ALBERTO SPADOLINI AT JOSEPHINE BAKER’S COURT Château de Brignac 2015

THE IMAGINARY MUSEUM
ALBERTO SPADOLINI
AT JOSEPHINE BAKER’S COURT
Château de Brignac 2015
The Castle of Brignac (Seiches-sur-le-Loir)
Translation: Rosella Simonari

First floor
Spadolini inside the Castle, 1950s (P. Oger Collection)
Le danseur Spadolini & Joséphine Baker
“Paris still remembers the night it discovered Spadolini” ,
runs one of them. “It was at one of Josephine Baker’s
revues. To the music of Cimarosa’s Secret Marriage,
against a background that looked vaguely Chinese,
Spadolini emerged as though from some eighteenthcentury
painting, together with Josephine, dressed as a
Creole marquise. It was a marvellous sight, greeted with
enthusiasm by le tout Paris.”
Article published in Paris, 1940s

Studio Piaz: «Joséphine et Spadolini» 1932 (Mei Collection)

Spadolini, 1933
“There was a group of friends at the Casino de Paris,
including the naked dancer Spadolini – although, on this
particular occasion, he was clothed,” wrote Josephine
Baker in her Memoirs, compiled in 1935 by the writer
André Rivollet.
It is no coincidence that Rivollet should have singled out
Spadolini for mention at the beginning of these ‘Memoirs’.
The two dancers were inseparable, on stage and off, in the
show at the Casino de Paris, and in the tours of Europe.
Rosella Simonari “In Search of Alberto Spadolini”,
Ballet-Dance Magazine 2006

Condé Nast: «Joséphine Baker» 1930s

Joséphine Baker: «Theater des Westens – Nachtkabarett », 1920s
Josephine Baker herself tells us of her secret war: enrolled by the
French secret services as the Second World War broke out, she is
given the task of bringing information of vital importance
transcribed on the music sheet with invisible ink: “…she is
thought to have transferred to Portugal all the information gained
on the German army in the east of France. The information
included location of air bases, harbours and landing crafts. The
information was related to a possible attack against Gibraltar…and
to the expected landing in November 1940 of Abwehr II’s agents
on the Welsh coast.”

Joséphine Baker, 1920s

Federico Fellini: «Joséphine Baker» (courtesy of Vincenzo Mollica)
His encounter with Josephine Baker was as magical as his debut in the
dance world, and it is recounted by the Flemish magazine “De Dag”.
She was looking for a new partner in her shows, and when she saw
Spadolini performing, she chose him to dance with her at the Paris
Casino. As some newspapers articles ironically underlined, Baker was
looking for a dancer and she had found a painter. Between 1932 and
1935, Spado’, as he was called, and Baker performed together in
several shows such as “La Joie de Paris”, “Hawaii” and “Créole”.
Rosella Simonari “In Search of Alberto Spadolini”,
Ballet-Dance Magazine 2006

«Spadolini» Gerval paper mill, Belgium, 1930s

Spadolini and Joséphine Baker in a drawing by Pierre Payen, Casino de Paris, 1933
“When Spadolini made his appearance as Josephine
Baker’s new partner, many people saw it as a revelation.
Though ‘partner’, perhaps, is not really quite the word: in
part because he is at his finest when he dances alone, drunk
on his own particular genius.”
Jean Barois, Paris Midi, 1933

Paul Colin : «La Revue Nègre », 1927

Spadolini: «Casino de Paris», 1933
VARIETY NEW YORK - 27 December 1932
“Revue du Casino de Paris. Outstanding factor in the Revue
in Spadolini a male dancer. He’s absolute Knock-out here
and got repeated ovations.”

Jean-Gabriel Domergue: «Joséphine Baker», 1936

Spadolini et Joséphine Baker: «Les Folies du Music-Hall», Jacques Damase, 1960
“In 1931 we find Spadolini in the French Riviera: paintsmeared
and sweat-soaked, he was painting the set for a
dance hall when, all of a sudden, he began to dance as if he
had been possessed by a divine power. He abandons
paintbrush and palette and becomes “Premier Danseur de
l’Opéra de Monte Carlo”. He is acclaimed as the new
Nijinsky, performs with Mistinguett and Serge Lifar, makes
Picasso jealous of him, runs away with Jean Renoir’s wife,
but does not disdain to appear in charity shows to honour
the Garibaldini from Argonne and the War Mutilated and
Crosses.”
Bolero-Spadò 2007

Joe Pazen: «Spadolini», Palais de Chaillot, Paris, 1946

Vedettes, Paris, 1941
Alberto Spadolini, here portrayed among international dance
stars, has been defined: “…a man supported by secrets!” by
director Anton Giulio Bragaglia.

