Prince George Yourievsky Interview

Breakfast With Aristocrat

We are sitting in a cozy and welcoming atmosphere of the restaurant of Hotel George V hotel in Paris, where I invited one of my close friends: a hereditary aristocrat His Servirene Highest Prince George Yurievsky, a grandson of Emperor Alexander II. These days he lives in Switzerland. In due time Prince George introduced me in many of European Houses and acquainted with quite a few prominent representatives of the European aristocracy, who consequently became my clients and contributed to developing of my taste and style.

I asked Prince George to talk about the formation of taste in the current world. As he is a bearer of tradition and has impeccable taste in everything starting from the manner of behaving and dressing to refined interior, Prince George is definitely the man who can tell much about this. Prince George Yourievsky gave an interview to FCCA.

I need hardly say that I told him in advance that I would like to use the information he shared on our Foundation bearing my interets.

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Prince George Yourievsky Interview

Prince George Yourievsky Interview

About taste, its meaning and place in the outlook.

P.G.Taste is something that distinguishes an aristocrat from a bourgeois. It is certainly an aristocratic quality, as one of the functions the aristocracy has is to select the matter, which is considered the best and the most valuable from the perspective of culture, and pass it to next generations. Why do we have an opportunity to look at pictures by Raphael or Leonardo da Vinci? It happens because the aristocracy managed to see their true value and these works have been handed down from generation to generation.

Had the governing class of that time lacked taste, we would inherit the works of second-rate artists, who can be found at any epoch.

People say: “There is no accounting for taste” and my usual response to this is

“For people with taste there is no accounting for taste”.

P.G. Yes, it is a popular statement now, but the question at issue is whether any taste exists there at all. The taste is not personal preferences, as it is the sense of proportion, relatedness to tradition, existing patterns; it is the ability to make subtle distinctions, as well as the ability to sense subtle vibrations.

Do you think that the taste is something that can be developed?

P.G.I think it can be developed. Of course, not everyone needs it, but those who by their nature are able to make subtle distinctions can and should develop their taste. When I was a child, I was taught to look and look, and look at pictures. After such long practice you suddenly start seeing differences and understand what is good and what is not. It is true for everything. At first you just distinguish Bach and Beethoven, and later you are able to understand differences in interpretations of the same performer at different times.

The simplest way to form the taste is certainly inside the family. But the important thing is the taste of aristocrats is integral by nature, it is one of basic personal qualities and extends to every area, whereas the intellectuals deal with differences only within their own narrow specialization. Let’s say, an intellectual has taste in literature or in another field, but in his daily graft and every other field such intellectual is surrounded with aesthetic darkness. But as for the highest social layer of the intellectuals, if it can be classified as intellectual at all — the Bohemians — they certainly have taste.

Such an interesting opposition of the intellectuals and the aristocrats. Do they differ in any other manner?

P.G.They are just two different worlds. But I can say that another difference of an aristocrat from an intellectual is that the intellectual makes judgments about the world through moral categories, whereas the aristocrat — through the lens of decency. Herewith, the aristocrat is not obtrusive, otherwise another time others will avoid you, but it is common for the intellectual to obtrude his or her opinion on the world, thinking that he/she is the focal point and standard for others.

What are distinctions between the bourgeois sense of taste and aristocratic ones? For example, let’s compare the ways of dressing of these two social classes who are close by their material position, yet distinct mentally.

They differ in everything. They have a different attitude to the luxury. An aristocratic taste is more strict and ascetic. The bourgeoisie, on the contrary, prefers showing their luxury off. The entire market of pricy jewelry lives on the bourgeoisie. For an aristocrat a new thing means that you have no history.

I will explain by an example. In London there is White’s Club: it is the most respectable members-only private club for gentlemen

at St James’s Street. Members of this club are representatives of the British upper class, which is very class - specific by itself. Money cannot buy you membership in this club.

However, the interior decoration of the club cannot be called luxurious — on the contrary. The interior of bourgeois clubs, which accept the Third Estate representatives — tradesmen and business merchants, who by White’s rules are not admitted there —, is much more luxuriant.

In addition, dress code rules are unalterable in the aristocratic circles. An aristocratic man cannot appear in public open collar or unshaven — it is mauvais ton. Herewith, the clothes do not have to be very expensive;

the most important thing is the sense of proportion. Bourgeois ladies and gentlemen do not always know when enough is enough. However, some representatives of the bourgeoisie are reaching out for aristocratic patterns.

Naturally, not all of them, as the present-day mass culture offers a great many of more informal alternatives. It also depends on the society, for example, if the aristocracy is the ruling class in England, it will set some

guidelines, but there is nothing like this in democratic societies. Do you know how to discern a neophyte entering this path? He is always walks through a social equation aloud, whereas an aristocrat immediately solves it in mind. I mean that they will continuously explain you why some event is proper or improper; you will continuously listen to evaluations given to real events happening and the whole algorithm of these evaluations;

it is tiring.

