Episode 34 - Diane de Poitiers

Diane de Poitiers, the true love of Henri II and the number one enemy of Catherine de Medicis was born on January 9, 1500. Educated by Anne de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XI and taught etiquette, architecture, law, latin, greek and humanism. Not at all what most girls learned in the 16th century. 

Married at fifteen to Louis de Bréze Seigneur d’Anet, he was almost forty years older than her. They had two children and would have a happy marriage until he was sentenced to death for a plot against King Francois I. On the scaffolding about to die he was pardoned and sent to prison.  In 1531, her husband died and Diane began to wear her signature black and white garments that she would wear the rest of her life. With her pink skin, brown hair and red lips and nails she was the original Parisienne. 

Diane remained at court as the lady in waiting to Queen Claude of France and in 1525 her path would cross with the young son of Francois I. Henri II was being sent off to Spain in a trade deal to release his father from prison and as the 7 year old was led from court and Diane gave him a kiss on the cheek. 

When he returned four years later he and Diane became very close. At the coronation tournament for Eleanor of Austria, Henri’s new stepmother, he looked at only Diane and saluted her, causing quite the scandal. 

When it came time for Henri to marry, Diane approved of his marriage to Catherine de Medici. A year after their marriage the affair of Henri II and Diane de Poitiers began. When an heir was needed she encouraged him to sleep with Catherine. Diane remained a solid element of his life and even educated the royal children.

Anne de Pisseleu, the main mistress of François I was not a fan of Diane and was constantly creating stories in hopes to have her evicted from court. When it finally worked and Diane was sent to her Chateau d’Anet, Henri followed her and put a lasting wedge between father and son. Just before his fathers death, the two finally patched things up but as soon as François died Henri had Anne sent from court and stripped of all her jewels. 

Henri was second in line to the throne, but when his older brother died after drinking a glass of water, poisoned by Count Montecurccoli who came to France with Catherine. He later admitting to poising the dauphin, most likely for Catherine. Henri II was now the Dauphin and upon his fathers death in 1547, he became the king of France. 

Diane was so close to Henri that she would advise him on all matters of court, write his official letters for him and receive gifts from the pope. In return Henri showered her with jewels and gave her property including the Chateau de Chenonceau and a few of Anne’s former properties. 

All was well until the untimely death of Henri II in 1559. Henri was taking part in a jousting competition when sliver from his opponents joust lodged into his eye. For days he laid on his deathbed calling for Diane. Catherine would refuse to allow her to visit and had her sent away from court. Henri would die and Diane would be banished from the funeral and court.  Catherine stripped her of her jewels that Henri had given her and began to rewrite the love story of the king and queen. 

Diane would spend the rest of her life at Chateau d’Anet, where she would use her time to help others by building schools, hospitals and women's shelters. Her love of riding horses would finally do her in after she fell off on a ride one day. Breaking her leg she would never fully recover and would die a year later on April 25, 1566. Buried in the chapel at d’Anet where she would lay peacefully alongside two of her granddaughters until June 18, 1785.  Her tomb was desecrated and their bodies were tossed into a hole. 

In 2008, her skeleton was discovered and easily identified by her broken leg that had never fully healed. Diane had believed that gold was the secret fountain of youth and was known to drink liquid gold to keep her beautiful and youthful. When she was discovered in 2008, scientist tested her hair and found high levels of gold. It’s believed that it was the gold that in the end killed her. 

On May 29, 2010, she was finally returned to her tomb with a large celebration and Renaissance feast. 

Diane was always a fan of the Roman goddess Diane the Huntress and began to embody everything about her. Commissioning artists to pain and depict  her as the goddess who was also a favorite of Henri II. The Huntress emblem was the crescent moon which both she and Henri also adopted and today you can find it all over the former Palais du Louvre. 

Catherine would try to erase Diane and rewrite the story of the life she shared with Henri II. The former Palais des Tuileries, became her canvas of a love affair that was never there. Inside the Louvre just steps from the monument Catherine had created for the heart of Henri II is the large statue Diane d’Anet that once stood in the fountain at her beloved chateau. 