Photo Cayeb: « Spadolini », Bruxelles, 1930s

The Dancing Time: «Spadolini at the Prince Edward Theatre», 1934
LONDON (THE ERA) - 3 March 1934
“Spadolini, scores in an international dancing act of
distinct merit.”

Spadolini & Tatiana Riabouchinska, 1930s

Vogue: «Spadolini, the dancer and his shadow», photo Hoyningen-Huené, 1933
VOGUE - April 1933
“Spadolini … He has brilliant technique and great beauty
of movement and pose …”

Studio Piaz: «Spadolini», Paris 1932

Illustrated: «Spadolini, Apollo of the Dance», 1947
ILLUSTRATED – LONDON September 1947
“Spadolini appeared at the London Casino in 1938, and Britain
will see him again on television with the ‘London Ballet
Company’ during the coming winter. He has been called the
‘Apollo of the Dance’, and likened to Nijinsky, the great Russian
dancer. He fills theatres in Paris, New York and South America.
He is doubly an artist for, after his dawn practice, he retires to his
Montmartre studio and becomes a painter.”

Condé Nast : «Spadolini», Casino de Paris, 1933

Harry Meerson: «Bolero-Spado», Paris, 1930s
CHICAGO III. DAILY - 14 December 1934
“Spadolini, an Adonisian poseur.”

Spadolini: «Casanova», 1930s (Pierre Barlatier De Mas collection)

Maurice Seymour: «Spadolini », Chicago, 1935
BOSTON DAILY RECORD - April 1935
“Spadolini, is a sensational novelty … such as you will
seldom see on an American stage.”

Studio Piaz: «Spadolini», Paris, 1932

Photo Cayeb: «Spadolini», Bruxelles, 1930s
STERN (VARIETY NEW YORK) - 4 December 1935
“Spadolini, who combines a remarkable body with real
dancing ability does an excellent number.”

Studio Roger Carlet: «Spadolini», Paris, 1930s

Spadolini, 1930s (Pierre Barlatier De Mas collection)
THE NEW YOR TIMES – 5 July 1936
“Spadolini, a young Italian dancer, is reported as having
achieved renown at the Royal Opera, Rome, and the Casino
de Paris. His New York début recital is to be made up of
excerpts from various Italian ballets, and such independent
items as a modern machinery number ‘Toscanini’ and
‘Chinese Opium Smoker’.”

Studio Piaz: «Spadolini», 1930s

Condé Nast: «Spadolini», Casino de Paris, 1933
THE AMERICAN DANCER – 1938
“The American Premiere of the ‘Paris Exposition Ballets’
with Spadolini, dancer and choreographer of the Monte
Carlo Opera, will be staged in Los Angeles for three
performances in January. Spadolini brought here under
contract to MGM, will bring his principal dancers,
costumers and orchestrations from Paris.”

Spadolini: «Le Martyre de Saint-Sébastien»,1930s

Studio Piaz: «Spadolini», Paris, 1933
“My friends think I am mad because I prefer contracts that
allow me to travel and experiment all the arts instead of
those that pay me a lot of money. Money has never
interested me!”
Alberto Spadolini

Maurice Seymour: «Hermes - Spadolini», Chicago, 1935

Corbellini: «Le danseur Spadolini», 1939 (Pierre Barlatier De Mas collection)
“Spadolini personnifies a poet’s dream.”
Max Jacob

Photo Cayeb: «Spadolini», Bruxelles, 1930s

Spadolini and Nati Morales, Paris, 1933
DANCE MAGAZINE – 1947
“Spadolini back from the United States and ‘en route’ to
South America, danced Ravel’s Bolero for the 200 th time
at the Palais de Chaillot this month.”

