Episode 60 - The Ladies of Manet

Manet, like most painters, had many models they worked with. Manet found women that not only sat for him but also inspired him. Berthe Morisot was a young art student that had the looks of the dark haired Spanish beauties he was obsessed with. Morisot became an accomplished artist herself and married Manet’s brother, creating a devoted family of artists. 

Victorine Meuret sat for him in his most scandalous and famous paintings. Naked and looking at the viewer pulling them into the world of a courtesan and a picnic by a river. In one of his very last paintings, he depicted the real life waitress at a popular Paris music hall. 

The paintings of these three ladies are linked to Manet’s history and live on for generations hanging on the walls of the museums of Paris. In this week's podcast we explore these beloved images and the women behind them. 

In 1862 Edouard Manet walked into Thomas Couture’s studio and met a young girl. Couture would teach Manet & Henri Fantin-Latour and feature many young models. On this one day, Victorine-Louis Meurent was in Couture’s studio when Manet arrived. She was just 16, with red hair and nicknamed La Crevette and would go on to become the muse for some of the biggest artest at that time. He would paint her for the first time in The Street Singer, with her piercing eyes that we would come to know so well in two of his most famous and controversial paintings. 

Victorine Meuret, was called many names including La Crevette for her red hair. Her hair is the last thing you notice in the two paintings she is so widely known for, Olympia and Dejeuner sur l’herbe. When these two paintings appeared at the Salons of 1863 & 1865 he shocked Paris. The naked woman in a contemporary setting caused a backlash that followed him for years, yet today there are just a few of his beloved pieces and always garner a crowd in the Musée d’Orsay. 

Dejeuner sur l’herbe 1863

1863 Salon 2783 of the 5000 submitted were rejected 

Inspired by Raphael’s Judgment of Paris painted in 1518 and hanging in the Louvre. As a certified painter in the Louvre he would often visit and one day said “It seems that I shall paint a nude. Very well I shall paint one”, adding “people like those you see down there”. Manet knew what he was going to do was risky “the public will rip me to shreds, but they can say what they like”. 

Le Bain as it was originally called included Victorine Meuret and his family. In the Judgment of Paris, Raphael on the right depicts Neptune holding his trident. Manet used the same pose for Ferdinand, the brother of his over Susanne Lehoff replacing the trident with a cane. It is also the same pose as Adam from Michelangelo’s Creation. Dressing the men in modern day Second Empire clothing. 

Today it is widely accepted to be Victorine but it is more likely that he used his lover Suzanne Leenhoff. However at the end he would use the face of Victorine to conceal the woman he was in a secret relationship with. It was his way of going after his father who is believed to have also had an affair with Suzanne. Keeping it all in the family.  Victorine, the water nymph looks straight at you like in Raphael’s. 

In the foreground is a basket spilled out with figs of September and cherries of June laying on her discarded dress. Behind her to the left is either Eugene or Gustave, both sat for him for the painting and in the river behind it is believed to be Victorine as well. 

When Manet painted this monumental piece in 1862, much like his painting Olympia, this one also was met with much controversy. Rejected from the Salon and displayed at the Salon des Refusés with his other Impressionist friends in 1863, the subject of a nude woman sitting between two fully clothed men was a scandal for the time. Although, Émile Zola proclaimed it “the greatest work of Édouard Manet

She would sit for him a last time in 1873  for The Railway before they parted ways. She would sit for Toulouse-Lautrec and Degas while she chased her own painting dreams. Sadly only two of her paintings remain at the museum in Colombes. Other than Berthe Morisot, Victorine is a beautiful face we know so well from the brush of Manet and I never miss a chance to stand in front of her and admire such a stunning piece of art and a more amazing woman.

Manet kept it until 1878 and sold it to singer Faure for 2600 francs. In 1898 Durand-Ruel bought it and shortly after sold it to Moreau-Nelaton who loaned it to the Universal Exhibition in 1900. Moreau-Nelaton donated his collection to the Louvre and hung in the Pavillon Marsan of the MAD and now Dej is in the Orsay

Olympia 

One of the most recognized paintings of Manet, is surely Olympia, the painting that caused quite a stir at the 1865 Salon. The naked woman was a usual subject in art as far as we can go back to cave drawings but it was the look on Olympia’s face, the pose of her body and the implied job that she has that made a few turn their heads in disgust. Manet painted Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe the same year as Olympia and used the same model for both, Victorine Meurent . Victorine as Olympia is laying on a bed of crisp white sheets and oriental shawl beneath her, with a beautiful heeled slipper on, one discarded and laying on the bed. The flower behind her ear, the gold bracelet on her arm and the black ribbon and jewel hanging around her neck all give the impression of a seductive and wealthy Parisian courtesan. 

For Olympia, Manet gave every aspect of the painting the same importance. 

The cat, a symbol of prostitution, the gaze on her face that seems to say “next” and the bouquet flowers that are just as vibrant as the oriental shawl beneath her naked body.  For over one hundred years, it has always been known simply as Olympia, with no name given of her maid that is presenting her with flowers from what we assume is a client. The exhibition finally gave her a name, Laure. Laure posed for Manet three times after meeting him while walking through the Jardin des Tuileries. 

Her name is only known today from a diary Manet kept, and only her first name and her address in Paris. “Laure, a very beautiful black woman, 11 rue Vintimille 3rd floor” written around 1862. 

Given the name Olympia, a name associated with prostitutes and the many small elements that hint at her wealth, many of which transferred over to the model herself. Victorine was nothing close to the woman in the painting, Born to a well established artistic family she would become an artist herself and present her work at the Salon in 1870.

However it was Manet that painted her and gave her the “invisibility”, but with Laure we get a better impression of what the entire painting is trying to tell us. With the addition of Laure, Olympia now has high social standing as a courtesan. Laure presents the flowers of her gentleman caller, giving a slight bow as she enters the room. 

Olympia would stay in the procession of Manet hanging in his studio until his death. Claude Monet would purchase it from his widow, Suzanne and give it to the Musée du Louvre. An image many know so well, went from the hand of one master to another and then lucky for us, on view to share with the world. It’s breathtaking to see up close and no wonder it has been copied many times by other artists including Cézanne. Cézanne took a spin at Olympia with a behind the scenes glimpse before Manet took to the canvas. 

Manet kept the painting in his collection until his death, put up for sale the reserve was not met and Suzanne thought of selling it to an American. Monet got word of that and couldn’t let Manet’s masterpiece leave France. Gathering artists and collectors more than 19,415 francs was raised, just shy of her asking for 20k francs. She agreed to sell it to them and then Monet went to the Louvre to ask them to purchase it. The refused and it took many years before the Lux agreed to take it into their collection as it didn’t meet the ten years after the artist death rule for the Louvre. 

On January 6, 1907 it hung in the Louvre in the Salle des Etats next to Ingres’ Grand Odalisque. It would be moved to the Jeu de Paume that housed the Impressionist before the Orsay was eventually built, and hung in a place of prominence. Today in the Orsay she is in a darker room off the main alley 

Berthe Morisot met Manet in the Louvre where she was learning how to paint as a copyist and he was captivated by her and wanted to paint her immediately. Le Balcon painted in 1868 showcases Morisot sitting behind the iron railing holding a fan, but my favorite is her portrait. Berthe is shown in black mourning clothes with a very small bouquet of violets, painted in 1872. 

Berthe Morisot with violets 1872

Berthe Morisot, one of the few women of the Impressionist Movement, with her dark locks and stunning gaze, was the perfect model for Édouard Manet.  However, she would become an artist in her own right stepping behind the canvas to create paintings that showed everyday family life, forging her own path among  the male dominated Impressionists    

As a girl, Berthe and her sister Edma would visit the Louvre as art students and spend their day copying the great masters.  Artist Henri Fantin-Latour took his friend Édouard Manet one day to the Louvre to meet Morisot who was copying a Rubens painting. It would be the start of a very long friendship. Following Manet’s shocking  the Parisian Salon with Olympia and Déjeuner sur l’herbe he was looking for  a new model, and Berthe would have everything he wanted. In 1868, Manet painted The Balcony for which Berthe would pose after much apprehension. Being a model for an artist was not the profession for a woman of society in Paris at the time. Continuing to work with Manet for six years, he would capture her many times including his hauntingly beautiful painting, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets that can be seen in the Orsay. Painted in 1872 Morisot is in black mourning attire after her father's death. You almost miss the violets as you are so drawn to her striking face. 

Morisot and Manet had a relationship built on great respect and love between two artists. In 1874, she would marry Édouard’s brother Eugène Manet, a marriage that would give her the time to focus on her art.  Painting the simple moments of a woman’s everyday life and those between a mother and child often outside under the trees or in an open field.  Her soft inviting images rivaled that of many of the men of the Impressionist movement. 

In the end of his life, suffering the effects of syphilis and an amputated leg, he painted one more masterpiece. Un Bar aux Folies-Bergère, look closely and see much more than what she is looking at. Behind her and to the side tells the story of the high point of the Belle Epoque. 

Listen to all the details and so much more about these three ladies and Manet in the newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway.

