#Servandoni

[fotograrte]

(vía Cúpula de la Capilla de la Virgen, Iglesia de St Sulpice – FOTOGRARTE)

[milquetoast-zeitgeist]

Likely the restaurant referenced in IWTV S1E2 by Daniel Malloy. May 2023

[illustratus]

Capriccio of Classical Ruins with Alexander the Great Opening the Tomb of Achilles

by Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni

[ripclaudia]

where alice stepped on a gum and made daniel scrape it off with a credit card (says louis) or a library card (says daniel)

[funjoke]

Édouard Boubat, Spectacle de rue, Rue Servandoni, Paris, 1948

[casadabiqueira]

Rue Servandoni, Paris

Édouard Boubat, 1948

[whatshehassaid]

Also lil fun fact in s1… Louis reads a part of Daniel’s book where he’s talking about how recollection and memory can trick you: “I look at my daughter in the rear view mirror of my Buick sitting in her car seat… my editor tells me it’s 7 years before car seats become mandatory. My ex wife tells me I never had a Buick”

In the books Daniel is turned into a Vampire by Armand in 1985

In the show:

Louis: Alice is in her third trimester… she steps in gum on the corner of Rue Palatine and Servandoni.

Daniel: the old parlour trick…

Louis: she makes you scrape it off with a credit card..

Daniel: it’s not a credit card. I HAVE no credit, it’s a library card

Louis: She’s wearing that short purple dress you favor…

Daniel: I liked the way she lo- walked in it… she was CONFIDENT

Louis: You felt freer to hold her hand in Paris… *hint of sarcasm* I wonder why that is..

Daniel: hitting the garage door, Louis… all the crap… have at it

Louis: you worked SOOOO hard to get that table right in the corner so you could pull out the ring…

Daniel *scoffs*: the ring… that’s good..

Louis: just at the right moment to surprise her

Daniel: which I DID..

Louis: And what did she say when you finally asked her to marry you?

*Daniel has a flash of Armand in the 70s*

Louis: Danny. I’ll ask for a third time. What did ALICE say… when you finally asked her to marry you?

Armand *softly*: Louis perhaps we should…

Daniel *visibly upset* : She said no.

*Louis chuckles maliciously*

*long silence*

Armand *squirms on the couch and a sad uncomfortable expression comes over his face*: she wanted to say yes.

*Daniel’s eyes widen as he looks up at Armand*

Armand: she just didn’t trust you. You hadn’t given her a reason to.

Louis *still with a malicious tone*: do you want to know what she thinks of you now? IF she thinks of you now? *glances at Armand* we could do that

Armand: or we could simply return to the interview.

——

Season one Louis serves Daniel the dessert he had in Paris claiming he has a human meal once a week to hold onto the thread of humanity…

Daniel: this is the dessert I had after I proposed to my first wife… after I got my shit together. We were in Paris. Little cafe on the Rue Servandoni up the way from Saint Sulpice.

Louis: I know it. It’s a beautiful street.

Daniel *becoming nostalgic*: Alice…. Half of her eyebrow was blonde… like a mutt. She always dyed it back to brown…

Daniel *somewhat sadly*: I liked it when she left it alone….

*daniel closes his laptop stopping the recording of the interview*

[bremser]

Berenice Abbott at 18 rue Servandoni

The portrait on the cover of Julia Van Haaften's 2018 biography "Berenice Abbott: A Life in Photography" and at the top of Abbott's wiki page is by an unknown photographer. It was taken for the small newspaper Paris-Midi, published June 14, 1928. Keystone France agency, and now Getty owns the rights and incorrectly dates it as 1927, while Wikipedia dates it as "1930s."

At the time, her studio was at 18 rue Servandoni in Paris, we see the fireplace and door in the background in other portraits, such as the portrait of James Joyce's daughter, Lucia. There's a classic Atget at 15 rue Servandoni, but it's from 1903-4. Atget died in 1927 and Abbott, along with Julien Levy, saved his archive. By 1930 she was in New York City, where Walker Evans made his great portrait of her.