Listen to her full story on this week's new episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway. 

For more Catherine listen to the episode dedicated to the Florentine queen who loved the dark arts.

Episode 33 - Jane Avril

Jane Avril, the bell of the Moulin Rouge is mainly known for the many images that Toulouse-Lautrec painted of her. However, there is always more than that to her story. Born on June 9, 1868 in Belleville her mother Leotine Beaudon was a prostitute and her father an Italian nobleman that would never recognise her as his own. She was raised by her grandparents in Etamps until they passed away, sending the young Jeanne Beaudon as she was known to a convent. 

Jeanne’s childhood was in constant upheaval, just when she was in a good place her mother would find her and would try to force her into the family business. Her mother would lock her out of the house unless she returned with a certain amount of money each day. Jeanne didn’t want to follow in her mothers footsteps so she would sing and dance on the street for spare change allowing her to return home. 

Thanks to the kindness of a few of her mothers loyal customers, Jeanne was able to enroll in school, until the money ran out. Growing close to Sister Bertha at school who noticed she hadn’t been at school for weeks and paid a visit to her home. Bertha had always noticed something in Jeanne and knew she had a hard life. When Leotine answered the door, Sister Bertha let her know that she knew what was happening under her roof and Jeanne needed to return to school or she was going to the police. 

Jeanne returned to school until she turned 12 then was forced back home and to her mothers overbearing ways The days of tricking her with money made from singing didn’t work anymore and now began to beat her when she returned home. One night she was attacked and almost raped on the street and that was the last straw. Jeanne ran away from home and would end up in the Salpetriere Hospital after a short time living on the street.

While at the Salpetriere, Jeanne was diagnosed with St Vitus Dance disorder which resulted in jerky movements. At a Mardi Gras dance, Jeanne took to the dance floor. She would later say that dance cured her but  later it was the jerky movements that became her signature. 

Once released, Jeanne was heartbroken and contemplated jumping into the Seine. A group of friendly prostitutes intervened and took care of her and gave her a place to sleep and also showed her the nightlife of Paris. Once she discovered the Bal Bullier she fell in love. Charles Zidler, the owner of a new dance hall in Montmartre discovered her and asked Jeanne to be in the opening cast. From the moment she took the stage of the Moulin Rouge she was a star. 

Now she needed a new name, partially for the stage and also so she could hide from her mother. Jane Avril was born over a lunch with her friend Robert Sherard who said her last name should be named after the perfect springtime in Paris. 

Unbeknownst to anyone in Paris, Jane became pregnant and left before she was showing. On July 17, 1899 Jean Pierre Adolphe Beaudon was born and after a few weeks was handed off to close friends that served as foster parents. Back in Paris she returned to the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère. Jane traveled to London and Spain spreading the can-can love to an audience that had never seen anything like it. 

One of the reasons many know Jane Avril is the work of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. He spotted her from his perch at the Moulin Rouge and the two became fast friends and he immortalized her in posters that are still available today. Toulouse-Lautrec painted her more than twenty times for her stage productions and now can be seen in the Musée du Montmartre. 

In June 1911 Jane married Maurice Biais, a German artist who also adopted her son. The three had a nice little life for a very brief period of time. A trip to visit his family in New York quickly took a wrong turn. His family didn’t approve of Jane and her profession. At the time a stage actor or dancer was barely a step above being a prostitute. The two were in a constant fight and she took her son and returned to Paris. 

Maurice followed later and upon his return bought the family a small house near Versailles. It was an idyllic life until she figured out what her husband did all day. First, Maurice had been fired from his job months before and was taking possessions out of the house to sell to help fund their home and his secret lift. Maurice was disappearing to Paris for days at a time drinking and philandering. Jane had to sell her jewelry and her art to help take care of the home and her son and would find many of her lavish costumes missing. Apparently Maurice had a really fun time in Paris in her costumes. 

Maurice would die locked away in an asylum in 1926 and at the same time her son ran away from home, she would never see him again.  Now semi-retired but unable to say no to anything anyone asked her for. She would reappear on the stages of Paris raising money for others while at the same time struggling to pay her bills. When her friends knew how much trouble she was in a large benefit for her would raise enough money to pay off all her debt and take care of her the rest of her life. 

