On 30 November 2021, Joséphine Baker was awarded the Order of Pantheon. Her exceptional life and the radiance she radiated have left their mark on the modern imagination.
A dancer from an early age, in the United States and then in Paris, a successful singer and actress, she sparked a new interest in jazz and Afro-American culture in France in the 1920s and 1930s; she quickly established herself as a figure of the avant-garde, a muse for the artistic and architectural scenes of the inter-war period.
Interested in modern architecture – which, she believed, was conducive to the serenity of body and mind – Joséphine rubbed shoulders with architects such as Adolf Loos, who designed a strange striped villa for her in 1928, and also Le Corbusier, who fell under her spell during a famous meeting in 1929 on the transatlantic liner Lutétia, during which he drew a series of portraits.
Josephine Baker and Le Corbusier on board the liner Lutétia, 1929
Paul Colin, Bal Nègre poster for the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, lithograph, 1927
The world’s first black star and a committed artist, Joséphine Baker used her fame to support the anti-fascist and anti-racist struggles during and after the Second World War.
“Modern Living” by Gerard & Kelly at the Villa Savoye. From left to right, Damontae Hack, Kehari Hutchinson, Matthieu Barbin, Emara Neymour-Jackson, Jasmine Sugar and Julia Eichten. Photographer Martin Argyroglo – Credit F.L.C./ADAGP, Paris.
“Modern Living” by Gerard & Kelly at the Villa Savoye. Kehari Hutchinson. Photographer Martin Argyroglo – Credit F.L.C./ADAGP, Paris.