Van Haaften writes that in search of lower rent, Abbott moved to the rue Servandoni studio in early 1928. Abbott kept a clipping of the newspaper, but there's no further detail about the portrait session in the biography.

I was curious about the photographer of the portrait and found Getty has a handful of other frames from the same session that I'd never seen.

Most interesting of those frames is this contemplative shot showing the windows of her studio, maybe some photo chemicals on the table. A puff of smoke emanates from Abbott's cigarette in the same place where someone has left their fingerprint on the negative or print. There's a strong reflection or light leak in the top left corner of the frame. Van Haaften describes the rue Servandoni studio offering "beautiful north light."

Looking at the building on Google Earth, there is one north-facing spot that has the large windows similar to the 1928 portrait, seen in the center of the screen grab below.

Another detail Van Haaften mentions is that it took Abbott months to install electricity. An electric spotlight is on a tripod behind Abbott in the standing portrait. In the alternate angle you can see a not-to-code wire dangling.

So, who made these portraits? The Keystone France agency was an off-shoot of a popular stereoview company based in Meadville, Pennsylvania, hence "keystone." If you've ever flipped through old stereoviews at a vintage shop, you recognize this brand. The French agency was founded by Alexandre Garai in 1927 (whose brother Bertram started a related Keystone in London in 1914). The Met has one photograph by Alexandre Garai, taken in 1927. The jpeg is tiny, but indicates a modern perspective. While it's possible Garai is the photographer, his brother's ethos seems to have been to be the boss ... and never touch a camera.

The identity could be buried deep in Getty's London warehouse, which stores 80 million photographs and negatives. When these frames were scanned and metadata added to Getty in 2010-2016, if there was a name on the back of the prints, it probably would have been added then.

From the photos themselves, it's difficult to say if Abbott had a rapport or was familiar with the photographer: her default intensity is remarkably consistent her entire life, up until the last portrait of her in 1991.

(left, rue Servandoni 1929, right: Hank O'Neal, Berenice Abbott, Last Portrait, Monson, Maine July 17, 1991)

From the resolution, the depth of field on the lens, these are probably shot with a 4x5 or larger camera. It looks like the photographer shot the lens wide open, the camera in the standing portraits looks very much in focus, while Abbott's face looks slightly out of focus.

Two of the four frames have similar damage, could be a development problem, but could be mold later while in storage. Abbott's Paris portraits of the period were shot on glass (as much of Atget's body of work was), though by the late 1920s glass plates had mostly been replaced by film. Annoyingly, Getty is one of the best places online to see her Paris portraits, but the Steidl book is highly recommended. Seen together, you realize why Man Ray felt threatened, or at least annoyed, by his former assistant.

The photographer was either challenged or in a challenging environment. Abbott was often a withering critic, one can imagine a green photographer shows up to make portraits and encounters a prickly subject. With the seated portrait above, at first glance, I thought maybe the print has a piece torn out of the left side? Or is it a modern lamp intruding on the composition?

It's difficult to tell with the window portrait how much of it is a metering mistake or the potential development issue, but it looks several stops overexposed to be of use in publication of that time. Today, with our phone cameras taking three frames and digitally merging exposure, we can romanticize the top half of her body dissolving into the light is as the "magic of film."

I'm calling this the "last" frame of the session, based only on the fact that her pose and facial expression has shifted from intensity to a mix of boredom and exasperation. The photographer told her to sit on the day bed with tea and a book, "look relaxed," but she wants nothing to do with it.

[greedandenby]

"This is the dessert I had after I proposed to my first wife, after I got my shit together..."

Not on the rue Servandoni, but I mean... Close enough?

(sold in a Parisian bakery as a Pavlova)

[ariaste]

Rewatching IWTV s2e2: "Alice is in her third trimester, she steps in gum on the corner of Rue Palatine and Servandoni" -- Just looked those up and they're two streets in Paris. Were we.... aware of that... as a fandom.....???

(Just looked it up on google maps and it's a T intersection, and both of those two corners is right across the street from a catholic church called Eglise Saint-Sulpice which... mmm. Things happen in churches in these books/this show, churches are Important. eeeenteresting.)