Jane lived through two World Wars and it began to really take its toll on her. Her final years in Paris during World War II, cold and hungry until she couldn’t take it anymore. Struggling with angina, on January 17, 1943 she took her last breath in her home at 5 Rue de La Saïda in the 15th and was buried in Père Lachaise. 

Her last words were written as she had lost her voice a year before. Scrolled out on a piece of paper she wrote “I hate Hitler”. She was 79 years old and had lived a long and interesting life. 

Nicole Kidmen’s character in Moulin Rouge is loosely based on her.

Episode 32 - Madame de Maintenon

Madame de Maintenon started out as Françoise d’Aubigné on November 27, 1635. Her father Constant d’Aubigne was sent to prison for gambling, killing a man in a duel, abducting a woman, counterfeiting and trying to start a rebellion against the king. While in prison he met and married Jeanne de Cardilhac, daughter of the prison director and they had three children. Just after her birth, she was sent to live with her aunt Madame de Villette at the Château de Mursay nearby, after all a cold drafty prison wasn’t the place to raise a child. 

Yes, it sounds like a Lifetime movie of the week and begs for so many questions. In 1642 after Cardinal Richelieu died and Jeanne was able to convince her father to release him, the family headed for Ile Marie Galante. Constant was always after a fast buck and blew through Jeanne’s dowry and cultivated one scheme after another. Once on the island he abandoned his family forcing Jeanne and her three kids to return to Paris. 

Times were tough for the family and they were forced to beg for food on the street. Once again her aunt stepped in and saved the family. Madame de Villette was raising the children as Protestant and her godmother Suzanne de Baudéan was not having any of that and took her away. Taken to live at the Ursuline convent on Rue Crémeaux in 1649 followed by the Ursuline convent on rue Saint Jacques. Françoise  didn’t take to convent life and had a difficult time until she became close with Sister Celeste who looked after her and created a tight bond. 

On weekends her godmother would take her to visit the Salons and parties of Paris where she would meet many authors and artists as well as women from the court. On one visit she met poet Paul Scarron who was twenty-five years older than her and was suffering from Polio. They shared many letters until he asked for her hand and the two were married on April 4, 1652. Due to his health his eight short years of their marriage was spent taking care of him and lengthy talks about literature. Sadly he passed away in 1660 and Françoise was left broken hearted. 

Her godmother worked for Queen Anne d’Autriche and was able to convince her to continue Paul’s pension for the widowed Françoise and would last until Anne died in 1666. Louis XIV wouldn’t agree to continue the payments which left Françoise in need of making a large change in her life. 

After the support of friends ran out she was about to move to Portugal to become the lady in waiting to the new queen Marie-Françoise de Nemours until Madame de Montespan stepped in. In last week’s episode we talked all about the mistress of Louis XIV and her strange and terrifying life. The two women met at the Salon in the Marais including the popular Salon held by Ninon de l'Enclos who we have also covered in an earlier episode.  

In 1669, Montespan gave birth to the first of many illegitimate children of Louis XIV and then needed a place to go, away from the eyes of court. Louis XIV purchased a hotel particulier  on the rue de Vaugirard to hide the children. Montespan convinced Louis that Françoise would be a perfect caretaker to look after the children. Françoise loved them like they were her own and were involved in every aspect of their raising even convincing Louis to make the children legitimate. He was not impressed with her at first, he thought she was a bit bossy and a little rough around the edges. 

He would change his tune after he had the children legitimized and they all moved to Saint Germain en Laye where she became the court governess. As a sign of appreciation for all she had done, Louis gave her a very large gift allowing her to purchase the Chateau de Maintenon in 1675. At the same time, Louis purchased the title and she was known as the Marquis de Maintenon. Meanwhile, her old friend Montespan was getting a little worried about the closeness between the king and the governess. 

In 1680, the Affair of the Poisons swept through court and Montespan’s reign was over and she was swiftly removed from court. Louis XIV became closer to Maintenon but she pushed him away from anything romantic or physical. The two became very close and he looked to her for guidance in every manner of the court and state upsetting his fellow ministers. 

