Misia Sert

Misia Sert (born Maria Zofia Olga Zenajda Godebska; 30 March 1872 – 15 October 1950) was known primarily as a patron of contemporary artists and musicians during the decades she hosted salons in her homes in Paris. Born in the Russian Empire and of Belgian, French and Polish descent, she became a professional pianist and gave her first public concert in 1892. She was a patron and friend of numerous artists, for whom she regularly posed, appearing on magazine covers and posters. Her salons were frequented by contemporary writers and musicians played their newest works.

In addition, Sert made creative and financial contributions to Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. He consulted closely with her on elements of this innovative dance company, ranging from costume design to choreography.

Maria Zofia Olga Zenajda Godebska, known as Misia, was born on 30 March 1872 in Tsarskoye Selo, a town known as the Tsar's village, 13 miles outside Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. Her father, Cyprian Godebski (1835-1909), was a renowned Polish sculptor and professor at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and had ties to the aristocracy. Her mother, Eugénie Sophie Léopoldine Servais (called Zofia in Polish), of French-Belgian descent, was the daughter of noted Belgian cellist, Adrien-François Servais and his wife.

Zofia Godebska knew that her husband engaged in extra-marital affairs. While pregnant, she traveled from St. Petersburg to Tsarskoye Selo, where she surprised Godebski, who was working there temporarily on a court project and living with his current mistress. Zofia died soon after giving birth to her daughter, thereafter called Misia, the Polish diminutive of Maria. Godebski sent the infant girl to be cared for by his wife's Servais family at Halle, Belgium, near Brussels.

It was a musical household and the family held concerts performed by noted musicians. Two of the Servais sons had followed their father into musical careers. Pianist and composer Franz Liszt was among friends of the family. The young Misia Godebska received her early musical education there and was acknowledged as gifted. Although her cellist grandfather Servais had died in 1866, several years before Misia was born, others in the family circle taught her to read music as a young child and encouraged her to develop her gifts as a pianist.

Godebska's father remarried several times, ultimately reclaiming his daughter and bringing her to live with him and his newest wife in Paris. The girl missed the ambiance of her maternal grandparents’ home in Halle. Her father placed her in a convent boarding school in the city, Sacré-Coeur, where she was a student for eight years, 1882-1890. Her only pleasure was the piano lessons she took one day a week from musician and composer Gabriel Fauré, who was then deputy organist at Église de la Madeleine. Godebska left school and moved to London temporarily, using borrowed funds. After several months, she returned to Paris, where she took her own lodgings and supported herself by teaching piano to students referred by Fauré. She gave her first public concert in 1892, at the age of 20.

At age 21, Sert married her twenty-year-old cousin Thadée (Tadeusz) Natanson, a Polish émigré and member of a banking family. Natanson frequented the haunts favored by the artistic and intellectual circles of Paris. He became involved in political causes, championing the ideals of socialism, which he shared with his friend Léon Blum. He was a Dreyfusard. The Natanson home on the Rue St. Florentine became a gathering place for such cultural lights as writer Marcel Proust, artists Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Odilon Redon, and Paul Signac, composer Claude Debussy, poet Stéphane Mallarmé, and playwright André Gide. The entertainment was lavish. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec enjoyed playing bartender at the Natanson parties, and became known for serving a potent cocktail— a drink of colorful layered liqueurs dubbed the Pousse-Café.

All were mesmerized by the charm and youth of their hostess Misia. In 1889, Natanson debuted La Revue Blanche, a periodical committed to nurturing new talent and showcasing the work of post-Impressionists known as Les Nabis. Misia Natanson became the muse and symbol of La Revue blanche, appearing in advertising posters created by Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. A portrait of her by Renoir is now in the National Gallery, London.