Anne Gavarni - Hermès Scarf Designer Profile

Born on August 16, 1922, in Bois-Colombes, France, Anne Marie Suzanne Chevallier-Gavarni was a talented artist who came from a prestigious lineage. She was the great-granddaughter of Paul Gavarni, a renowned 19th-century illustrator, and the granddaughter of Pierre Gavarni, an accomplished painter and lithographer.

Anne spent her childhood and adolescence in Vence, a small town in southeastern France, where she developed her artistic skills under the tutelage of her father, Jean Edouard Chevallier-Gavarni. At the age of 15, she moved to Paris to study and work in various artistic fields, including textile design, illustration, and ceramics.

In the late 1950s, Anne Gavarni began exhibiting her artwork in Paris under the pseudonym Mélusine. Although her first exhibition was not a commercial success, it led to her collaboration with the luxury fashion house Hermès in the 1960s. Over the years, she designed Hermès scarves, drawing inspiration from a range of subjects, such as zoomorphic vegetables, mushrooms, and dewdrops.

Some of Anne Gavarni’s most notable designs for Hermès include Animaux légumes, Les champignons II and La rosée.

In 1964, Anne Gavarni held another exhibition in Paris titled “Architecture of Other Worlds” under her real name. Despite the lack of media coverage, her career continued to progress. She explored various artistic techniques, including etching, and participated in several art exhibitions throughout the years.

In 1965, Anne married a French engineer of Russian origin, Robert Dautray, but the couple divorced in 1980. Although their marriage was marked by financial and legal disputes, Anne continued to work as an artist.

Throughout her life, Anne Gavarni exhibited her work at various galleries, including the Naïfs and Primitifs gallery in Paris, where she remained under contract from 1981 until its closure in 1997. Her artwork, characterized by its poetic, sensitive, and heartfelt nature, was inspired by her childhood in Provence, her garden in Neuilly, and her strolls along the Seine in Paris.

On May 1, 2014, Anne Gavarni passed away at the age of 92 in her home in Neuilly-sur-Seine, leaving behind a legacy of artistic excellence and a deep connection to her family’s heritage.