A very devout catholic, she saw her role as saving Louis in the eyes of the church while the rest of court saw her as manipulative. On July 30, 1683 the queen died and a few months later on October 9 Louis and Montespan were married in a secret ceremony. Performed by the Archbishop of Paris François de Harlay de Champvalon and the king's confessor Pére de la Chaise, behind the closed door of the kings bedroom. The marriage was a morganatic one, which means she could not be recognized as queen or even be known as his official wife. 

They spent a majority of their time together in his bedroom, making state decisions and even taking meetings. The two of them joined forces in creating the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis in Rueil, a school for children of noble families, many of which had lost a parent to the many French conflicts. Recalling her days at the convent she wanted to create a curriculum that would truly teach children, especially young women. 

As Louis got older, he worried his past romantic endeavors would not sit well with God and he hoped his love of Maintenon would save him in the eyes of the church. Towards the end of his life on August 30, 1715 Françoise was told there was little they could do for him and he told her to leave. She retreated to her school that was now located in nearby Saint-Cyr 

The school was later moved closer to Versailles to Saint-Cyr and she was there surrounded by children when she got the news of his death on September 1, 1715. She lived out the rest of her life there and would still take visitors including Peter the Great who came to seek her council but noticing how quickly she had aged in the last few years. 

On April 15, 1719 she died at 83 years old and was buried at Saint-Cyr where she would remain until the Revolution. After World War II she was located and moved briefly to the chapel of Versailles until 1969 when she was once again returned to Saint-Cyr, that was now a military school created by Napoleon

Episode 31 - Madame de Montespan

Madame de Montespan,  was born as Françoise de Rochechouart de Mortemart on October 5, 1641 in Lussac-les-Châteaux. Her family, the house of Rochechouart, was one of the oldest noble families and served the king and queen of France. As a child she was sent to the Convent of Saint Mary in Saintes alongside other noble children and at 17 years old she was working in the court of the Palais du Louvre. 

In 1658 as the lady-in-waiting to the sister-in-law to Louis XIV, Henriette of England, the young Francoise was now close to king Louis XIV. A role given to her by Anne of Austria who her mother served as her lady-in-waiting, it was the family business after all. 

On January 28, 1663 she married Louis Henri de Pardaillan de Gondrin, Marquis de Montespan, although she was in love with Louis de la Frémoille. A lady didn’t have much of a choice back then and was forced to marry Louis Henri. The wedding took place at the Église Saint Eustache before a large group of Paris society. When they realized they forgot their marital kneeling pillows, they had to use dog cushions instead, not a great way to start. The couple would have two children, Marie in 1663 and Louis Antoine in 1665. 

The couple lived near the Palais du Louvre which kept her close as she was now the lady-in-waiting to queen Marie-Therese of Spain, wife of Louis XIV. Extremely beautiful but also very cultured, smart with a witty personality she was hard to miss by everyone at court including the king. In 1667, the king's brothers held a ball at Versaille where Louis XIV asked her to dance. Louise de la Valliere was his current headmistress and had befriended Montespan. When Louise and also the queen became pregnant by the king at the same time, she asked Montespan to dine with the king each evening. It was sending the fox into the hen house and after the birth of the illegitimate child of the king, Louise left court as Montespan had moved into her place. 

Her husband wasn’t taking the news well and one day he held a funeral for their marriage and decorated a coach in black and drove it to court causing a scene. Around Paris he was telling everyone about their affair and of course it spread to court. When the king asked him what he was doing in his black carriage, he had him arrested and thrown into jail. 

The king would father seven children with Montespan each of them illegitimate. Taken from court they were raised in Paris by Montespan’s friend Madame Scarron. Scarron would become Madame de Maintenon, we will have much more about her next week. Maintenon helped convince the king to legitimize the children, each of them later known as de Bourbon. Since Montespan was still married she had to be left off the certificates of her own children. 

