EDINBURGH.- Jewellery and silver belonging to the daughter of the famous French society painter Paul Cesar Helleu, one of the models for a central character in Marcel Proust’s monumental novel ‘In Search of Lost Time’ (sometimes known as ‘Remembrance of Things Past’),’ is to be auctioned at Bonhams in Edinburgh on 2 March. Born in Paris in 1904, Paulette Howard-Johnston (née Helleu), who died in 2009 aged 104, was one of the 21st Century’s last links to the Belle Époque, the world of Proust’s novel, which ended abruptly on the battlefields of the First World War. The writer drew on his friendship with Paulette’s father in creating the character of the painter Elstir whose work provides a constant point of reference and reflection throughout his multi-volume masterpiece. Paul Cesar Helleu, painted