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Episode 59 - Dora Maar

Dora Maar from the end of her life until today is widely labeled the “Muse of Picasso”. As with most women in history they are relegated to being a postscript in a man's story, Dora was much more than that. 

Born on November 22, 1907 Henriette Markovitch in Paris at the Tarnier Maternity Clinic at 89 Rue d’Assas. Her father Joseph was a Croatian architect and her mother Louise-Julie Voisin from Cognac and owned a fashion boutique. In 1910 she headed to Buenos Aires with her parents for her fathers job and returned to Paris a few years later. Enrolling in the Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs and l’Academie Julian in 1923 and 1927 one of the few that allowed women artists. 

Photography was her art form and from early on her eye for details gor her into the exclusive clubs of artists. A meeting with Pierre Kéfer and Louis Chavance would lead her to Man Ray who she asked to work with. Man Ray hired her as a model instead and she was able to work closely with the Surrealist and learn many of his tricks.

In May 1931 she officially went by Dora Maar and photographed fashion houses for magazines and publications to pay the bills. Her more artistic work garnered her a place in the Exposition Intl in Brussels for her solo work and collaboration with Kéfer. 

In December 1935 on a cold night at Les Deux Magots sitting alone and stabbing a knife between her open fingers she caught the eye of Picasso. He was instantly taken with her and her bold personality. Dora was at the top of her game and the peak of her career, Picasso was in the depth of his. Unable to paint or be inspired but that all changed the night he met Dora. The two began a relationship that would last eleven years built on a trust between two artists that inspired each other. Picasso painted her many times including his series of the crying woman. 

In the final two years of their relationship, her mother died, her father left and she flung deep into depression and manic episodes. Picasso paid for her care and gave her a house in the south but she would spend the rest of her life in seclusion away from the world. 

Listen to her full story and so much more in the newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway. 

Episode 58 - La Goulue

Louise Joesphine Weber is remembered more for her adoptive name La Goulue and how she got the name. Born on June 12, 1866 in Clichy the love of dancing was instilled in her at a very early age by her mother. By 1882 she had moved to Montreuil and started dancing at the Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre. 

Customer and journalist Charles Desteque noticed her and introduced her to a friend, Charles Zidler who would later play a prominent role in her life. In the meantime she continued to dance at the  many bal musettes in Paris including the Closerie des Lillas, Elysees-Montmartre and the Bullier Bal. 

Charles came back into her life in 1889 when he and Joseph Oller were opening a new stage in Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge and asked Louise to be their headline dancer. Of course she jumped at the chance and in no time she was the hit of the stage with her signature move. At the height of the can-can she would turn her back to the audience and lift her skirt revealing her many layers of ruffles later captured by Toulouse-Lautrec. 

A perfect duo was created when Louise partnered up with Jules Etienne Edme Renaudin, aks Valentine Montagné, who was also called “the boneless” for his fluid dance moves. The two performed together at the Moulin Rouge from 1890-1895. Toulouse-Lautrec was as much a part of the Moulin Rouge as the can-can and could be found nightly sketching during the show. In 1895 he created his first lithograph “Dance at the Moulin Rouge” with Louise as his subject. The poster made Louise and Toulouse-Lautrec famous overnight. More than 3000 posters filled the streets of Paris. TL would capture her in four paintings and many posters creating a lasting friendship. 

Louise is better known as La Goulue, the glutton in French and is due to her habit of walking through the crowd and guzzling down the drinks of patrons sitting in the crowd. La Goulue danced until 1895 when she left the stage and became a lion tamer, I can’t make this up. 

In her later years she could be found walking the streets of Montmartre with her lion on a leash and selling cigarettes outside the Moulin Rouge . 

There is so much more to her life, be sure to listen to the newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative Podcast.

Episode 57 - Liane de Pougy

Liane de Pougy at the end of her life was labeled “from whore to nun” but I am getting ahead of myself.  

Anne Marie Chassaigne was born June 2, 1869 in La Flèche in the Loire and raised in Brittany. On July 15, 1886 at 17 she married Joseph Armand Henri Pourpee who was a naval officer living in Marseille. Ten months later on May 15, 1887 Marc Marie Edmond Armand arrived; however the marriage wasn’t ideal. Joseph would be gone a lot and Anne Marie filled her time with another man. 

Suffering from frequent attacks by her husband that left scars on her chest for the rest of her life, it all culminated one night when he discovered her with her lover. He pulled out his pistol and shot at her, nicking her wrist. Anne Marie couldn’t take it much more, sold her piano, left her son with his father and his parents and moved to Paris. 

In Paris she began taking dance lessons from Marie-Therese Mariquita and changed her name to Liane de Pougy. Dancing in the cabarets of Paris she was quickly noticed for her striking beauty standing out in any crowd she stood in. Playwright Henri Meilhac was drawn to her and got her a job dancing at the Folies Bergeres in 1884 and also taking the stage of the Olympia. 

Wanting to achieve more she took acting lessons from Sarah Bernhardt who told her that she didn’t have any talent and she should “open her mouth only to smile”. As many of the women who danced on stage she also became a courtesan. Her beauty made her one of the most popular courtesans in Paris of the 19th and early 20th century. Maurice de Rothschild was known to shower her in jewels and gifts. Another famous courtesan, Valtesse de la Bigne taught her the finer points of their chosen profession resulting in an affair between the two in the later years of Valtesse’s life. 

As a muse for artists and composers she began her own venture into the creative life by writing. L’Insusive, her first novel was the story of courtesan Josiane de Valneige. Followed by five more novels  including a comedy L’Enlizement. 

In 1908, she met the Romanian Prince Georges Ghika who was the nephew of Queen Nathalie of Serbia. Fifteen years younger than her and a prince by name but without much money to his name. The two married on June 8, 1910 at the Église Saint Philippe-de-Roule in the 8e. The next day it was on the front page of the New York Times. “Paris professional beauty marries Prink Ghika, who championed her”.  

The Prince came across her one day in Saint Germain while being laughed at by a group of people, Liane was wearing a rather large hat and people gathered around her pointing and laughing on the mean streets of St Germain. He stepped in to uphold her honor and got into a scuffle resulting in his arrest for assault. 

The marriage between the two was good until 1926 when he decided he would leave her for the young Marion Thiebaut who had also been the lover of Liane for a short time. She was allowed to cheat on him with other women, but never men. He left until he heard she was going to file for divorce and to avoid a scandal he returned to her but it was never the same again. 

In 1928 they went to Grenoble where she met Mother Superior Marie Xavier of the Sainte-Agnes Asylyn and institute for disabled children. She threw herself into raising money for the institute and tapping into her wealthy friends back in Paris to assist. Staying closely aligned with the church she later in 1943 took the vow of Saint Dominic and changed her name again to Sister Anne Marie de la Penitence. 

On April 19, 1945 Prince Ghika died and she moved to Lausanne Switzerland. Staying in the Carlton Hotel, she rarely left her room and on December 26, 1950 she died. Buried in the Saint Agnes chapel of the Saint Martin Le Vinoux cemetery. The woman that lived so many different lives always followed her own voice. 

From 1919 to 1941 she kept a detailed diary that was later published in 1977, twenty-seven years after her death as My Blue Notebook.

Episode 56 - Madame de Sévigné

Madame de Sévigné, one of the greatest authors of the 17th century, never wrote a single book. Instead she is known to us today as a “lady of letters”. 

Marie de Rabutin Chantal was born February 5, 1626 in the Palais Royal home of her grandparents. By the time she turned seven both of her parents had died and was being raised by her grandparents and uncle Christopher. He would teach her latin, italian and spanish when she was quite young and turned her onto the great literature of the time rarely afforded to girls. 

In 1644 at 18 she married Henri de Sévigné at the Église Saint Gervais and two children followed. Françoise in 1646 and Charles in 1648 but the marriage would be short lived, Henri was quite the philanderer and had a difficult time keeping it in check  and it would end in his death. On February 5, 1651 his life would end in a duel. Challenged by François Amenieu over Mademoiselle de Gundron, one of his many mistresses. He didn’t fare well and died as a result. 

Madame de Sévigné at 25 became a wealthy widow which gave her a place in society few women could reach. Men would pursue her but she had no interest in getting married again. To fill her time she attended the salons and events of Paris and began to write letters to friends and family describing the scene and travels of each day. Women could rarely be published unless under a man's name and while she enjoyed the process she couldn’t be bothered worrying about how ro publish, so she took to her letters. 

In 1669 her daughter Françoise married Comte de Grignan  who was a widow twice over and much older than she. Their marriage would take François from her mother and Paris to the south of France and the Chateau de Grignan. On February 6, 1671 the first of over 1000 letters sent to her beloved daughter began. 

Each letter served as a snapshot of her life in Paris and the actions of each day. So descriptive and interesting, Françoise began to read them outloud where everyone anxiously attended. Once Madame learned of this she began to compose the letters with even more drama and excitement creating a performance with each page. They became so popular people began to copy them and send them to others. 

Sévigné mixed with the elites of Paris and was widely adored which got her into many events including the execution of two women involved in the Poison Affair, that she would note in detail within the letters. 