Louis XIV gave her the Château de Clagny and his gardener Andre Le Notre, who designed Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte and the Tuileries. At Versailles far from the chateau he had a small pavilion built of porcelain. The Trianon de Porcelain was the first Chinoiserie structure in Europe, built with delicate porcelain tiles; it was the perfect place for the two lovers to hide. Sadly, the material was so fragile it was torn down, later to be replaced by the Trianon built by Louis XV for Madame de Pompadour. 

In 1674, thanks to the king, Montespan and her husband were legally separated. It took convincing six judges and officials to finally authorize it and end her marriage. Montespan’s influence over the king bothered everyone at court including all his ministers. With her cunning moves she alienated his advisors and made many enemies, so when her fall came none of them was upset. In 1681 the Affair of the Poison spread through the court, killing many people. When one of the mistresses of Louis XIV, the Duchess of Fontanges died, Montespan was the first to be accused. Montespan had been demoted to the head of the queen's household and was not pleased to leave her lofty status at court. 

However, it wasn’t just this one incident that drew the suspicion of the kings guards and the rumors at court. Montespan was close with Catherine Monovoisin or La Voisin as she was called. Voisin was known as a fortune teller, sorceress and also performed rituals and abortions. This is when this story takes a very dark turn. 

In 1665, Montespan visited La Voisin and asked her to create a love potion that she could use on the king. This wasn’t just any potion. A dark mass had to be held with a priest and La Voisine would ask the devil for the love of the king. In the ritual, a baby had to be sacrificed and bled and even worse things and added to the poison. If you watched the tv series Versailles that is currently on Netflix, they even touched on this horrific act. 

It was discovered that Louis XIV had been poisoned for 13 years. La Voisin was arrested and when they searched her home they found more than two-thousand babies buried in her garden. Montespan was sent from court and all her gifts the king had given to her stripped away. In 1691, she was exiled to the Abbey of Fontevrault where her sister Marie-Madeleine was the director. 

Montespan traveled in 1707 to Bourbon-l’Archambault to take in the healing waters but would die while there on May 28, 1707.  She was left alone, without any of her children in the final years of her life. Louis XIV wouldn’t allow any of theres to have any contact with her, and as he was paying for their life, they didn’t have any problems obliging. 

Montespan was thought to be the “unofficial queen” of France for a short time, but it was the next head mistress that would in fact hold that title. 

More next week…

Episode 30 - Mary Cassatt

American artist Mary Cassatt was considered one of “Les Trois Grandes Dames of Impressionism” alongside Berthe Morisit and Marie Bracquemond. Born in Pittsburgh on May 22, 1844 to a very wealthy family. Her father Robert Simpson Cassatt made a fortune in the stock market and with land sales. Her mother Katherine came from a banking family that was well educated and believed her own daughter should be as well. 

As a child they traveled Europe stopping in Berlin, London and Paris and taking classes in art and music while also learning French and German. In Paris at the World’s Fair she laid her eyes on the French masters for the first time. Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, Ingres and Degas and her life changed forever. 

Returning to Pennsylvania, she begged her parents for art lessons and by 1859 at just fifteen years old they finally gave in. Mary enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts but her fellow bohemian feminist students didn’t make her parents too happy. At the time women were not allowed to paint live models, so she was stuck painting still lives and flowers while also soaking up those feminisit ideals, much to her parents' chagrin. Bored with painting flowers she decided to teach herself how to paint by copying the masters, but there were only so many she could find in Pittsburgh. 

In 1866, she packed up her brushes and moved to Paris, but the city of artists wasn’t that much easier. Being a woman held her back, she couldn’t go to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and had to find her own teacher that would take an eager young lady.  Jean-Leon Gérôme who also taught a long list of artists saw something in Mary and took her under his wing.  Spending most of her days with Gérôme in the Louvre copying paintings and mingling with the other young artists of Paris. In 1868 she began to study under Thomas Couture who had also been Manet’s teacher. 

Sadly, just two years later as the Franco Prussian war began she headed back to the United States and what would be a wasteland for the culture seeking Cassatt. Back in her parents' house she painted all day, much to her father's disapproval. He didn’t like her chosen career and refused to support it. He paid for her lodging, food and spending money but refused to buy brushes or any painting supplies. 

