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NATURALWONDERS HERMÈS PAIRS ARTIST KERMIT OLIVER WITH THE UNTAMED BEAUTY OF THE CAESAR KLEBERG WILDLIFE RESEARCH INSTITUTE. THE RESULT: A SILKEN TEXAN TABLEAU. I t's hard to imagine three more divergent entities: Hermès, the storied Parisian retailer … Kermit Oliver, the native Texas artist adamantly under the radar, working for the post office while making old-master-like masterpieces in his Waco home … And the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, founded in 1981 with an endowment left by its namesake, a member of the King Ranch family who toiled to implement hunting restrictions and save endangered species. Yet, their coming together to create the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Conservation scarf, La Vie Sauvage du Texas, reveals how truly similar they are in their pure, uncomplicated appreciation of the natural world. CONSIDERING KERMIT How does a postal worker from Waco come to be commissioned by one of rue St. Honoré's most famous retailers? Stanley Marcus, naturally. He, along with his brother Lawrence, introduced Jean Louis Dumas, then chairman and creative director of Hermès, to Oliver and his work in the early 1980s, resulting in an Hermès commission to design a scarf, Pani La Shar Pawnee, which came to fruition in 1984. Now, as then, the design succulently imparts the grandeur of what came to be the hallmark of all Oliver's work with the French house: Southwestern themes. Owing to the silk twill's capacity to deeply absorb the colors screened upon it, the stoic chieftain — the scarf's focal point — appears noble, wise and exotic, his face rendered in a symphony of browns and tans. Oliver's ensuing 16 designs for Hermès scarves (with themes running the gamut from The Pony Express to a dreamy meditation on kachinas, "WE SHARE THE SAME PASSIONATE … OBSERVATION OF FAUNA, FLORA AND HUMANITY. THE ENDLESS QUEST FOR BEAUTY AND EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN AND CRAFT." — BALI BARRET, HERMÈS WOMEN'S UNIVERSE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR B Y S E T H V A U G H A N a mythological figure in Pueblo cosmology) further illustrate that his aesthetic was a perfect complement to the medium Hermès revolutionized. In 2010, when it once again felt like an opportune moment to consider what Oliver would dream up next, there was a special interest in his creating a scarf with a uniquely Texan theme. In fact, his second design for the house, Faune et Flore du Texas (initially released in 1987), had shown how enormously substantive Texas could be as the subject for a scarf. A bit of pondering resulted in Hermès president and CEO Robert Chavez flying to Dallas to meet with friends Alexandra and Robert Lavie, who "very kindly arranged a dinner and invited Janell and Stephen J. 'Tio' Kleberg," Chavez remembers. The Klebergs, of course, were perfectly positioned to propose a subject around which their life revolves: the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. THE KLEBERGS: THE KEYSTONE There's a glory and splendor to the earth of South Texas, the terrain so varied and nuanced that one senses it should remain that way for eternity. This mandate — to preserve as a custodian and caretaker — motivated Caesar Kleberg, who died in April 1946, to create a namesake foundation for wildlife conservation in his will. The endowment served as the basis for the founding of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute 35 years later. Such stewardship is hardly surprising, considering Caesar's forebears. His father, Rudolph Kleberg, was a member of the confederate cavalry, a Democratic Texas senator and a United States congressman who called Caesar to Washington to serve as his congressional secretary. Serving others was an unspoken duty. In 1900, Caesar returned to the King Ranch; its surrounding areas came to be known as Kingsville four years later. Here, he would assist his aunt Henrietta Kleberg and her brother, Robert Kleberg (two of the original five King Ranch stockholders), in its transition to breeding cattle more suited to the production of beef. Caesar's legacy would be wildlife preservation. He took action early on to save endangered animals including the white-tail deer, turkey and bobwhite quail, and also introduced the Nilgai antelope, native to southern Asia, to the area. This is the mantle that Janell and Tio Kleberg have assumed. And so, on that evening in 2010 when they found themselves having dinner with Chavez, there was no doubt that if he wanted to do a Texas-focused scarf, no place was more significant, both historically and naturally, than the land the Institute preserves through scientific research. HERMÈS' SILKEN HOMILY Thus, in the spirit of solidarity and shared beliefs, Hermès top brass and Oliver himself were brought down to the Institute to make Kleberg and Chavez's hopes for a new Texas-themed scarf a reality. An extended period was arranged for the team — most of all, Oliver — to spend time in and around the Laguna Madre estuary. The eternally sensitive and stoic Oliver opted to forgo a camera and took in the awe-inspiring biological convergence with his senses alone, trusting his eyes to remember everything. Once at home in his studio, he simply painted, turning inward to compose. The result was the biological cornucopia that reveals itself on the scarf, including the northern bobwhite, the Rio Grande turkey, the puma, the collared peccary and even the Nilgai. Once he had finished, in his modest and mild manner way, the retired postal worker carefully packaged his painting and mailed it to France. THOMAS LEATH COLLECTION, CARE OF HOOKS-EPSTEIN GALLERIES. LIZ COLLINS FULTON DAVENPORT/PWL STUDIO Kermit Oliver's La Vie Sauvage du Texas scarf at the Hermès boutique Tio & Janell Kleberg, Kermit Oliver, Robert Chavez Bali Barret, Hermès Women's Universe artistic director The man himself. Kermit Oliver's Mirror, 2006. Caesar Kleberg COURTESY CAESAR KLEBERG WILDLIFE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION Kermit Oliver's The Pony Express, 1993 Irresistibly PaperCity's monthly look at the products, events, services and more that we find irresistible! Special Promotion 8687 N. Central Expressway, Suite 514 Dallas, TX 75225 214.369.6100 eisemanjewels.com 7310 Lemmon Avenue Dallas, TX 75209 214.350.2000 sewellcadillac.com SuTrA EXCLuSivELy AT EiSEmAN JEwELS From designer Sutra, 3-tier dangling earrings with 33 carats of ruby and four carats of diamonds. ThE ALL-NEw 2014 CADiLLAC CTS The 2014 CTS, Motor Trend Car of the year, presented with the service of a lifetime at Sewell Cadillac. 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