In the spring of 1662, the trial of her friend Nicolas Fouquet began mesmerizing all of Paris for a year. Attending the trial she detailed every moment in her letters making them one of the few eyewitness accounts. After his imprisonment she continued to send him letters that woul be intervened by Louis XIV. Worried her rather flippant tone may get her in trouble. Instead he was fascinated by her and invited her to court including the fete of the year The Pleasure of the Enchanted Island party. 

Held on May 7 to 13, 1664 the lavish event was dedicated to Anne d’Autriche, mother of Louis XIV but was actually a party to seduce one of his mistresses Louis de la Vallière. Molière, Lully, serperentant of music for the king, garden architect Andrea Le Notre had only a few weeks to put together something to please the king who fancied himself an actor. 

The Pleasure of the Enchanted Island was the story of Alcine and Roger. Alcine was a seductress who would charm soldiers and then trap them. Roger fell under her charms and while in jail became her lover. Roger of course was played by the Sun King dressed in red velvet riding a horse draped in gold and jewels followed by a 25 foot long golden chariot of Apollo. 

In 1677 Sévigné moved into the Hôtel des Ligneris, that would one day become the Musée Carnavalet  and sitting on the street that bears her name. Continuing to write letters she traveled between Paris and her daughter in the south of France where she would die on April 17, 1696 at 70 years old and buried in the Église Saint Sauveur of Grignan. 

After her death her granddaughter agreed to publish 28 of her letters. Heavily edited by the publisher the originals were then destroyed. The first three editions of the book constantly changed, In 1734 more than 600 letters were published and in 1754, 772 letters. In 1834, a professor on holiday in Dijon discovered 320 letters written to her daughter and would be published more than a hundred years later in 1953. Today 1120 letters have been published, mostly in French but some have been translated and can be found online. 

The Chateau de Grignan has been turned into a bit of a museum for her and her daughter with a few of the original letters on display. 

With the long-awaited reopening of the Musée Carnavalet, her former home, a painting by Claude Lefèbvre  and many of her objects can be found today including a few of her letters. 

 Listen to the newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway today. 

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Episode 55 - Jeanne DuVal

Jeanne DuVal was the beautiful muse of Charles Baudelaire and would inspire his  glowing devotion. The Black Venus and Mistress of Mistresses as he called her is mostly unknown still to this day. 

Much of the details of her life are murky due to a fire that would destroy her vital documents. Born in the 1820’s in the Dominiquine Republic or Haiti, her grandmother was a slave and her mother took Jeanne and her brother to Paris to work in the brothels. 

Jeanne was tall and beautiful and her striking looks got her a role on the stage. Performing at the Théâtre de la Porte Sainte Antoine, although she wasn’t the best actor. A girl has to eat, so she became a prostitute for a short period. Nadar, the French photographer saw her on the stage and the two began an affair that lasted a year.  It was through Nadar that Jeanne and  Baudelaire would meet, but their love affair didn’t start right away. 

One night in Montmartre Baudelaire came across Jeanne being harassed by a group of drunks and stepped in to save her. After that the two began their 20 year tumultuous relationship. Baudelaire was already working on Fleur de Mal when the two began. Jeanne would inspire the flowery devotions of love and when things were bad would also inspire the hate filled pieces.  

Fleur de Mal (Flowers of Evil) covered everything from the transformation of Paris, which he was highly against, lesbianism, eroticism and love. Many people loved it but just as many hated it. Baudelaire and his printer were prosecuted for “attack on public morals”. 

Baudelaire lived all over Paris, including the sought after Hotel Lauzun on the Ile de la Cite and he rented a place for Jeanne just down the island on Rue le Regrattier. When they went through rough patches it wouldn’t last long. He would be at her apartment giving her money and spending time together much to his mothers chagrin. 

In 1859 Jeanne was paralized on the right side of her body and shortly after started to go blind. Baudelaire was there and paid for her care at the Maison de Santé Dubois and later in an apartment in Neuilly. Calling himself her caretaker at this point of their relationship.  

Baudelaire’s close friend Edouard Manet painted a portrait of Jeanne after seeing her only once. The “Mistress of Baudelaire” 1862 captures Jeanne seated on a couch with her legs up and enveloped in a large white skirt. Her arm over the back of the couch and her feet are placed in a strange way due to her paralysis, which many may never notice as the skirt shields most of her. 

Their relationship would finally end around this time and she would die sometime shortly after. The painting stayed in his possession until his death in a sense Jeanne stayed with him those final five years before he died in 1867.

Episode 54 - Nélie Jacquemart

Nélie Jacquemart was an artist and art collector whose love of art remains today in Paris. 

Cornélie Barbe Hyacinthe Jacquemart was born July 25, 1841 in Paris. Her father worked for Alphée Bourdon de Vatry who was a wealthy politician and stock broker. Shortly after her birth he passed away and she and her mother continued on with the Vatry family and living with them in their grand home on Rue de Londres. 

Alphée married Rose Agusta Émilie Paméla Hainguerlot and was drawn to the young Cornélie. Unable to have children of her own she imparted her love of art and culture on Cornélie who soaked it all up. Armed with art supplies she started to draw, encouraged by Rose who was also able to enroll her into a workshop given by artist Léon Cogniet, one of the few artists to give lessons to women. 

In 1858 while attending the social event of the year, the funeral for Malka Kachwar, queen of Oude Nélie which she now went by, was sketching the people in attendance. An editor for L’Illustration newspaper saw her sketches and asked to publish them in their January 1858 issue. A stroke of the right place at the right time for a young female artist. 

It got the attention of the art community in Paris and two years later she was displaying her paintings at an exhibition in Versailles and just after that she was appearing on the walls of the Salon of 1863 with the biggest artists of the time. Her paintings were sold and commissions followed for portraits and paintings for the local churches. Today you can still find her paintings in the Notre Dame de Clignancourt and Saint Jacques de Haut Pas 

In 1872 Edouard André contacted Nélie to paint a portrait of the wealthy French banker who lived in the grand mansion on Boulevard Haussmann. Edouard had been a member of the military and a member of the protective force for Napoleon III before he turned to the family business of politics and banking. 

At the time Haussmann was cutting through Paris creating the vast boulevards lined with iron lined balconies. Architect Henri Parent, the runner up to Charles Garnier in the competition to design the Opera, would design the classically stunning home to house his art collection. 

Nine years after he first sat for Nélie, the two would meet again and shortly after on June 29, 1881 the two would marry. Edouard was now 48 and in ill health and his family pushed for the marriage and convinced Nélie of the union. There wasn’t a lot of love there but they did get along well and both loved art. Edouard even had one of the large rooms transformed into a studio for her painting but as soon as they were married she put down her brushes and never picked them up again. 

With a keen eye of her own when it came to collecting art, the two began to travel all over Europe, the near east and Asia to collect paintings, objects and furniture. The two happily amassed one of the greatest personal collections in Paris and even went up against the Louvre at auctions that resulted in the purchase of a Rembrant, The Pilgrims of Emmaus. On July 16, 1894 Edouard died after years of battling syphilis. His former will had given all of his wealth and property back to his family, the same family that encouraged Nélie to marry him. In the last few months of his life he changed it and named Nélie his sole heir. The family was not pleased and took her to court, but his wishes were upheld and Nélie inherited everything. 

In the following years she continued to travel, adding to her personal gallery. On a 1902 voyage around the world when she got word that the Abbey de Chaalis, the former property of Rose de Vatry was for sale. The fondest memories of her childhood centered around this lovely property 40 kilometers north of Paris. Cutting the trip short and just before she was to leave for Japan she returned to Paris and purchased the former abbey. 

The Abbey de Chaalis dates back to 1137 when it was built under the orders of Louis VI. Consecrated in 1219, over time the medieval buildings fell in disrepair and were destroyed and in the 18th century new buildings were added and eventually in 1850 Rose de Vatry purchased the property including the Saint Marie chapel and restored the fresco ceiling. 

For ten years Nélie enjoyed the abbey and filled it with her art and furniture and spent long periods there. On May 15, 1912 Nélie died and left both the mansion in Paris and the abbey to the Institut de France with very specific instructions on how her art was to be displayed. 

On December 8. 1913, less than seven months after her death the Musée Jacquemart André in Paris and the Abbey de Chaalis were opened to the public, left exactly how she intended it. 

The  Musée Jacquemart André is a wonderful museum that features her own collection of art that includes paintings by Rembrandt, Vigee Le Brun and Jacques Louis David. It is a triple threat museum, not only do you get to step into the life of Nélie and Edouard and their personal collection but twice a year they hold wonderful exhibits. 

Her collection includes more than 4000 pieces that are housed between the museum in Paris and the Abbey de Chaalis. The Abbey and it’s grounds can be easily visited, just check the hours before you go. 

Abbey de Chaalis

Musée Jacquemart André

Episode 53 - Ladies of the Louvre part deux

The Musée du Louvre and it’s list of amazing art is endless and hard to know where to even start. We will help share a few pieces that you don’t want to miss on your next trip to Paris. 