A few of her paintings were exhibited in a New York gallery, but none of them sold leaving her discouraged and it was about to get even worse. With a collection of canvases she traveled to Chicago. The day after she had them set up in a gallery the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 swept through the city destroying everything in its path including her paintings. At the edge of giving up, a chance meeting would change everything. 

The Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Domenic of Pittsburgh asked her to paint two copies of Correggio’s paintings for the cathedral. It came with enough money to travel to Italy and spend as long as she needed to complete the monumental project. By 1874 she was back in Paris and selling a painting at the Salon, things were looking up. Although, her outspoken opinions on the Salon and how women artists were treated weren’t winning her a lot of friends in the circles she needed to be in. At the next Salon her paintings were quickly rejected as many of the Impressionists were. Discouraged like the other artists, Degas invited her to be a part of the Impressionist Exhibit in 1879. She had three paintings hanging on the walls alongside the painters that finally made her feel like she was part of a group that accepted her. 

Just a few years before her parents had moved to Paris to be with Mary and her sister Lydia. Her father had come around a bit more to her painting and was happy to support her. Mary never had an interest in getting married as she knew it had to be a choice to be a painter or a wife and was happy living with her sister and parents and few friends. One of her closest friends, Louisine Elder, was much younger than Mary but they shared hours in the museums together. Mary would share with her how to look at art and what she should purchase. Later when Lousine married a rather wealthy man they began to gather up the paintings of the Impressionist all thanks to Mary.  Their collection became one of the largest personal collections that was later given to the Museum of Modern Art in NY. 

In 1882, her sister Lydia died at 45 from Bright's disease which crushed Mary. Staying inside day and night in seclusion and never touching her brushes. Her father tried to encourage her to paint to no avail. On one of her first voyages out she was returning home on her horse crossing the Champs Elysees when her horse slipped, fell and fractured her leg. 

In 1911, she was diagnosed with cataracts, diabetes and rheumatism but she didn’t let that stop her. A few years later she contributed to the Sufforgete movement back in Philadelphia by sending eighteen of her paintings to a charity event. Her sister in law Eugenie was not a supporter of women voting and let all of her society friends know that they should boycott the event. Mary was so mad, she decided to sell off all her paintings that had been intended as inheritance of her sister in law's children. 

In the later years of her life she purchased the Chateau de Beaufresne outside of Paris where she and her parents lived. On June 14, 1926 at 82 years old she died and was buried her in the family plot near the chateau in Le Mesnil-Théribus. 

In her life she was barely known in the United States as an artist, but well known in France. In 1904 France awarded her with the Legion d’honor for her work spreading the word on French art to the United States. 

Today, you can find more of her paintings in the United States than in France but when you do, enjoy her beautiful life's work. 

Episode 29 - Josephine Baker

There were many American expats filling the streets of Paris in the 1920’s but there was one that did it with an extra panash and made an immediate impression.  Josephine Baker was a woman ahead of her time and blazed her own path from the streets of St Louis to the stages of Paris. 

Born on June 3, 1906 in St Louis to her mother Carrie, and a father she would never know. Her mother had worked for a German family in St Louis, and it is believed that the man of the house could be her dad, but the secret went to her grave.  At just 8 years old, her mother hired her out to be a live-in maid. One day when she used too much laundry detergent her boss held her hands to a hot stove burning them. 

Her mother wasn’t much in the picture and continued to have other children and didn’t care about Josephine at all and forced her to live on the street. Josephine would make small bits of money dancing on a street corner in between waitress jobs. At just 14 years old, she married Willie Wells, the marriage only lasted a few months. The next year she married Willie Baker, the nuptials lasted four years but she would keep his last name.

In 1921 she moved to New York City at the height of the Harlem Renaissance and performed at the Plantation Club at just 15 years old. The last in the chorus line, she fumbled through the moves while the audience roared with laughter. In the next scene, she came out on stage and wowed the crowd with her amazing dance moves, clearly not the lost dancer on the end and became the highest paid chorus girl in vaudeville. 

