Outline of Benoît
NOËL
Email : benoitnoel@club-internet.fr
Web : http://www.herbaut.de/bnoel
Photo Benoît NOËL [JPG, 869x586, 150 dpi]
Copyright ©
2002 by Véronique Herbaut
Back to homel
I discovered absinthe when I was teenager. I had heard on a radio show
Serge Gainsbourg, a French singer, explain how Michel Simon, an old
Swiss comedian, showed him the traditional way to drink “la bleue” with
a spoon and sugar. I became fascinated by this strange process.
Then, I studied history of art in college and dreamed a lot about Paul
Gauguin’s well, that special place where he used to refresh his “verte”
in the Marquisa Islands. I remembered also, how Lautrec became mad
drinking “Maiden’s Blush” -his personal absinthe cocktail- and took
flight like an eagle!
After I finished my thesis, I became, from 1992 to 1996, the first
curator of Maison Fournaise, a French landmark and museum. Located on
the Ile des Impressionnistes, the Restaurant Fournaise is a typical
guinguette (a dancehall near a river) familiar to all the art lovers of
the world.
In 1881, from its balcony overhanging the Seine, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
painted The Luncheon of the Boating Party, which today is the
masterpiece of the Phillips Collection in Washington.
I offered, in 1993, Marie-Claude Delahaye the opportunity to display for
the first time the major pieces of her absinthe collection at the
Fournaise Museum.
The Absinthe, Myth & Reality exhibition was an international success.
Pepita Aris described it as an “Intoxicating Enchantress" in the Daily
Telegraph on April 10th. Benjamin Ivry refered to Lautrec in The
European, January 11th issue when asking : "What's your Poison Henri?".
And Laura Colby concluded in The International Herald Tribune on April
2nd : "In Artist Hangout, Show Distills Demon Absinthe".... (I only
quote here English articles).
In 1994, I suggested and helped Marie-Claude Delahaye create, (this
collaboration noted in the foreword of our co-written book, "Absinthe,
Muse des Peintres") a museum dedicated to the Fée Verte in
Auvers-sur-Oise.
Later, I wrote about the Green Fairy in "Absinthe" and "Stupéfiant"
reviews, and have completed five books on the subject, now translated
into Italian and English.
I have also written books on cinema (History of Cinema in Color - 1995),
painting (The Canotiers Belle Epoque on the Seine - 1997) and theater
(Les Coquelin, Three Generations of Comedians - 1997).
I teach history of art at Academie Charpentier in Montparnasse (where
Mucha was an instructor) and co-organise exhibitions at museums (Adrien
Karbowsky, Ferdinand Lunel and soon, Roger Jourdain).
I'm now working on two new books : the first on photography of the nude,
and the second on la Grenouillère.
Coll. J.B.N
Photo copyright © 2002 by Véronique Herbaut