The Jardin du Luxembourg is filled with over 100 statues and monuments dedicated to artists. Authors and the illustrious women in French history and for a short period of time Jeanne d’Arc was one of them. Marie de Medici had the palace and garden created to remind her of growing up in Florence but most of what we see today was added long after she was gone. 

In 1848 Louis Philippe commissioned twenty statues for the Luxembourg. He picked each one that went from Queen Berthe to Anne d’Autriche and included Jeanne d’Arc. The Maid of Orleans was sculpted in 1845 by Francois Rude and was placed in the south side of the garden in 1852. In 1871 she was removed for safekeeping and eventually came to live in the Louvre. 

Jeanne d’Arc is normally captured in her armor and charging off to battle, but Rude decided to depict her in a dress with her armor at her feet with her right hand near her ear as she listened to the voices of the saints. 

Eugène Delacroix, the leader of the Romantic movement’s most recognized painting is La Liberté guidant le people, painted in 1830 for the Salon of 1831. The painting commemorates the Paris uprising of July 1830, known as the Trois Glorieuses, that ousted King Charles X.  

Liberty is the focal point of the painting, an allegorical figure rich with Greek imagery. Wearing the Phrygian cap that is worn by Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic and France.  With her right hand, she is holding the tricolor flag of France and her left is a bayoneted musket. Her bare breasts signifies the birth of democracy, charity and motherhood and her free flowing dress conveys her movement as she climbs over the cobblestone barricades calling for all to stand up and fight.  

Using the barricade as a pedestal, her movement evokes that of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, although the statue was discovered long after Delacroix painted this masterpiece. In the top right of the photo, the towers of Notre Dame rise from the smoke with a small tricolor flying in the wind. The painting even inspired Bartholdi when he created the Statue of Liberty, with her right arm holding up a torch instead of a flag.  

Long before there was social media one had to use large format paintings to spread their propaganda. Napoleon was a master at this and when it was time for his coronation he asked Jacques Louis David to capture the event, or the way Napoleon wanted it to be told. 

The Coronation of Napoleon (Le Sacre de Napoléon) is the immense painting that stretches 33 feet across the Pompei red walls of the Salle Daru in the Denon wing. Jacques-Louis David was commissioned by Napoleon himself, and didn't start the actual piece until a year later, with Napoleon making a few specific changes and additions to the painting that were a bit different from the actual event. The biggest being his mother, sitting in the balcony above him. She was not a  fan of Josephine, and was still in Rome and refused to attend, Napoleon asked David to add her.  The original drawing of the Pope had him sitting and looking on and the little Emperor said "I didn't bring him here to do nothing" so he was altered in the final piece to be anointing the ceremony.  Also looking down from above is the artist himself, David added himself into the balcony over the Emperor's mother. There are many other little secrets hidden in this painting, including Jules Cesar. Just behind Napoleon’s shoulder, the Roman Emperor gives Napoleon the side eye as he raises his arms. Napoleon wanted to be aligned to the great Emperors before him and had David add his likeness into this snapshot of history.

Listen to the full episode to learn even more about these three pieces including the jealous sisters that tried to foil the whole thing. 

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Episode 52 - Gabrielle d'Estrées

Gabrielle d’Estrées, a woman known more for her risque painting than of her life itself. Gabrielle was born around 1573, and daughter of Antoine d’Estrées, Baron de Boulonnois and Françoise de la Bourdaisieres. She was one of eleven children, seven of which were girls and gave them the moniker “seven deadly sins” by the Marquis de Sevigné.

Gabrielle mingled in the court of Henri III and where she met Roger de Bellegarde who was close with Henri III and Henri IV. One the occasion that Roger was meeting with Henri IV, Gabrielle was spotted at court and Henri was instantly obsessed. For six months he chased her and she resisted until she finally gave in. 

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Henri IV did not hide his relationship or his love he had for Gabrielle, even in the midst of trying to get his marriage to Marguerite de Valois annulled. To keep her close at court he orchestrated a marriage between Gabrielle and Nicolas d’Amerval on June 8, 1592. To thank him for his role, Nicolas was given the title of Baron de Benais. 

Henri was eager to end the marriage with Marguerite and to marry Gabrielle and asked Pope Clement VIII to dissolve his marriage. Clement had his own ideas and wanted Henri to marry his niece, Marie de Medici and was slow moving on giving Henri what he wanted. 

Always by his side, Gabrielle was instrumental in helping to end the many religious conflicts and converting Henri to Catholocisim in 1593. However, she wasn’t loved by the people who called her the “duchess of garbage” and attacked her spending. Nonetheless, she sat next to Henri on his triumphant return to Paris later that same year. Henri had every intention to marry her and presented her with his coronation ring in front of the court. 

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The union of Gabriele and Henri resulted in three children. Caesar in 1594, Catherine in 1596 and Alexandre in 1598. All three were legitimized in the eyes of the monarchy and the church as Henri’s children. In 1599 she became pregnant again. Each of her pregnancies were very easy, but this fourth was giving her a lot of issues. Sick everyday she struggled everyday for five months. 

On April 6, 1599 she left Henri behind at Fontainebleau, it was just a few days before their wedding planned for April 11, Easter. She cried and sobbed and had to be pulled off of him, on what would be the last time she saw her love. On April 7 she dined with Sebastion Zamet, an  Italian that had arrived in France with Catherine de Medici and was also close with Marie de Medici. That night at dinner when she said she wasn’t feeling well, Zamet gave her a frosted lemon. The next day she began having contractions and pains, she was only 5 months along. 

The baby had already died and doctors tried to figure out what to do as she got worse. After a day her face and neck suddenly turned black leaving the doctors baffled. When word finally reached Henri at Fontainebleau he travelled to Paris as fast as he could but it would be too late. On April 10, at just 26 years old Gabrielle would die, the day before their intended wedding. 

Distraught, Henri planned a lavish funeral at the Eglise Saint Germain l’Auxerrois fit for a queen. Henri dressed in black for months, shocking most as white was the normal color for royals in mourning. A lifelike effigy was created and placed in the room next to his where he would sit with her and eat his meals. 

Gabrielle was buried at the Abbey de Maubuisson where her sister was a nun and her children stayed close to their father.  Less than a year later Henri would marry Marie de Medici. 

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A painting that is sure to always catch the visitor’s eye is the presumed portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées and her sister the Duchess of Villars. There is still a lot that is unknown of this painting, including that of the subject and the artist. Attributed to the Fontainebleau School in 1594, it is believed to be Gabrielle and her sister, the Duchess of Villars who held her nipple between her fingers, which was a gesture symbolizing pregnancy. Gabrielle would have been five months pregnant with the future Duke of Vendome, Henri IV’s illegitimate son. In Gabrielle’s left hand, she holds a ring between her fingers, the coronation ring of Henri– a token of his love and loyalty. In the background sits a woman sewing, could it be baby clothes. 

You can find this painting by following the snickering adults in the Richelieu wing on the 2nd floor in the salle Seconde École de Fontainebleau, room 824.

Episode 51 - Juliette Drouet

The life of Juliette Drouet is closely tied to Victor Hugo, but she wasn’t always his mistress. Born in 1806 and the youngest of four kids that along with her siblings became orphans when she was just two years old. 

Sent  from Fougères in Brittany to Paris to live with uncle René Henri-Drouet who wasn’t prepared for his new role as parent. Off to the convent Juliette went where two of her aunts served as nuns and could help watch over her. Juliette was already a rather headstrong young lady and was a handful and eventually sent back to live with her uncle. Juliette looked back quite fondly on these years when living with Uncle René in Paris and having free reign on the streets of Paris. 

In 1822, Juliette was presented to the Archbishop of Paris for a postulant role in the church. She managed to convince him that she wasn’t  fit for the post and her days in the church were over. These were the days of the artists and authors in Paris and the beautiful Juliette spent time in the Salons and parties mixing and mingling with them all. 

One artist she met when she was 19 years old was James Pradier. Pradier was quickly enamored by her beauty and asked her to model for him. At the same time Pradier was asked to create two of the statues in the Place de la Concorde. The statues over the guardhouses of Lille and Strasbourg fell into the hands of Pradier and he used the lovely Juliette as the face of Strasbourg that can still be seen today close to the Rue de Rivoli. 

Their time together quickly turned into an affair resulting in a child. Claire was born and Pradier refused to take responsibility for her but later Claire would spend most of her time growing up with her father. Pradier had given Juliette a taste of the finer things, showering her with clothes and jewelry and when their relationship ended she found a new way to keep her in the lap of luxury. 

Juliette’s beautiful head turning looks was garnering the attention of Paris, especially the men. In a way to help fund her shopping sprees, a life as a courtesan and on the stage fit the bill. Not exactly a natural actor, but her looks got the attention of the producers and audience and repeatedly got her roles onstage at the Theatre du Parc de Bruxelle in Paris. In 1833 a small role in Victor Hugo’s Lucretius Borgia would instantly catch the famed writer's attention. Mrs. Hugo, Adele even sent her a note that her husband would love to meet her. 

