Dusautoy

Dusautoy, the pianist

This entry is for Dusautoy the pianist (carnets 091-102, 1881-1883): a young Conservatoire-trained pianist, friend of Prince Alexis Karageorgevitch and one of Marie's circle in her last years. The Paris tailor Dusautoy of May-June 1874 is a different person: #Dusautoy (tailor).

Who he was. Marie describes him as "l'ami d'Alexis" who "joue admirablement du piano" (095.0323) and as "premier prix du Conservatoire" who "pratique" (099.0226). The diary gives no first name and no dates. In the 1881 entries the name appears as "Dautoy", "du Sautoy" and "Sautoy" (091.0215, 091.0563 and 091.0574: 2, 5 and 7 May 1881), which are read here as the same man; those paragraphs are not tagged to this entry. No record of a prize-winning pianist of that name could be found in the sources searched; his identity beyond the diary is open.

Marie and the pianist. He is first brought by Alexis Karageorgevitch on 2 March 1881 as "son ami Dautoy, grand talent au piano", met at Mme Engelhardt's (091.0215). On 21 July 1882 Marie, whose deafness makes her need constant music to follow conversation, decides that he will be her "musicien assermenté" and that she will put an organ in her studio (095.0323); on 23 July he plays while Estéoule sings (095.0325). From December 1882 he is a regular at her dinners, with Alexis, Bojidar, Julian, Tony and Émile Bastien (097.0218, 097.0335, 098.0216, 099.0181, 099.0267, 099.0558, 100.0296, 100.0327, 102.0320). On 1 January 1883 he plays Chopin's "incomparable Marche funèbre" at the "triste jour de l'an" (097.0335). On 7 January 1883, when Marie is grieving for Gambetta, he "croit que c'est arrivé": he is carried away by her fine phrases and regrets that she is a woman (097.0396). On 14 January 1883, after the soirée, he and Alexis come to explain that they had sent Soutzo to clear himself and are convinced that Soutzo is "fou" and has "abominablement compromis" her (098.0043; see Soutzo). On 22 March 1883 she thinks he has "un petit faible pour moi" (098.0559), and on 27 April she contrasts her own ability to learn a piece by ear in two days with that of Dusautoy, a Conservatoire first-prize winner who practises "avec une conviction qu'il n'a pas et n'aura jamais" (099.0226).

On 3 May 1883 she plans to have him play at a coming dinner for the architect Émile Bastien and his brother "pour qu'il y ait du bruit" (099.0330), but on 9 May Marie finds him unwelcome at a republican-artistic dinner with Clovis Hugues, "seulement pour faire des potins" (099.0382). On 30 April he is at the costume ball at the Faleyeffs' with Alexis and Bojidar (099.0267); in July she hears his whistle through the speaking-tube from the antechamber to the studio and for a moment hopes it is the architect Émile Bastien (100.0381). On 4 December 1883 he and Saint-Amand make indecent jokes at table which Marie, because she is not supposed to understand, cannot silence (102.0431). He is last named on 4 December 1883.

Related entries

Sources

Diary References

Notes

Part of the musical/artistic circle around Mme Engelhardt's salon. Further research needed on identity and career.