- Vincent Fourcade
Vincent Gabriel Fourcade (
February 27 1934 –December 23 1992 ) was a Frenchinterior design er and the business and life partner ofRobert Denning . "Outrageous luxury is what our clients want," he once said. ["Robert Denning Dies at 78; Champion of Lavish Décor", by Mitchell Owens, Sep. 4, 2005,New York Times obituary]Family and youth
"Born...to a family of distinguished French aesthetes, the designer spent many of his formative years in a twenty-bedroom house replete with made-to-order Majorelle furnishings." ["Vincent Fourcade - CELEBRATING THE PLEASURES OF MAGNIFICENT EXCESS", by Mitchell Owens, "
Architectural Digest ," January 2000, v. 57 #1, p. 169 – one of twenty five persons named by the magazine "Interior Design Legends".] "I learned my trade by going out every evening as a young man," he told art historianRosamond Bernier . "I went to every pretty house in France and Italy and other places too, and I remembered them all, even down to what was on each little table." Vincent was educated at University College London.New York City
A handsome eligible bachelor, he was never without invitations in the United States either. He tried a career in banking, the business of his father and grandfather in
Paris . He met Robert Denning in 1959. Denning a "protégé" ofEdgar de Evia , had acquired an eye for design and effect from working with the photographer on sets for many fabric and furniture accounts, and with whom he shared one of the most magnificentManhattan apartments on the top three floors of theRhinelander Mansion . It would be here that early clients such asLillian Bostwick Phipps and her husbandOgden Phipps would be entertained as de Evia was spending more and more time on his estate inGreenwich, Connecticut .Denning & Fourcade
Slowly the pair became known for an extreme of luxury compared to
le goût Rothschild . An early party that they styled included covering the floor with a hundred old raccoon coats. In 1960 they formed the firm ofDenning & Fourcade, Inc. which would for over forty-five years set a standard for a list of clients that read like a social registry. Referred to in "New York" magazine as "...the Odd Couple. Boyish, down-to-earth Denning is the hardest worker, while Fourcade sniffs the client air to gauge if it's socially registered before he goes beyond the fringe." ["Inside the Decorating Establishment — The Ant and the Grasshopper" by Rosemary Kent, "New York",April 28 ,1975 ] Early clients included old friends that he had known socially such asMichel David-Weill . ["Past Perfect in Paris–A Richly Detailed Apartment for a New York Designer" by Annette Tapert, "Architectural Digest ," October 1995, v. 52 #10, pp. 168-173] Jackie Kennedy met his mark and two of her notes to him survive, the first thanking him for his letter after the assassination of her brother-in-lawRobert F. Kennedy , with the cancellation over her signature since as the widow of a president of theUnited States she still had franking privileges. She lost this when she remarried. The other, a handwritten note postmarkedOctober 28 ,1976 over a thirteen cent stamp —:Dear Vincent, I have never eaten such delicious food in such incredibly beautiful surroundings in my life. Thank you so very very much. affectionately Jackie.The return address also handwritten – Onassis, 1040 5th Ave.Homes
Living with AIDS
Early in the 1980s Fourcade contracted
AIDS . He kept his looks and strength through most of that decade as Denning and he would divide their time between New York and Paris, crossing the Atlantic on theConcorde . His older brotherXavier Fourcade , the internationally known contemporary art dealer, died of the disease in 1987 atSt. Lukes's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City.By 1990 the disease would take control his life and early in 1992 Denning & Fourcade would with a nurse take the Concorde one last time to Paris where he would live his remaining days in their apartment ["Vincent Fourcade, 58, Decorator Known for His Ornate Interiors" by Carol Vogel,
December 25 ,1992 ,New York Times obituary] at 16 rue de Chazelles, just up the street from the studio of thesculptor Frédéric Bartholdi who is best known for theStatue of Liberty .References
External links
* [http://www.denningfourcade.com Robert Denning and Vincent Fourcade's Official Homepage]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11618755 Robert Denning's biographic sketch] atFind A Grave
* [http://www.franklinreport.com/NY/action.lasso?-database=Vendor.fp3&-layout=Provider&-response=vendordetail.html&-logicalOp=and&-recID=35481&-search THE FRANKLIN REPORT]]
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