On October 2, 1925, when her troupe was headed to Paris, she wasn’t going to miss the chance. At 19 she performed on the stage at the Theatre des Champs Elysees and she was an instant success with her exotic moves and teeny tiny costumes. In 1926, in the historic Folies Bergère was the site of her “Danse Sauvage” complete with her banana skirt, more banana than it was skirt. Her other costumes included a single flamingo feather hanging between her legs and a live cheetah named “Chiquita” with its own diamond collar. 

She branched out and began to sing and acted on film and in operas including Jacques Offenbach’s Le Creole in 1934. Offenbach, who wrote the famous Can Can song and also was a lover of another of our ladies, Valtesse de la Bigne. A role she trained for over six months.

In 1936, she made a brief return to the USA to perform on Broadway in the Ziegfeld Follies, but was not received well and when few tickets were sold she returned to Paris. Later in life she said that she “couldn’t stand America”, after this trip she renounced her citizenship. A marriage to Jean Lion in 1937 also came with a French passport and she never looked back. 

At the start of World War II, she left Paris for the Chateau de Milandes in the Dordogne. With her stage persona she used it to her advantage to help the Resistance. Traveling around France she was the perfect spy to pass notes on sheet music to other Resistance leaders at times pinning them inside her underwear so the German’s wouldn’t find them. Always at home on the stage she visited many of the French, American and British bases performing for the troops, her very own USO spreading some much needed cheer with the banana skirt. Later she would be awarded the Crois de Guerre, Rosette de la Resistance and the Chevalier de Légion d'honneur, not so bad for a girl that once danced on the street. 

An outspoken activist for Civil Rights, she places a clause in her contracts when returning to America that she wouldn’t perform in segregated clubs. In 1951 she returned to the States to accept the NAACP’s Woman of the Year award that came with a parade of thousands of people through the streets of New York.  On the same trip she was booked to perform at the Stork Club in NYC, that left out that they weren’t allowing black people in the audience. Just before the curtain was to go up she heard and refused to perform. The club threatened her with deportation and the loss of thousands of dollars. However, they picked the wrong night. Princess Grace of Monaco was in the audience with a group of friends and when Josephine made a small scene the princess walked up to her took her by the arm and walked out. It would be the beginning of a friendship that lasted her whole life. Her visa was revoked and she wasn’t allowed to return for ten years. 

In 1963, she did return to the United State and this time stood next to Martin Luther King Jr on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington. After his tragic death, his widow called Josephine and asked her to pick up his torch and take over as the leader of the Civil Rights movement. She declined and remained in France and spent as much time as she could at her chateau. 

Knowing what it was like to grow up with parents she began to adopt children of her own. Twelve children from 11 different countries,  she would call them her “Rainbow Tribe”. All different ages it was important to her to raise them in their own religion, beliefs and languages. What a beautiful thought and still needed so many years later. 

Plagued with money issues her entire life, when she needed money she performed but then spent it just as quickly. When she couldn’t afford her payments on the chateau, her friends including Bridget Bardot and Princess Grace tried to help. While away on tour she was told that her home was being repossessed. She left immediately, returned and locked herself in her kitchen. It lasted for a few days until she left the kitchen for another room and they locked her out. 

On April 8, 1975 in celebration of her 50 years on stage a multi day grand show was planned at the Bobino in Montparnasse.  The entire production was paid for by Princess Grace and Prince Rainier and even Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Two days later as she lay in bed reading her glowing reviews she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and fell into a coma. 

On April 12, 1975 the great woman of the stage died at 68 years old. So beloved in France, she was given a full Catholic mass in the Eglise Madeleine with full French honors, the only American woman given the honor. 

Her Chateau was later opened as a museum that you can visit today complete with her Art Deco bathroom designed to match her bottle of Arpège designed by one of our other ladies, Jeanne Lanvin. Don’t you love how they are all so intertwined. 

https://www.milandes.com/en/

Episode 28 - Juliette Récamier

You will know this week's lovely lady from the beautiful painting hanging in the Musée du Louvre by Jacques-Louis David.  Juliette Récamier was a fixture of the Paris Salon scene in the 19th century and lived a very interesting life. 