Photo Roger Carlet: «Spadolini danse menuet de Lulli», 1930s

Spadolini and princess Leila Bederkhan, Palais de Chaillot, 1949
“At the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, Spadolini performs with an
exceptional exotic dancer, Kurdish princess Leila Bederkhan. As the
New York Times highlights, a series of homicides and various
mysterious deaths transformed Leila in the last heiress of the
Bederkhan’s dynasty. Precisely because of her religious dances, that,
according to some fanatics, represent a true profanation, Leila receives
death threats from Istanbul, Cairo and Kurdistan.”

Spadolini and Yvette Bouland, 1930s

Second floor
Countess Yvette de Marguerie inside the Castle of Brignac (P. Oger collection)
Spadolini was a painter, a decorator, a sculptor,
an illustrator, a restorer, an actor, a director, a singer…
“Alberto Spadolini begins his activity as set designer assistant
and painter at the ‘Teatro degli Indipendenti’ in Rome, a meeting
venue for the Italian artistic vanguards, where artists and
intellectuals like Giorgio De Chirico and Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti often met. At the end of the 1920s the Theatre closed for
pressing financial problems and Benito Mussolini’s pressure, as he
badly tolerated that group of young people who had nicknamed
him ‘the violinist’.”

Spadolini: «Portrait de l’Artiste par lui-même», 1940s (Ghassoul collection)
“Mythological, mystical and fawnous! Visions of Spadolini.”
Paul Valéry

Spadolini: «Étoiles de l’Opéra n.1», 1950s
“Spadolini’s pictorial research is the transfiguration of the soul
of dance which expresses the profound vibration of his
characters, portrayed through synthesis and the emotional
inspiration of the moving bodies. This artist truly works on this
matter taking inspiration from the sensitive universe,
transforming it with his genius that comes from his heart and
soul”.
Jean Cocteau

Spadolini: «Le Jongleur», 1940s

Spadolini: «Satyricon», 1960s
“Nature imitates Art” used to say Oscar Wild. Is not painter
Spadolini the marvellous juggler who calls upon our curiosity,
excites our sensibility, thus revealing that which only ve could
not perceive? In his compositions, Spadolini carries us away
with him to his discoveries and reveals to us our own Universe.
He will have delivered us as delivers himself.
Prince Felix Youssoupoff

Spadolini: «Le Visage de l’amour», 1940s

Spadolini: « Variation romantique », 1960
“Once more this year, I find again with pleasure Alberto
Spadolini, whom I knew as a student of Vlaminck and Derain, at
the Salon des Indépendants, ‘where his art becomes a magical
conscious dream, where reality is transfigured by rapture …
where to understand is to limit the object, where to guess is to
discover its extension’, as he himself expressed it!”
Marcel Rouault, “La Semaine à Paris” 1972

Spadolini: «Duilio, la première leçon de danse», 1947 (P. Oger collection)

Spadolini: «Sérénade de Schubert», 1960 (Mario Spadellini collection)
Interestingly, he created a whole series of paintings inspired by
ballet, with fluctuating ballerinas in white long tutus surrounded
by curtains whose shades of light and darkness followed those of
the costumes. This topic is very significant with respect to the
kind of dancing he performed. He was a music-hall dancer, but
from his paintings it seems that his aspiration or his ideal of dance
was ballet, and precisely, Romantic ballet.
Rosella Simonari “In Search of Alberto Spadolini”,
Ballet-Dance Magazine 2006

Spadolini: «Charlotte Bara», 1972 (Conti collection)

Spadolini: «Groupe dansant», 1950s (Mario Spadellini collection)

Alberto Spadolini and Liane Daydé inside Volinine’s studio, Paris, 1950s

Spadolini: «Lungo la Senna, in lontananza Notre-Dame», 1965
“Nevertheless, Spadolini’s success continued both as dancer
and painter. Wherever he was touring, he also tried to find a
place to exhibit his paintings, and even when he no longer
danced, he continued to expose his work. We have a record of
an exhibition he organised in Brussels at the Galerie Rubens in
1955, titled “La Danse”, probably featuring his dance series
paintings
Rosella Simonari “In Search of Alberto Spadolini”,
Ballet-Dance Magazine 2006
.