(Twenty minutes by car from Pigalle, which is where the Theatre des Vampires was)

And then, unrelated to that(maybe), of course we know there's then the weird flashback to Armand that we later see properly in ep5 but then--Louis snaps Daniel out of it by calling him Danny. Which i have not.... noticed.... anywhere else????

is this anything????

[the-quiet-youve-been-longing-for]

Okay so

Why did Daniel "Paris sucks, their culture is bullshit" stay with Alice in Paris so damn long?

Him and her are at a brasserie, a typical French restaurant when she tells him she's pregnant. Now, a brasserie could be anywhere, true, but they are mostly seen in Paris and they could have used ANY term to indicate where they were, yet they chose that one.

And according to the memory Louis fishes out, she's in her third trimester when he proposed on the corner of Rue Palatine and Servandoni.

So, they stayed 9 or so months in a place Daniel strongly disliked, or they went there twice? (is it safe to fly when you're that pregnant? I honestly don't know)

Or is it a case of Daniel liking Paris before, and then being embittered by the place as well as a result of what happened?

[crackspinewornpages]

Les Misérables 170/365 -Victor Hugo

161

His house has since been demolished and rebuilt, married twice and a connoisseur of paintings.

162

He abandoned in memories of his past and regarded the names in power as vulgar and bourgeois his Godfather bestowed on him the name Luc-Esprit.

163

He was crowned by the Duc de Nivernais and the deaths of Louis XVI Napoleon or the return of the Bourbons defaced that memory. And he always narrated how he saved himself from the Terror of 1789. (that’s the one where Madame Guillotine was popular)

164

He had theories to let the wife control the funds, but it nearly left him destitute. Still, he had a house and servants and called all the women Nicolette. (is that like calling all the maids Maria)

165

His sorrow converted into wrath, all sorts of prejudices and liberties in his royal renown. He paid for the maintenance of two boys who he claimed not to be his. He complained of being cheated by a businessman of inheritance, the country has degenerated he claimed. (ok boomer) His second wife had a daughter who married a colonel at Waterloo and died at thirty. He also took a lot of snuff and believed little in God.

166

This was M. Luc-Esprit Gillenormand, in spite of it all, he was venerable and by 1814 he had immured in his habits of antiquated elegance.

167

The two daughters, ten years apart, were little like sisters, the younger had a charming soul, the older a chimera. Mademoiselle Gillenormand was a prude though allowed her grandnephew to embrace her, her friend Mademoiselle Vaubois was a blockhead. Mademoiselle Gillenormand grew lost as she grew old, melancholy, with unknown sadness, the other in the house was a little child, his grandson.

BOOK THIRD THE GRANDFATHER AND THE GRANDSON

168

In Rue Servandoni Gillenormand frequented solons and it cost his self-respect nothing. Madame de T had frequent friends in her Royalist solon amusing themselves on events and songs. Gillenormand was one of two men there the other de Lamothe-Valois. In the bourgeoisie honored situations decay, in 1815 Lamothe was held in consideration of the celebrity of his name. Gillenormand’s consideration was first rate and always accompanying him was his spinster daughter and grandson, son of the brigand of the Loire.  

169

If someone chanced through the town of Vernor, they may have seen a man about fifty walking along the bank of the Sienne. He lived alone in a small house, cultivated his flower garden, the brigand of the Loire. Anyone who read military memoires would find frequency of the name Pontmercy and the long service record. At Waterloo he was the chief of a squadron of cuirassiers and received a sword across the face and fell into the ruin of Ohain. Georges Pontmercy was the brigand of Loire.

