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Jeanne Toussaintoussaint
Jeanne T

Cartier’s Petite Panthére

by Maxine Carter-Lome, Publisher

woman who revolutionized Toussaint and Cartier
contemporary jewelry” is how Paris was the center of fashion in the early 1900s, and
“ACartier describes jewelry at the center of it all was Monsieur George Barbier. Barbier,
designer Jeanne Toussaint in the 2019 a quiet and reserved young man, was known for his
film series, entitled L’Odysée de Cartier. collaborations with fashion designers, in particular through
Born in 1887, Jeanne Toussaint (1887- publications such as the Gazette du Bon Ton, Modes et
1978) was the daughter of lacemakers from the Mariners, Vogue, and more. Designers such as Lanvin, Jeanne
south of Belgium in the city of Charleroi. She Paquin, and a young Coco Chanel collaborated with him on
grew up with handmade goods surrounding illustrations of the dresses they had made.
her and knew quality from a very young
age. Although her small family of four
(Jeanne, her parents, and her sister) was not
wealthy, their specialty was fine lace, so the
Diamond, Emerald, Onyx topics of fashion and style were always part
Panthére ring by Cartier
of her life.
By the time she was a teenager, Jeanne’s
father had passed away and her mother had
taken in a German lover, at which time she
and her sister ran away. Charlotte, her older
sister, wound up in Paris, while Jeanne headed to
Brussels at the (not-quite-ripe) age of 15. There, she
became the lover to an older man, the Count of Quinsonas,
who was from a family with a military history dating back hundreds of years, and
who was also a pedophile who had abandoned
his station with the army and was living in
Brussels, exiled from France, with this
innocent young girl. Toussaint spent three
years with the Count in Brussels before he
returned to his post with the French army,
taking her with him to Paris, and then
discarding her due to the demands of his family.
Toussaint found herself drawn to the
intoxicating streets of Paris, where art, design, George Barbier, Panthére, 1914
and societal connections were currency. She In 1913, Louis Cartier commissioned his friend Barbier to
quickly became known as a stylish and creative create a watercolor painting to be used as an invitation to a
ingénue with wit and determination. It was jewelry exhibition. Designed in what would become the Art
this charisma that landed her in social circles Deco style of the 1920s, The “Dame à la Panthère” reflects a
with the likes of famous fashion designer Coco modern, worldly, and alluring woman adorned with long
Chanel, illustrator George Barbier, and most sautoir necklaces and pearls, with a sleek black cat at her feet.
crucially, Louis Cartier, one of three brothers This image is thought to be the first connection between
managing their late grandfather’s company, Cartier and the panther, and perhaps the first public
Cartier. It was these relationships that Portrait of Jeanne Toussaint acknowledgment of Louis’ relationship with Toussaint, his
changed Jeanne’s life forever. by Paul César Helleu self-declared muse.

Title image: Cartier, 2014, Panthére bracelet, gold, diamonds, onyx, emeralds, private collection

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