The first six months after they met it stayed very friendly until he couldn’t resist the fiery Juliette who had a reputation as a dominatrix. Toto, as she called Hugo in no time, paid off her debts and rented an apartment for her near his Place des Vosges home on the Rue Sainte-Anastase, but came with a very high cost. Her old ways on stage or as a courtesan had to stop and wasn’t allowed to leave her home without Victor Hugo. 

For fifty years, the two stayed together and she served as his secretary and copied each of his books and articles he wrote. Adele was aware of their relationship and even left in her will that her sons look after her in case Victor died before her. Adele had her own relationship with a former close friend of her husband Sainte-Beauve resulting in their  somewhat open marriage. 

The rules for Juliette were very strict including the need to write him a letter every day, sometimes multiple times a day. However, Hugo had different rules for himself. Many other ladies came in and out of his life including Léonie. Placing an ultimatum on Hugo to end his relationship with Juliette. Hugo refused and broke it off with Léonie, who in turn decided to wrap up all the letters Victor had sent her and to send them onto Juliette. Instead of upsetting her it only drew her closer to him. 

Shortly after, Hugo was forced to exile to Brussels and out of the clutches of all the other women. Juliette set up his papers and a place to stay and traveled with him and stayed nearby allowing them to have a somewhat normal relationship. During his exile, Adele died back in Paris in 1868 and upon his return in 1870 Juliette was finally allowed into the doors of the Place des Vosges home and home on the now Avenue Victor Hugo. 

After 50 years together, on May 11, 1883 Juliette died of stomach cancer, she was 77 years old. Hugo was destroyed and would die two years later.

Episode 51 - Madame de Berry

Marie- Caroline de Bourbon-Siciles, aka the Duchesse de Berry was born in Naples the daughter of the Crown Prince Francis Duke of Calabria and Marie Clementine of Austria, niece of Marie Antoinette. At the time of her birth in 1798 Napoleon was charging his way through Italy forcing the family to flee to Palermo and later pushing them into Sisily. 

Marie-Caroline found her way to France after her marriage to Charles Ferdinand, Duc de Berry son of Charles X. Louis XVIII was in power and without an heir Sixty years old and a widow he declared his nephew his rightful heir to the throne. Charles Ferdinand needed a wife, although he had many mistresses and children in France and England.  The two were married in Notre Dame de Paris on June 17, 1816.

Their marriage would be short when her husband Charles was stabbed as they left the Opera by a Bonapartist. She was two months pregnant at the time. While on his deathbed he revealed his wife was pregnant and also that he had illegitimate children. In September of 1819 De Berry gave birth to a son, Henri “the miracle child” in the Tuileries. Following his death she would move into the Palais des Tuileries into a set of rooms in the Pavillon de Marsan.

In 1830 after the Three Glorious Day in July the family was forced to exile as Charles X was ousted. De Berry believed her son Henri who now took on the self appointed title Henri V should be the king of France. Trying to gather enough support from other legitimate royal family members that she was trying to boost as she exiled to Italy. Gathering an army she quietly returned to France hoping to meet thousands of men who would help her fight for the monarchy. Arriving in Marseille only a small group of sixty men stood up to fight. 

As word spread that she had returned she was a wanted woman.In Nantes she hid in the home of Madame Duguigny across from the chateau of the Duke of Brittany. De Berry met her match in Simon Duetz who had learned of her hiding place and reported to the police who arrived to arrest her. Needing a place to hide she crawled up into the chimney, a great place to hide until one of the men lit a fire. Forcing her out she was arrested on November 7, 1832 and placed into jail. 

The plot thickens when she announces she is pregnant. The exiled royal family got word and turned their back on her. While she said she had secretly wed Hector-Lucichese-Palli, the dates weren’t adding up and was exiled from France to Palermo and her children were left with Madame Royale, daughter of Marie Antoinette in Goritz. 

Her final years were spent between the Chateau in Brunnsee, Austria and in Venice. A large supporter of the arts, she and her first husband had collected over 1000 works of art that she slowly sold off to help fund her life that was mostly spent alone in those later years. On April 16, 1810 she died in Austria at 71 years old. 

The Palais des Tuileries may be gone, but the Pavillon de Marsan still stands and is now part of the  Musée des Arts Decoratifs on the northwest end of the Louvre. Named for the Countess de Marsan who was the governess of Louis XVI & XVIII. She would live in the pavillon that would later take her name before the Duchess de Berry. Today you can walk through the museum and the Marsan that was rebuilt in 1874 and imagine de Berry spending her days painting and supporting the arts. 

A little farther through the museum is a room dedicated to de Berry with a large painting of her by Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet dominating the room. She stands in a green gown in her lavish room and large windows. The room itself is filled with a few of her personal pieces including her Psyché mirror, toilette and fauteuil gondole. The room also features furniture from the period including the lovely bed by Francois Baudry. With the curved lines of the nacelle that were popular during the Restoration and light woods bending the sheets of veneer to master the form.  Presenting his work at the 1827 Exposition he won a bronze medal presented to him as seen in the painting by the Duc d’'Angoulême, the Duchesse de Berry’s brother in law. My favorite thing in this room may be the wallpaper with its column and draping fabric that was just as much a work of art as anything else. Find all these treasures in one of my favorite museum’s permanent collections in the rue de Rivoli end of the Louvre. 

Episode 49 - Ladies of the Louvre

It’s a big day today for Paris History Avec A Hemingway podcast! It’s the 50th episode! It also happens to be my birthday and the same number. When trying to decide who we would talk about for this epic episode it was almost impossible. Then it came to me, it had to be about something in my favorite place to spend a day, the Musée du Louvre. 

The Louvre is filled with thousands of pieces of art, however most people only visit a few when they spend a few hours inside the historic walls. The three most popular ladies of the Louvre, may hang and stand there waiting for the thousands to take a selfie with but they each also have a story. 

The Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world, her image is recreated onto everything but few people know she was a real person. Lisa Giocondo was a Florentine woman married to Francesco who had commissioned Leonardo to paint his wife. They had five children, sadly only two made it to adulthood. When she sat for Leonardo it was just after one of her children died, he captures her in her morning attire. Francesco would die before he could ever pay for the painting and the painting would travel to France with the artist and later bought by Francois I. 

My favorite of the three is the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The majestic headless lady that stands high above the steps looking like she is about to take flight. Discovered in 1863 and dating back to the 2nd century BC. When she arrived at the Louvre in 1864 she was in 118 pieces. Her torso, left wing and lower body were first displayed without any plans to restore her. In 1871 a new restorer took on the task of putting her back together to the beautiful lady we see today. 

The Venus de Milo, may not even be Venus after all. The famous armless figure of beauty could be Amphitrite, goddess of the sea. Discovered by a Greek farmer on April 8, 1820 while looking for some rocks. Purchased for 1000 francs by the Marquis de Riviere on behalf of the French and after much negotiation she was finally sent to Paris as a gift for Louis-Philippe. He gave it to the Louvre, where she has been since 1821. 

Learn even more about these three Ladies of the Louvre on today’s episode available now

Episode 48- Heloise

Heloise, the name that may ring more of a bell as Heloise and Abelard. A couple known as the French Romeo & Juliette long before Shakespeare would write the story. 

Heloise was born around 1092, it is unsure of her actual birthday and can swing into the 1070’s depending on what you read. Heloise would spend most of her childhood raised by her brother and at 11 would be sent to Paris to live with her uncle Fulbert. Her mother had created the Abbey of Notre Dame de Fonteuround in 1101 taking her away from her children. 

Uncle Fulbert served as a canon at the Hotel Dieu de Paris on the Ile de la Cité where he also lived. His house on the Quai des Fleurs looking at ile Saint Louis was large and had room for a few renters so he offered a room to Abelard. Abelard was a school master for the Cloister Catholic School and was known all over Paris for his handsome looks and charismatic personality. 

Abelard and Heloise were taken with each other immediately and to spend more time together he took her on as his personal student. The two began a very hot and steamy affair that they kept from Fulbert. That is until she became pregnant. Abelard took her to Brittany to stay with his sister Dionysis. In the fall of 1116 Astrolab was born. 

Returning to Paris, Heloise and Abelard tried to smooth things over with Fulbert. Abelard proposed they get married, complete against the wishes of Heloise who thought marriage was a form of prostitution and would also hurt his career. 

They wed early in the morning at the Chapel of Saint Christophe which once stood on the parve of Notre Dame. Fulbert was briefly happy with the arraignment, until he decided he wasn’t. In the dark of night he sent a few goons to the house of Abelard and the men castrated him. 

Heloise left Paris for the convent of Saint Marie d’Argenteuil where she would become a nun. Even that couldn’t keep the lovers apart and he would climb a wall for some sexy meetings. Abelard would eventually leave Paris to set up his own convent and chapel and the two would keep in touch through their letters. 

The letters are how we know the tale of the star crossed lovers. The two sent many letters back and forth and included their vows of passion for each other and reminiscent of their “lewd visions” she had of their time together. 

Abelard would die on April 21, 1142 and would be buried in front of the altar of the church he loved, Heloise would live on for 22 more years always thinking of her love. Upon her death on May 16, 1164 she would be buried alongside him. 