After being pulled out of the ravine he rejoined the army, transferred from ambulance to ambulance. Sent him to residence and surveillance at Vernan with half pay and between two wars married the younger Gillenormand who died leaving a child who was forced on threat of disinheritance to give him to his grandfather. (you might be wondering why the same man who would take a son from his father because he didn’t agree with his politics would support two kids who definitely aren’t his well people are complicated) The boy, Marius, knew he had a father but nothing else, but listening to gossip grew shame about him. Pontmercy could only catch gazes of him, a sympathetic priest befriended him and learned his history. Twice a year Marius wrote dictated letters to his father and the responses his grandfather intercepted. (if you’re not getting it it’s like a right wing conservative grandfather took his grandson away from his left leaning liberal son in law)

170

All Marius knew of the world was the solon and he soon grew melancholy, and he beheld the old women like phantoms and sometimes the ancient priests mingled. “Moreover, as it is indispensable that the Revolution should be everywhere in this century, this feudal solon was, as we have said, dominated by a bourgeois. M. Gillenormand reigned there.”p.397 The essence of Paris on white society, reputations held in quarantine, traces of anarchy in renown. Today, solons no longer resemble those Royalists, they are now demagogues. Madame de T’s society was haughty refinements of the old regime, buried but alive, antiquated eccentric speech. Men and deeds judged, abated each other, an air of having lived a long time ago, a mummified society.

Madame de T’s was ultra, to go beyond a partisan of things to the point of being their enemy. The first phase of the Restoration, the first six years were extraordinary catastrophes, sinking in the past little new, little old. “Former days did not recognize Yesterday. People no longer had the feelings for what was grand,.”p.398 This Society no longer exists nothing of it does today, engulfed in a deluge beneath two Revolutions. “What billows are ideas! How quickly they cover all that is their mission to destroy and to bury, and how promptly they create frightful gulfs!”p.398

These solons had their own literature and politics but didn’t keep their purity, in 1818 to be a Royalist was to excuse themselves and ultras were proud. They should have succeeded; their mistake was to create ages of youth and oppose conservative liberalism which demolishes. Why not accept the whole of history and the whole of France, those doctrines criticized the protected Royalism, which displeased it. Marius studied as children do, expanding to a vulgar pedant went to law school with not much love for his grandfather.

(you might have noticed by now I’ve been leaving out details Victor bloats his book with so much superfluous backstory and infodumps I really don’t know what’s important)

NEXT

[whatshehassaid]

Uh… guys….The corner of Rue Palatine. And Rue Servandoni.

Palatine in English means Palatial.

Servan in English means Servant.

Servandoni in English means “to be saved”

[plaques-memoire]

Plaque en hommage à : William Faulkner

Type : Lieu de résidence

Adresse : 26 rue Servandoni, 75006 Paris, France

Date de pose : Inconnue

Texte : Ici a vécu à l'automne 1925 William Faulkner, 1897-1962, écrivain américain, prix Nobel de littérature 1949

Quelques précisions : William Faulkner (1897-1952) est un écrivain américain, récompensé par le prix Nobel de littérature en 1949, dont l'un des romans les plus connus est Le Bruit et la Fureur, publié en 1929 et considéré comme l'un des meilleurs romans du XXème siècle. Considéré par certains comme le grand rival d'Ernest Hemingway (qui vécut également à Paris), il met en scène des histoires et des personnages du Sud des États-Unis marqué par la guerre de Sécession et les préjugés raciaux. Son œuvre ne se limite toutefois pas aux romans, puisqu'il fut également poète et nouvelliste et rédigea des scénarios pour le cinéma. Plusieurs de ses livres furent eux-mêmes adaptés au cinéma. Il meurt des suites d'une chute de cheval, son organisme ayant également été affaibli par un alcoolisme chronique. Il laisse un héritage conséquent en littérature anglophone et a également fortement influencé la littérature latino-américaine et ses auteurs phares comme Gabriel García Márquez ou Mario Vargas Llosa.

[greedandenby]

In S1 Episode 2, Daniel mentions a "little café on the Rue Servandoni, up the way from Saint-Sulpice". To which Louis answers "I know it, it's a beautiful street".

FUN LITTLE FACT: the Rue Servandoni used to be called Rue des Fossoyeurs, which literally means "GRAVEDIGGERS STREET".

[rmmvr]

Édouard Boubat (Français, 1923-1999), Spectacle de rue, Rue Servandoni, Paris, 1948.