Books: Angel of the Arts

MISIA: THE LIFE OF MISIA SERT

by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale; Knopf; 337 pages; $16.95

What a life Misia Sert lived! Fauré gave her piano lessons. Ravel dedicated La Valse to her. Stravinsky presented her with the score of Le Sucre du Printemps. Diaghilev made her his ally; she was the only woman with whom he could feel intimate. Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Vuillard, Renoir, Vallotton painted her, sometimes obsessively. Cocteau modeled the heroine of his novel Thomas l'lmposteur on her. In the masterly hands of Proust she became two people, Princess Yourbeletieff, the young sponsor of the Ballets Russes: "One might have supposed that this marvelous creature had been imported in their innumerable baggage, and as their most priceless treasure, by the Russian dancers." Proust also used her as one of the inspirations for Mme. Verdurin, the far less sympathetic social climber. Then the magical synthesizer introduced his Misias to each other: "Mme. Verdurin's strength lay in her genuine love of art, the trouble that she used to take for her faithful, the marvelous dinners that she gave for them alone ... a sort of official representative in Paris of all foreign artists, was not long in making her appearance, by the side of the exquisite Princess Yourbeletieff, an aged Fairy Godmother, grim but all powerful to the Russian dancers."

On the evidence of this graceful, knowing, unpretentious new biography, it is hard to think of Misia as grim, but as usual Proust captured the essential truth. For 40-odd years she was the godmother of European artists. She came to maturity in the Belle Epoque, "a beautiful time for those who were privileged," and she brought zest, taste, a tart tongue and plenty of money to a role she never tired of. If she was a climber, the mountain was Parnassus.

The Thursday afternoons spent with Fauré were a highlight in a very lonely childhood. Misia's father, Cyprien Godebski, came from an ancient Polish family. He traveled around Europe sculpting public monuments and seducing women: at the time Misia's mother was pregnant with her in Belgium, her mother's own aunt in Russia was also pregnant by Godebski. Having trekked to St. Petersburg alone to confirm this monstrous news, Mme. Godebska died in childbirth. Misia grew up mostly in Parisian convents.