In the 16th century their first four letters were discovered and published and broke the story of the lovers to life, Over time more letters were discovered and published drawing a long list of fans including Josephine. 

In 1817, a new cemetery opened in Paris, today we know it as Pere Lachaise, Far outside the city at the time, it was having a hard time drawing people to want to be buried there. The idea was to move some famous residents that would draw others that would want to spend the rest of their lives next to the famous. Josephine led the charge to have Heloise and Abelard moved to Paris to lay together for eternity.

Alexandre Lenoir, the man who saved the monuments of France during the Revolution designed the Castrum Doloris, “castle of grief” a gothic revival structure with the two lying on top of a bed looking towards the sky. Lenoir used stones for the Oratoire du Paraclet that Abelard loved and built at the end of his life. 

Today you can visit the former site of the home of Fulbert on the Ile de la Cité that is marked with a plaque and sculptures of the couple of letters.

Episode 47 - Natalie Clifford Barney

Last week we shared the story of Djuna Barnes and you can’t have Djuna without the story of Natalie Barney,  Natalie was born in October 1876 in Dayton Ohio to a very wealthy family. Raised with an appreciation of art, music and culture from a very young age they spent weekends in museums and author readings. 

One reading while in New York over the summer took a young Natalie and her mother to a bookshop to listen to Oscar Wilde.  While he was speaking a group of young boys began throwing candied cherries at Natalie. When Oscar saw this he picked her up and put her on his knee and read a story to her. Later in life she would date Oscar’s niece. 

In 1887 she went to Paris for the first time with her mother who was chasing her dream of being an artist. It began her instant love affair with France and she would return four years later traveling all over Europe and finally settling in Paris. 

In Spain she met the red headed beauty Eva Sikelianas and fell in love, She had known since she was 12 that she was a lesbian and vowed to live an out and normal life. Natalie had a rather open idea when it came to relationships. She always wanted to date more than one person at a time and wasn’t ever going to be devoted to just one person. 

One dramatic relationship after another some ending suddenly and some with dramatic shows of love before walking away. It became a right of passage for any lesbian in Paris to have spent some time in her bed but not to stay too long. 

Natalie left her mark on Paris with her salons that she held for over 60 years. Every expat  & artist that came through Paris visited her weekly salon from Colette, Rodin, Cocteay, Peggy Gugenheim, Gertrude Stein and Hemingway to name a few. In 1909 she moved to a home at 20 Rue Jacob that came complete with a temple.  

The small Temple of Friendship with its doric columns sat in the garden and if those columns could talk, they would have quite a story. Watching Colette dressed and performed as Mata Hari and the late night parties with naked party goers. 

There is so much more to her life, sit back and listen to today’s newest episode all about her life. 

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Episode 46 - Djuna Barnes

Djuna Barnes, the woman who mingled with the Lost Generation was born in 1892 in New York and would leave her mark in Paris. 

Born into a rather different family, her father had two wives and would later marry Djuna off to his second wife's brother. Shortly after her mother had too much she took her kids and left for New York. There Djuna began working as a writer for the New York Eagle. Not only was she a talented writer but also an illustrator who would draw pictures that accompanied each of her articles. 

In 1921 she arrived in Paris and settled in Saint Germain. She instantly mingled with the newly arriving American expat group and the large group of lesbians that settled in Paris led by Natalie Barney, who will talk about next week. The two had a short affair, which was a right of passage for just about every lesbian that arrived in Paris. Their relationship was short but remained friends as long as Djuna lived in Paris. 

Involved with Thelma Wood while in Paris, the two had a volatile relationship that was very public resulting in arguments due to Thelma’s drinking. After it ended Djuna turned to drinking too much and also wrote the Nightwood based on their love affair and her best known book. She began writing the book sittin in the Cafe de la Mairie across from Saint Sulpice where many other writers would do the same. 

When her drinking became too much, friend Peggy Gugenheim sent her to London and finally back to New York where she would spend time in an asylum. While there she decided to write a play about the dark dirty secrets of her family which didn’t please her family at all. She would spend the rest of her life alone and living like a recluse in her New York apartment and lived until she was 90 years old, dying just 6 days after her birthday June 18, 1982. 

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Episode 43 - Madame du Barry

The list of mistresses of the kings of France is long. For Louis XV, sandwiched between two of the most famous kings might be best known for his many lovers than for the man himself. 

After Madame de Pompadour who we have also talked about, Madame du Barry definitely left her mark on Versailles and a very young Marie Antoinette. Jeanne Bécu was born on August 19, 1743 in Vaucouleurs in the north east of France. Her mother Anne Bécu who was known for her beauty and her father was unknown.  It is thought that her father could be a Franciscan monk, Jean-Jacques Baptiste de Vaubernier. Anne had worked as a seamstress at the local convent and could be where the scandalous act occurred. 

Anne Bécu married in 1749, Jeanne was just six years old and would be sent to the convent in the Latin Quarter. She would stay for six years until she escaped at the age of 15 and wandered the streets selling tiny trinkets out of a box on the streets of Paris. 

Finding a job as an apprentice to a hairdresser, Lametz who she also was in a relationship with until she obtained all of his money and moved on. Later working in a perfume shop and as an assistant to a hatmaker, picking up one odd job after another until one day she met a man at a Paris casino. 

Jean-Baptiste du Barry owned a casino and also a brothel. He was instantly struck by her beauty and knew he must have her. The two became an item but he also convinced her to work as a prostitute and courtesan for him. She was instantly popular with the elite and men at court. Frequent trips to Versailles to see the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Duc de Choiseul who was a very loyal customer. In 1768, while leaving Versailles she was spotted by Louis XV who was still mourning the death of Madame de Pompadour, but the beautiful young lady intrigued him. 

Louis XV asked his valet Dominique Guillaume Lebel to find out who she was and to invite her back to court. One visit to his bedroom and she became a fixture in the court of Versailles. However, a woman of the night without a title didn’t fit in well. Everyone at court talked about the “harlot” that crossed the sacred entrance to his bedroom. 

When you are king this is always an easy fix. On September 1, 1768 married the brother of her “pimp” Guillaume du Barry at the Eglise Saint Laurent in Paris. The man that performed the ceremony, Jean-Jacques Baptiste de Vaubernier, her possible father. Fake papers were created with a new noble lineage, but the people at court were not fooled. Following the ceremony Guillaume was quickly sent away from Paris. 

The new Madame du Barry still had to be presented at court to make it official. Cardinal Richelieu who had also been a former lover asked Madame de Béarn to take the role as her sponsor and in return he would eliminate her husband’s debt to the king. She didn’t like the idea and when the big day came she faked a sprained ankle. It couldn’t be put off anymore, the king wanted du Barry and on April 22, 1769 dressed in a beautiful white dress with silver thread and gems she was officially a member of court. 

However, this didn’t erase the past and everyone knew where she came from. Without a friend at court, Louis XV would bribe the ladies to be friends with her. On May 15. 1770, a young Austrian princess arrived at the Chateau de la Muette. It was the moment Marie Antoinette was going to meet her new family and the day before her wedding to Louis XVI. At a lavish dinner, for what was to be just family Madame du Barry took her seat next to the king. The Comtesse de Noailles filled Marie Antoinette in on the story of du Barry and left a fast first impression on her. 

For almost two years Marie Antoinette refused to speak to her. Madame du Barry thought she should be the top woman at court but with the arrival of the future queen she was quickly knocked down a few notches. Things became so bad that the Ambassador of Austria, the Queen of Austria and Louis XV had to step in. Marie was told that if she didn’t talk to her it could ruin their entire alliance and she could be sent back. 

On January 1, 1772, Marie walked up to du Barry, and said “There are many people at Versailles today” it was the only words she would ever speak to her but solidified the entire union. 

Louis XV was thirty-three years older than his mistress and was in very ill health. Contracting small pox he laid on his death bed with his daughters and du Barry by his side. When he was told he only had days to live he sent du Barry away so he could take his confession and try to redeem himself in the eyes of the church in his last moments. On May 10, 1774 Louis XV would take his last breath and the reign of Madame du Barry came to an end. 

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would exile her from court and wasn’t allowed to come within ten miles of  Versailles which included her Chateau in Louveciennes. She returned to her former profession, this time with a little more selection. One man after another wanted to marry her but she had no interest. 

As the Revolution began to gain speed in France she tried to stay quiet to protect herself. She thought as the former head mistress she would be saved. A long time servant that had been with her since her days at court, Zamour had become involved with the Jacobins and fighting with the Revolutionist. When she confronted him about it she told him to quit the Jacobins or be fired. 

Zamour returned to Paris and told his friends all about the life of Madame du Barry and that she was trying to find anyone who could help her escape France. Before she could leave she was arrested and taken to the Revolutionary Tribunal in 1793 and accused of treason, that came with a sentence of death. 

For months she was held at the Saint Pélagie prison before she was taken to the anti-chamber of death, the Conciergerie, just like Marie Antoinette. Du Barry thought she could talk her way out of it by offering to tell them all of the hiding places for her large wealth of jewels. 