Spadolini: «Notre-Dame de Paris», 1940s

Spadolini: «Place Vendôme» Paris, 1950 (Andrée Lotey collection)

Spadolini: «Sacré-Coeur», Paris, 1949 (Andrée Lotey collection)

Spadolini: «Splendeurs de la mer», 1950s
Spadolini had left his hometown, Ancona, to go to Rome and study
as painter. After debuting in the studio of Vatican painter Gian
Battista Conti, he joined the Bragaglia group and began to expose his
work and create his own set design pieces .. He liked painting the
natural landscapes of Marche with its nice hills and countryside,
towns such as Ancona, and dancers. He was a figurative painter who
was more inspired by Venetian artist Canaletto rather than Futurist
painter Balla.
Rosella Simonari “In Search of Alberto Spadolini”,
Ballet-Dance Magazine 2006

Spadolini: «Ida Romagnoli Spadolini», 1960s

Spadolini: «Fermo», 1950s (Stefano Travaglini collection)
Spadolini: «Campagne des Marches», 1954

Spadolini: «Fleurs n. 2», 1950s

Spadolini Exhibitions: Paris, Luxembourg, Bruxelles, Stockolm
“Spadolini was familiar with various people in the diplomatic
world: at the 1955 vernissage, organised in occasion of the
exhibition sponsored by his friend, prince Felix Yussupov at the
‘Galerie Bradtké’ in Luxembourg, a lot of important people took
part: Pierre-Alfred Saffroy, French plenipotentiary ambassador,
and the representatives from the delegation of the United States,
Great Britain and Italy.”

Spadolini: «Venise», 1940s

Spadolini: «Fontaine de la Vie - décoration du Château de Brignac» (E. Duval collection)
“Spadolini begins a relationship with countess Yvette de Marguerie
owner of Brignac’s Castle, active member of the ‘Mouvement National
des Croix de Lorraine’, Charles De Gaulle’s anti-Nazi society. In this
small provincial castle important figures from the aristocracy and
international politics come, like the Russian prince Felix Yussupov and
princess Irina, the duke and duchess of Windsor, the Prime Minister
Giovanni Spadolini (who was distantly related to Spado’), André
Malraux, one of the great French intellectuals, repeatedly elected
Minister and a trustworthy man for De Gaulle.”

Spadolini: «Sculptures: Hands», 1950s

Spadolini: «Les Sources de l’Orgueil», 1952

Spadolini: «Libre arbitre», 1957

«Détail du tableau Marie-Madeleine» restored by Spadolini in the 1940s
« Spadolini worked as a restorer in the Paris studio of Jules
Boucher »
Bolero-Spadò, 2007

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo School: «Saint-Antoine de Padoue et l’Enfant Jésus»,
restored by Spadolini, 1940s

Spadolini: “Le jour se léve”, 1939
« Spadolini acted with Jean Gabin and Jean Marais… »
Bolero-Spadò, 2007

Spadolini: “Marinella”, 1936

Spadolini: «Nous les Gitans», 1951 (Cinémathèque française collection)
At the beginning of the 1950s Spadolini worked as director
of some documentaries, among whom there are, “Rivage de
Paris” featuring gypsy guitar player Django Reinhardt;
“Souvenirs d’Espagne” featuring flamenco dancer and
singer Carmen Amaya; “Nous le gitans”, shot in Andalusia.

Spadolini : « Nous les Gitans », 1951

Léonide Massine: «Tales of Hoffmann», London Film, 1951
“Spadolini … adapter of dialogues for the London Film (the film
“The Tales of Hoffmann” with Massine and Tchérina received
an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1951), short film director
and scriptwriter with Carmen Amaya, Django Reinhardt, Suzy
Solidor ...”

