the director, screenwriter and actor Felix Benesch and the composer Siegfried Friedrich .

The winners of the lavish “Prix Eliette” include the British artist Damien Hirst , the German painter Helmut Dorner , the British sculptor Rachel Whiteread and the Graubünden singer Corin Curschellas .

Remarks

  1. ^ With the Nobility Repeal Act of 1919, the nobility was abolished in Austria and the use of nobility titles and denominations was prohibited. Eliette Karajan's husband, who had lost his “von” postnatally with this ban, was granted this as an artist name after he threatened to no longer be artistically active in Austria (cf. the explanations in the article on Herbert von Karajan ) .
  2. ↑ Eliette von Karajan: My life by his side . Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 15 and p. 9. When she met Herbert von Karajan in 1957, she was 18 years old. Hence the year of birth is 1939.
  3. ↑ Eliette von Karajan: My life by his side . Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 10.
  4. ^ Canton of Graubünden: Eliette von Karajan Culture Fund .
  5. ↑ Eliette von Karajan: My life by his side . Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2008, pp. 130ff.
  6. ^ Ernst Haeusserman: Herbert von Karajan. A biography . Verlag Fritz Molden, Vienna u. a. 1978, p. 229.

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personal data
SURNAME Karajan, Eliette from
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karajan, Eliette (real name); Mouret, Eliette (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French art patron, widow Herbert von Karajans
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Mollans-sur-Ouvèz , France