On December 7, 1793 she was sentenced to death. When it was announced she screamed and fainted. She was told to write down the places they could find her jewels and for three hours she thought she was in the clear. It was a rather naive move. As soon as her list was complete the executioner arrived, cut her hair and placed her on the cart that would take her through the streets of Paris to the guillotine. 

In the dark of night in the early hours of December 8, 1793 she moved to her death.  The enter way she was screaming and crying forcing the executioner to try to end her life as fast as possible. Pleading and screaming until the second the blade dropped she tried to make a deal to save her life. After her body was tossed into a grave at the Madeleine cemetery, the same one Marie Antoinette had arrived just a few months before 

Madame du Barry was a big supporter of the arts and was instrumental in bringing the Neo-Classical design to Versailles as well as the artist Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun.

Episode 42 - Rosa Bonheur

Rosa Bonheur was born on March 16, 1822 in Bordeaux into a large family of artists.Her mother Sophie Marquis married Raymond Bonheur who was also her drawing teacher. Raymond painted landscapes of Bordeaux and portraits and instilled a love of art in all his children.

As a child when Rosa was struggling at school her mother used her love of drawing to her advantage. Asking Rosa to draw an animal for each of the letters of the alphabet was just the trick she needed. Her mother died when she was young and her school life suffered. Expelled twice her father finally took her out of school and focused on teaching her how to paint. 

Raymond specialized in Realism and to help Rosa he had their Paris home filled with animals. From squirrels and rabbits to ducks and sheep the young artist had all she needed to begin her life as a painter of animals. Once she needed more subjects she would visit farms in Levalois-Perret and the Bois de Boulogne. Rosa was lucky to have an artist as a father as few women were able to find teachers at the time. Spending her days in the Musée du Louvre as a copyist always being pulled to the masters paintings of animals. At 19 year she was already showing her pieces at the Paris Salon and selling her paintings to avid collectors. 

Wanting to expand her repertoire Rosa went places few women went or were allowed. At the slaughterhouses of Paris and the Ecole Nationale Veterinaire with her sketchbook and canvases in hand. Traipsing through the mud wasn’t easy for a woman in a dress, Like George Sand who came before her, dressing in pants was much easier and allowed her to mix with the male dominated world. Unlike George she obtained the permit that was needed to wear pants for “health reasons”.

Everything would change for her in 1855 when she painted the large tableau The Horse Fair. The 8 x 16 foot painting depicted a scene from the Paris horse market on the Boulevard de l'hôpital. Art dealer Ernest Gambart fell in love with it and purchased the painting along with the rights of reproduction and also took Rosa on as his client. The painting was sent to the UK and garnered the attention of Queen Victoria, which also came with an invitation with the queen. The painter would later be purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1887 and today hangs in the Met in New York. 

After the success of the Horse Fair, the French government commissioned her to paint another large painting. The Ploughing in the Nivernais of two teams of oxen pulling  plows was painted in 1849. It’s a magnificent painting and lucky for us hangs in the Musée d’Orsay today.  

As Raymond would visit wealthy clients that he was painting,the teenage Rosa was always by his side. On one such visit she met Nathalie Micas and the two would remain together for 40 years. Most likely believed to be partners but Rosa would never address it. She didn’t feel it was anyone's business and at the time in France lesbianism wasn’t supported by the government. 

All of Rosa’s dreams of being surrounded by animals became real in 1859 when she purchased the Chateau de By at the edge of the Fontainebleau forest. She and Nathalie had endless space with multiple buildings.  She even built a studio with large north facing windows giving her the best light of the day. The chateau of course had a barn to hold all the animals she could ever want. Each morning she would wake up early and walk the property stopping in to visit her personal menagere. Tigers, monkeys, birds, dogs and even a lion named Fathma.

After forty years in 1889 Nathalie passed away and left Rosa very sad and lonely. Years before, she had met an American artist, Anna Klumpke and invited her to visit the Chateau de By. Anna was thirty years younger, but with a shared love of paintings and animals the two had a loving and lasting relationship until Rosa’s last days.

As a female painter in the 19th century she was able to do something few other women did. She became an international star. The copies of the Horse Fair were selling all over England and the United States and Empress Eugenie was also an avid fan. In 1865 Eugenie urged her husband for quite some time to award Rosa the Legion of Honor for her work and spreading French art around the world. He finally gave in with the stipulation that he would have nothing to do with it and it would be given without a formal ceremony. On June 10, 1865 Eugenie traveled to the Chateau de By and presented Rosa with the highest award a civilian could get. Anna would later paint her wearing the metal, today it is still in the Chateau de By.

Just after Nathalie died, Rosa’s eyesight began to suffer and would slow her down. Spending her final years walking her property and visiting her many animals. It was one of those walks that she would develop pulmonary influenza causing her death on May 25, 1899. Anna stayed by her side until the very end. Leaving behind more than 1800 paintings and drawings in her studio it was up to Anna to continue the legacy of Rosa Bonheur. 

Everything was left to Anna, much to the dismay of Rosa’s family who called Anna the “money hungry American sorcerer”. A year after Rosa’s death, Anna put up over 4000 items of art and possessions and gave half of the money to the Bonheur family. Doing all she could to uphold her legacy for her art and property until her own death in 1942. Upon her death she would be laid to rest next to Rosa and Nathalie in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. 

As for the Chateau de By, Anna’s heirs tried to keep it up but they didn’t have the same love that Anna had once held. In 2017 after falling into disrepair and years of trying to obtain the money to purchase it, Kathleen Brault purchased it. The divorced French woman had years of bad luck trying to find a bank to loan her money, until a fellow female banker was happy to help. 

Just like Eugene coming to present Rosa with a gift, Stephen Bern, the amazing man that works his life to uphold the history of France arrived at the Chateau and presented Kathleen with a 500, 000 euro check on behalf of the president of France. 

Today it is a museum to the artist opened by appointment and still holds many of her personal items and art. 

Episode 41 - Eve Gonzalez

Artist Eva Gonzalez may not be as well known as her fellow female impressionist artists but she should be. 

Born on April 19, 1849 in Paris, her father Emmanuell Gonzalez was a Spanish novelist and playwright and her mother was a trained musician. With their creativity handed down to her at a very early age she was drawn to painting and sketching. 

It wasn’t easy for a woman to find an artist to work under, most of the high profile artists couldn’t be bothered and many of the schools wouldn’t even accept them. With a thirst to learn at 16 she studied under Charles Chaplin who was an official artist under the Second Empire.

A chance meeting through artists Alfred Stevens in February 1869 would put her on the path to being a known artist. Stevens took Eva to the studio of Edouard Manet who at the time was obsessed with anything Spanish and Eve had the look he loved. He immediately wanted to paint her and took her in as his one and only ever student. 

Manet was going through a lot at the time. The critics were slamming him for Olympia and Dejeuner sur l’herbe and he was starting to pull himself away from the art world and turn into a shut in. Meeting Eve was just what he needed. His first painting of her premiered at the Salon of 1870, titled Mademoiselle Eve Gonzalez. 

Sitting in front of an easel in a fancy white dress and a camelia on the floor. Depicting her as an artist, but she looks rather stiff and more like a model than a painter. Eve would model for many artists all while she studied under Manet who’s influence would be greatly imparted on her. 

So much of his style was imparted on her, you would think her paintings were actually a Manet. In 1874, Eve painted Une Loge Aux Italiens, a popular subject with the Impressionists. Women were only allowed to attend if they were with a man and her painting gives more of the presence to the woman in the painting. Using her sister Jeanne Gonzalez as the model that leans over the balcony and looks straight at you. In the background, Henri Guérard, who would be her future husband stands with a distant stance. In the foreground a large bouquet of flowers is a reminder of Manet's Olympia. Critics didn’t love the painting, they thought it was too masculin for a woman to have painted. She would keep the painting in her home until her death. Her son later gave it to the Musée du Louvre, and would later find it’s permanent home in the Musée d’Orsay. 

Like her teacher Manet, Emile Zola came to her defense writing pamphlets supporting her art and gaining her more attention. In 1874 she moved to a more softer touch and from Manet’s style and continued to use her sister as her model. 

In 1874 she met Henri Guérard a French engraver who was friends with Manet and after a very long three year engagement they were married in 1879. In April 1883 she gave birth to a son, Jean Raimond just days after Manet died. 

Eve would sadly follow behind her teacher and died during childbirth on May 6, 1883. She was just 34 years old. After her death exhibitions of her art appeared in Paris and in Monaco where she had a following. 

Today her paintings are normally exhibited next to Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot and can be found in the Orsay, Petit Palais and the Musée Marmottan Monet.

Episode 40 - Madame de Pompadour

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson’s life started out was destined to be the mistress to the king. Born on December 29m 1721 in Paris, her father Francois Poisson was the food commissioner during the Famine of 1725 and was charged with fraud forcing him to leave France. Jeanne and her mother were left behind and without a home as everything was seized. Jeanne was sent to the Ursuline Convent in Poissy in 1727. 

Quickly two men came into their life, with her mother Madame de la Motte. Jean Puvis de Monmartel and Charles François Paul Le Normant de Tournehem. Tournehem became her legal guardian and thought to be her actual father. Back at the convent she may have been educated with the elite of Paris but she was bored and constantly ill so she returned home at just nine years old. 