An aristocrat looks at the world, makes conclusion and smiles politely, as he regulates his social peace through distance. Why do you need to talk about arithmetic if you have a doctor’s degree in mathematics?

How do you tell an aristocrat from a plain elegantly-dressed man with good manners?

P.G.I think that the first thing is relaxed and natural posture, and absence of any strain. Your body can give you away. If you have been in this environment since your childhood, you will be relaxed as everything is common for you.

While our ladies are sitting at the reception with straight faces, just because they visualize the high society this way — dramatic and arrogantly strenuous — Duchess Castro is already on the dance floor.

Naturally, elegant people can be also found outside the aristocratic circles, as well as people with taste, there is no direct correspondence here. Some time ago in England aristocratic manners were introduced down the social ladder and the dandyism phenomenon emerged — people who did not belong to the upper class, yet they had good manners and the sense of style and opposed to the vulgarity of world contemporary

to them.

What examples made such outlook form in your mind?

P.G.. From my observations. I was lucky enough to communicate with the brightest representatives of the aristocracy abroad, as well as to observe the representatives of European aristocratic families in close vicinity. And, as you have notice, the intellectuals are around us since birth.

What another bright quality may be observed in these circles?

P.G. Irony. As well as equally even attitude to people of any class, whether it is a laundress or the queen. But irony can border on sarcasm and when used in excessive amounts, it can hurt. Can you say that the inner peace of the interlocutor is more important for an aristocrat than the irony by itself?

No one annulled the sense of proportion, as for the aristocrats, their sense of proportion and distance is rather developed.

Let’s return to the sense of taste, which is the measure of everything. It was asked to leave the world of the contemporary art, don’t you think?

Let’s say that for the contemporary art the meaning of an art work is much more important than its aesthetic value. Roughly speaking, a green booklet, which is placed near an installation to explain its gist, the meaning

of an artistic gesture, which comes to the fore, is becoming the most important thing in this installation. So you do not need to know how to write to become popular and well-sold. Meanings specified in this booklet are quite a different matter. As a rule, they are not especially deep and at time even primitive. Not Lao-tzu. But this is the fashion.

A more curious matter is that the adoration of the contemporary art is similar to a religion, and its apologists are rather intolerant. When you say that you are surprised at the price tag with six zeroes for a school

board smeared with chalk, they declare a crusade against you. Once a pretty clever man tried to convince me in Facebook that a toilet bowl for me was just a toilet bowl, and a piece of poop as an installation was just a piece of poop, and I failed to understand the depth of secrets it conveys.

So it goes, I am not interested in these secrets. The human kind has accumulated a great many of secrets which are much deeper.

So we face this strange intolerance.

P.G. Something, which is called “contemporary art”, exploits intellectual vanity of clever, yet unwise people. It offers them a mind game around something evident and primitive, promoting the status of these objects with the help of a green booklet and guarantees the boost of the apologist’s self-esteem. Besides, all this copies technologies of a standard sect, where they explain you that you are selected and you can access some

secrets, which are inaccessible for outsiders. Your ego is boosting: you can access something inaccessible for common people, you are not the crowd, and you are selected. It is very appealing, isn’t it? People are glad to soothe their ego.

What is more, the language of that green booklet is really incomprehensible for general public. That is what the contemporary art relies on. And when you get surprised at ornamented school board, the one who is in on the secret is growing in his own eyes as he knows that it is more than a plain board! And he hopes that you do not know that.

But there are also those who keep the market and sets prices. I think that they are free from sectarian moods they exploit so successfully. And I will not be surprised to learn that they purchase Rembrandt and de Goya for themselves. For example, I would like to visit the house of Charles Saatchi.

Is he the owner of Saatchi Gallery?

P.G.Yes, he is one of the key figures on the market of contemporary art; he sets up artists in life.

You need to have a well-developed taste to form your surroundings, don’t you? What are your criteria for selecting a company and interlocutors?

P.G. You know, with people it is different. People are not furniture or a Rolls-Royce car, which is good just because it is beautiful. If to speak about my close circle, I appreciate depth. It is interesting when people have something I lack, it is attractive. Aesthetics does not mean much here. You cannot forget that at times our destiny makes its own choice, as the life is wiser than we are. If to speak about the social environment, it is certainly interesting to communicate with people of your circle, I mean people with common interests, those who are at the same wave length with you. I like people who are connoisseurs in taste shades, either in English boots, performances of the Bolshoy Theater, Russian Empire style,or Pu-erh factory Pu Wen.

When this interest is not professional but based on the taste to different sides of life. And a woman with an exquisite taste? There are very few of them, each one is like a gift of the destiny. For some reason to have a taste in everyday objects is considered as something exclusive and cost consuming, but it is just an excuse for a bad taste. In addition, if a person can distinguish lots of shades in everyday life, it is more difficult for him to slide back into the black & white world view. At least, you should be interested in flavor shades of your national cuisine, not everyone needs to be great on rubies from Burma, which

is anyway never amiss.