Photo Hartcourt : « Le chanteur Spadolini »
“Spadolini possesses the sense of the modern so rare on the
stage and yet so rich in possibilities. Besides he also sings in an
agreeable and good voice and possesses the diversity of gifts the
Music-Hall requires.”
Petit Parisien

Third floor
«Spadolini», 1930s
Le monde fantastique de Spadolini
“Here a once legendary figure emerges from unfair oblivion
to strike again. He is Alberto Spadolini an Italian dancer who
cut a dash in the Paris of the ‘golden years’ alongside muses
such as Mistinguett and Josephine Baker, and intellectuals
such as Jean Cocteau and Jean Marais, offering his perfect,
athletic nakedness to the public and earning the nickname
‘the living Rodin’.”
Franco Maria Ricci, 2007

Alberto Spadolini: «Yvette de Marguerie», Château di Brignac, 1950s

Notre Cœur, « Prince Charmant», Paris 1941

Paris, 14 July 1937
Spadolini, Suzy Solidor, Marianne Oswald, Raoul Guérin (Canard Enchainé), 1930s

Corbellini: «Spadolini», 1940s (Corbellini collection)
Spadolini is involved in the anti-Nazi Resistance too. In an
article published in 2007, Jean-François Crance remembers
“…his war [was] generous, dangerous, reckless!”

Bérard: «Brochure Ballets Russes», 1937

Henri Matisse: “Brochure Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo”, 1938

Jean Cocteau: “Brochure La danse à travers les âges », 1945

Enrique Juvet: « Bolero-Spado », Paris 1933

Zig : «Brochure Casino de Paris », 1931

Brochure «Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo», 1940

Paul Colin «Brochure La Joie de Paris» with Joséphin Baker and Spadolini, 1932 – 1933

Picasso: «Picasso with nude Dora Maar», lithograph n. 62, Suite Vollard, 1956
Picasso: «Minotaur with Dora Maar», lithograph n. 83, Suite Vollard, 1956

Dora Maar: «Spadolini», Paris, 1935

Marlène Dietrich, 1930s
“Spadolini, if I had been a dancer, it is you that I would have
wanted as my partner.”
Marlène Dietrich

Photo Piaz: Mistinguett

Advertisment for the cabaret, Chez Spadolini – l’Amiral, 1948 (P. Oger collection)
“Spadolini is commonly called the Apollo of dancing. He has
conquered Paris, New York and the big cities in South
America. His lodgings are in Montmartre. In order for him to
train, the French authorities have let him use the Palais de
Chaillot along the Seine, near the Eiffel Tower. After Serge
Lifar’s fall into disfavour, due to his performance for Hitler’s
troops during the German occupation of France, Spadolini is
now considered the number one …”.

Spadolini : «Meillers voeux», 1950s (Mei collection)

Joe Pazen: «Spadolini danseur et peintre», Parigi, 1946 (Buades collection)
The Italian journalist Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino let us know about
an interesting exchange he had with the head of Intelligence Hugh
Montgomery
“…Years ago Hugh Montgomery – maybe the brightest head of
Intelligence I have ever met - asked me if the agent Spadolini was a
relative of the Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini … I
answered that I had no information on the matter.
“Is he still in the field?”
“Honestly, I have never heard about such an agent…” I observed.
“Brilliant!”
“What do you mean, brilliant?”
“I mean brilliant Spadolini: the best agent is the one whose existence
you can’t even guess.”

Joe Pazen: «Spadolini danseur et peintre», Parigi 1946 (Pierre Barlatier De Mas collection)

Last photographic image of Alberto Spadolini, autumn 1972 (C. Petix collection)
Recently some photographs arrived from France, portraying
Alberto Spadolini in 1972, the year he died. He poses as if he
were playing the role of a … spy. In the first photograph his long
white dress and sunglasses recall Lawrence d’Arabia. In the
second, he wears an elegant suit, expressing a heroic and ironic
glance. In the third one he is about to open a door, his eyes once
again hidden by turbid sunglasses…with Spadolini nothing
happens by chance !

Spadolini, Château de Brignac, 1950s (P. Oger collection)
“Spadolini, ambassador of Italian art in the world, with his
luggage and a cigarette eternally lit on his mouth, in the act
of leaving for a new adventure.”

IN THE CASTLE PARK
Concert «La Joie de Paris»
“Nicoletta Fabbri Quintet”
Spadolini: «Château de Brignac», 1950s (P. Oger collection)

Nicoletta Fabbri: «Sous le ciel de Paris», 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZzIyB2baNvM
NICOLETTA FABBRI voice
STEFANO TRAVAGLINI bass and double bass
ROBERTO STEFANELLI piano
GABRIELE ZANCHINI accordion
ROBERTO MONTI guitar
www.albertospadolini.it