Even without her Wayfarer glasses, she is still recognizable among thousands: with her long red hair and elegant head, Louise Ebel seems to have come straight from a painting. One hesitates about the era: the woman who defines her style as "inspired" could just as easily be living in a painting by Martial Raysse, a member of the New Realism movement of the 1960s, as she could be born under the brush of a 19th century Pre-Raphaelite artist.
Louise inaugurates our series of portraits of inspiring personalities. Meet Louise.
Louise Ebel / Miss Pandora
Without quite knowing it, she invented, along with others, a profession of the future: content creator. Louise opened her blog Miss Pandora in 2009 and quickly used her visibility to share her love of art, history and fashion. Her feminist convictions too, forming the essence of her first book Excessives! Destins of Incredible Women in the 19th Century. Louise Ebel's version of Les Culottées .
Louise and the 19th century have a great love affair, as evidenced by her selection of jewellery. Ready to discover it?
Egyptomania
As a child, she dreamed of being an Egyptologist, so what better avatar than our ring with an Egyptian profile! By the way, do you know theEgyptomania ? Following Napoleon's campaign, the Europe of the First Empire rediscovered and fantasised about the Egypt of the pharaohs, which had a strong impact on the decorative arts and jewellery.
Victorian jewellery
Louise expresses her fascination for the 19th century in these terms: a period that is both near and far, and which contains the seeds of all the elements of our modern society. Of course, not everything is up for grabs: starting with the outright misogyny - which has not been totally eradicated two centuries later! But we can easily project ourselves into it in terms of aesthetics, for example. For example, the figure of the snake very popular in the 19th century, has not aged a bit. And neither has our period jewellery! A ring with coiled snakes, a necklace adorned with garnets and acrostic braceletLouise is going for a total ophidian look.
Symbolism
Man Ray, The Marquise Casati, 1935, Paris, Centre Pompidou © Man Ray Trust / Adagp, Paris
Miss Pandora is a sort of modern-day Casati. In fact, when selecting our poison ring, Louise tells us that the marquise attended a vernissage wearing an incense ring and that she spread its perfumed fumes.
The opal, with its "phosphorus" reflections, also reminds him of decadence and fin-de-siècle symbolism, whose favourite themes are, among others, mysticism, dreams and esotericism.
Glyptic
She is hardly better known for her work than as the sister of, and for her passionate relationship with, Auguste Rodin. Friend, lover, muse. Yes. And sculptor. Mostly. It was not until the 1980s, almost half a century after her death, that the artist was rediscovered. And still, the spectre of Rodin lurks. It is undoubtedly for this reason, in addition to the sensitivity of her work, that Camille Claudel is dear to Louise Ebel. When it comes to sculpture in jewellery... she couldn't resist our cameo adorned with diamonds and fine pearls!
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Louise continues to explore casual sexism in the arts, which will be the subject of an upcoming book. Discover her world, her blog and her account Instagram.