"A Frenchman in Camelot: The Decoration of the Kennedy White House" Boudin, Stephane" 1995 Abbott, James A.

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ABBOTT, James A.

[29] pp.

1995

10 3/4" x 8 1/2"

An Exhibition at Boscobel Restoration

Stéphane Boudin (28 October … Read more ABBOTT, James A.

[29] pp.

1995

10 3/4" x 8 1/2"

An Exhibition at Boscobel Restoration

Stéphane Boudin (28 October 1888 – 18 October 1967) was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.

Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy to join American antiques expert Henry Francis du Pont of the Winterthur Museum and interior designer Sister Parish in the renovation and restoration of the White House from 1961 to 1963. After Boudin impressed the first lady with his initial work in the Red and Blue rooms, Mrs. Kennedy gave him increasing control of the redecoration project, to the consternation of du Pont and Parish.


The Dining Room at Leeds Castle, designed by Boudin for Lady Baillie c. 1935.
Jansen is known for designing interiors for Elsie de Wolfe, Henry Channon, the royal families of Yugoslavia, Belgium and Iran, the German Reichsbank during the period of National Socialism, and Leeds Castle in Kent for its last owner, Olive, Lady Baillie. Boudin also decorated Les Ormes, the Washington, D.C. home of Perle Mesta, the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, and her sister, Marguerite Tyson; the house and its furnishings eventually were purchased by Lyndon B. Johnson. The Johnsons hired Genevieve Hendricks to integrate a touch of Texas into the Boudin decor because, as Time quoted Johnson as saying, "Every time somebody calls it a château, I lose 50,000 votes back in Texas." See less