Shortly after her mother took her to a fortune teller who told the young girl that she would one day hold the heart of the king. From then on she was called Reinette, little queen. Her mother set out from that moment to raise her to be a mistress and hired the best teachers to educate her in art, dancing and the theater. 

In 1740 at the age of 19 she was married to Charles Guillaume, nephew of her guardian Tournehem with one clause. They would be happily married and she would never leave him unless the king came calling. Tournehem showered the couple with gifts and the Chateau des Etoiles and also made him his only heir, cutting out his own children. 

The marriage was a happy one and resulted in two children. In 1744, a son that would die just months later and a daughter Alexandrine that wouldn’t live past her 9th birthday. Poisson and her husband held lavish Salons with Voltaire, Fontenelle and Montesquieu in attendance at the Chateau des Etoiles. Her name began spreading all the way to court. Poisson heard that Louis XV hunted in the woods near their home and one day she dressed in a blue dress and took off in her pink carriage cutting right into his path. She did it again days later, this time in a pink dress and a blue carriage. 

She got the king's attention and in turn he sent her a whole venison as a gift, what a way to woo a girl. On February 24, 1745 she was invited to court to attend a masked ball. Dressed as Diane the huntress she floated through the ball and right into his arms. Three days later at the Hotel de Ville he publicly declared his love for her. 

By May 7, her separation with her husband was official, it worked quickly when the kind wanted it. However, as a commoner it was frowned upon for her to be at  court much less a relationship with the king, but easily fixed when Louis XV bought her the title, chateau and the crest of the Marquise de Pompadour. On September 14, 1745 she was officially introduced at court and on the arm of the king. 

Their intimate relationship lasted from 1745 to 1751 but the two still remained close and his trusted adviser. Pompadour became pregnant three times with the king, all ending in miscarriages and taking a toll on her health and thought to be why their physical relationship ended, 

Louis XV always kept her close, naming her a duchess on October 12, 1752 and Lady in Waiting to the Queen in 1756, the highest position a woman could hold at court. Louis gave her property and chateaux including having the Petit Trianon built for her but she would never see it finished. 

While the mistresses of the kings were many, Pompadour should be remembered for her contribution to the arts through supporting artists and her own skills. From gemstone engraving to create books with her own printing press and the first royal porcelain factory in France. She contributed to the building of the Ecole Militaire and the Place Louis XV, today's Place de la Concorde and what is today's Elysees palace, home to the president of France.  

On April 15, 1764 at 42 years old she died of Pulmonary Congestion at Versaille with the king by her side. Three days later a lavish funeral, fit for a queen, was held at the Eglise Notre Dame de Versailles where the king was inconsolable. After she was taken to Paris to be buried alongside her mother at the Capucines Convent. Today the convent is gone and it’s believed that she and her mother are still there buried under the sidewalk at 3 rue de la Paix. 

She is remembered in statues and art that can be found in the Musée du Louvre including the pastel by Maurice Quentin de la Tour surrounded by her books and engravings, many of which she did herself. 

Listen to the newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway today and learn all about the mistress to the king that cultivated and created French culture. 

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Episode 39 - Martha Gelhorn

Martha Gelhorn, born in St Louis in 1908 to two parents that wanted much more for their daughter then the role women were to play at the time. Her father George was a doctor and her mother Edna was politically active in the suffrage movement and also served as a president of Bryn Mawr. 

Her father pulled her out of school as soon as he learned the nuns had covered the pictures of the female anatomy in health class and took her to the Mary Institute where her mother was the president. It was also the school of another young girl that had been there a few years before, Hadley Richardson. 

At just 8 years old, her mother took her to the Democratic Party Suffrage rally in 1916 in St Louis giving her a very early view of the rights women should have. After attending Bryn Mawr for one year she decided to leave and chase her career as a writer. In 1930 it would take her to Paris with a backpack and $50. Even in 1930 Paris it was hard to find an inexpensive place to stay and came across a brothel where she could stay for a few francs. 

Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, think the times Eat Pray Love that inspired people to pack up and head to Europe. With a copy in her backpack she found a cheap place to stay and a job at the United Press as a foreign correspondent and also for Vogue. While in the city of love, she would later meet Bertrand de Jouvenal. Jouvenal  had also been the step son of Colette and later her lover of five years. Some historians say Martha had married Bertrand, but in her own biography she doesn’t say they did.  

Martha was not content to stay in one place too long. She became one of the first female war correspondents after she traveled the US documenting the Depression for President Roosevelt. Never one to shy away from conflict she was able to bring the stories in a way nobody else did. Gelhorn would find the real story and tell it from a raw and sympathetic point of view that touched her readers. 

Her outspoken way would get her in trouble in one job after another. While working for Roosevelt, she supported and pushed angry FERA workers in idaho to lash back about their horrible boss they didn’t like and encouraged them to break the windows of the office. Roosevelt fired her. She really didn’t care. 

In 1936 after her father died, Martha, her mother and brother decided to spend Christmas in Key West. She was a fan of Hemingway’s writing, even had a picture of him hanging in her apartment at one time and knew where to go to find him. They walked into the Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, still there today and found Hem sitting at the bar. There is a popular recounting that says she walked in, wearing a tight fighting black dress and her blond hair catching everyone’s attention. She did get attention, but it wasn’t so dramatic. 

He was interested in her right away, she was unlike any of the women in his life, ever. She was also a writer and war correspondent, her own career and marched to her own drum. It is exactly what would split them apart. It was a friendship at first, the seasoned writer and supporting and influencing her. Once she took off for Spain to cover the Civil War he quikly followed and their affair began. Pauline was back in Key West and now another woman was doing exactly what she did to Hadley. 

As one of the very first female war correspondents she would travel to Germain in 1938 and see the rise of Hitler and to know what was to come. Gelhorn traveled wherever the story was, Czechoslovakia, Singapore, Russia, Finland, Burma, Hong Kong chasing the next story and reported on it in a way no other writer did at the time, with love and empathy. 

In May 1939, Martha went to Cuba to write and she found the home that would be tied to him for the rest of his life. The Finca Vigia was rundown and in disrepair but she saw the potential, even though he hated it at first. He would spend his mornings writing and afternoons drinking and she rarely sat still, always leaving to chase wars. 

In Wyoming  on November 21, 1940 in a small room in Wyoming shortly after his divorce with Pauline was finalized the two married. As a honeymoon, the two traveled to China, he wasn’t happy about it. Hem was used to his wives catering to him and doing what he wanted, that was never going to be Martha. He didn’t understand why she didn’t want to just be a wife and stay at home. 

Becoming more and more disenfranchised by the United States she wanted to be in Europe as more of the continent was being taken over by Hitler. Finally finding some passage to Europe she hid in a bathroom on a cargo ship from New York to England. It was the days leading up to D-Day and to get to France she dressed as a paramedic traveled in an ambulance and was the only woman on the beaches of Normandy. 

Martha had tried to help get her husband to Europe and asked Roald Dahl of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory fame who also served in the Royal Air Force to get him a seat on a flight from New York. Hem had another idea, he contacted Collier's who Martha worked for and offered to write for them on the war. This move would move her down the ladder and he not only stole her job but also was over her. He tried all he could do to get to the beaches but never made it, although he would retell it a different way over time. 

The last straw came when on her return to England, she was asked about his health and she knew nothing about a car accident he had been in that was the beginning of many crashes and head injuries. Arriving at St George hospital he was surrounded by boysturus friends and on his bed, numerous empty bottles of alcohol. She was done with it and told him just that. No woman left Hem, except Agnes the nurse during WWI and Martha and his ego couldn't take it. 

At the same time in Londo and then off to Paris he was sleeping with his worst of all wives, Mary who was also a journalist and was also married.  In Paris Martha and Hem had planned a dinner to discuss their relationship. He showed up with a group of plans, she walked out. From Holland she sent him a letter on November 3 that she wanted a divorce, he was pissed but did agree. On December 21, 1945 the decree was granted and it was over. Gelhorn never wanted to be the postscript in his biography, nor should she be.  

She continued chasing wars, going where women wouldn’t go. Her personal life was always a mess, she put herself first above anything or anyone else. In 1949 she adopted a son, George Alexander Gelhorn in Italy and would travel the world. Eventually she left him with family in New Jersey and never looked back and the two would never have much of a relationship. 

In 1954 she married again to T.S. Mathews, editor of Time magazine and divorced 9 years later. “Marriage bored me” she said. 

Aside from writing about wars she also wrote 5 novels and 14 novellas and two collections of short stories many of which are very witty and funny. In her books, she never mentioned Hemingway, or let anyone else bring him up, she always called him the “unwilling companion”. 

In 1970 she finally settled down in London buying a flat in the city and a house in Wales and would continue to write and travel to Vietnam, Israel and Nivaragua until she was 81 years old. 

In her final years she suffered from liver and ovarian cancer and lost her eyeset. Always wanting to be control of her life Martha died on February 15,  1998 at 89 years old, taking her own life by swallowing cyanide pills. 

Listen to the newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway today. 

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