It all started with a rather strange story. Her mother Marie-Julie Matton came from a wealthy family and her father Jean Bernard was the notary and counsellor to the king. Growing up in Lyon, her father left for Paris to be the Postmaster General leaving Juliette and her mother in Lyon. 

Marie-Julie had a weekly Salon in their home before Juliette was born that drew the most interesting people from Lyon and Paris. One night a man that frequently attended introduced himself to the teenage Juliete. Jacques-Rose Récamier was 30 years older than her and decided quickly they would be married. Hold onto your hat for the next part. 

It is now thought that Jacques was actually her father. They were married on April 24, 1793, she was fifteen years old. It was 1793 and the Reign of Terror consumed Paris. Jacques was worried he would be arrested and killed and this was a way for his daughter/wife to inherit his fortune at the time. The marriage was a business deal and never consummated, leaving her a virgin until she was in her 40’s. 

Surviving the Terror, they bought a home on the Rue de Mont-Blanc, now the Rue de la Chaussee d’Antin in October 1798. Decorated in the Etruscan style, one of the very first in Paris and added to the appeal of her own Salon she hosted for the literature and political society. Her weekly Salon was the place to be and attracted the elite of Paris who also wanted a glimpse inside their home. 

Her beauty wasn’t lost on anyone either and was considered one of the “Three Graces” of Paris that also included Josephine Bonaparte and Madame Tallien. At a party Napoleon met her and was so enamored with her he sent her a letter and asked her to be one of Josephine’s ladies in waiting. She declined, something few people did to Napoleon which wouldn’t go over very well. 

Juliette met Madame de Stael, a writer and outspoken critic of Napoleon held her own Salon as well as attending Juliette’s. The two became close friends and when word reached Napoleon of Stael’s Salons becoming a meeting of anti-Bonapartists  he exiled her from Paris.  Juliette was worried she would be next and left Paris before he could banisher her from the city. During this time Jacques worked for the Banque de France and was a political and financial supporter of Napoleon until he lost his job, in part by her wife’s actions. Forcing him to sell their home, silver and jewelry. 

Juliette left Paris and her husband behind for Lyon and eventually Italy. In Rome and Naples she met many French artists and writers that had also fled Napoleon creating a Salon for them all to gather. In a chance of luck and a jab at Napoleon she met King Joachim Murat and his wife Caroline, who was Napoleon’s sister and became good friends. Juliette was reunited with her old friend Madame de Stael at her home in Switzerland where she would also meet Prince Augustus of Prussia. Juliette and the prince fell in love and wanted to be married. She sent her husband a letter asking for a divorce, it was a platonic relationship after all, but he refused telling her it was a bad time. 

On June 1, 1814 with Napoleon out of power she returned to Paris, but not before she and the Prince promised to wait for each other. The Prince would never marry but would have eleven children with his mistress and he and Juliette would never see each other again.  Upon her return she moved into an apartment in the Abbaye-aux-Bois just off the rue de Sèvres where the convent rented apartments out to the high society ladies in the capital. Juliette had fond memories of staying in the convent when she was younger when her father had left for Paris. 

She began her Salons again with firm rules of no politics and only talking about the arts. At one of her Salons she met François-René Chateaubriand and became close friends and maybe more. He lived nearby at 120 Rue de Bac and would only leave his home to visit her every day. Each day from 2pm-3pm they had their own private visit before the other Salon goers arrived, seven days a week.

Juliette’s beauty never diminished and when 33 years old, Jacques-Louis David was selected to paint her portrait. Sitting for him many times, she grew bored and felt he was too slow. The relationship with the artist was rocky and when he learned that she had also agreed to sit for François Gerard he was furious. David never finished the painting and wouldn’t give it to her, keeping it until his death in his personal collection. To make matters worse she asked one of his students to paint her. The young painter depicted the beauty from behind with dirty feet and it didn’t look anything like her. It was David’s small revenge. You can now see David’s famous unfinished painting of her in the Musée du Louvre. It is hard to tell it is unfinished, but the lack of background or anything other than the model laying on her Récamier and tall candlestick. Now that you know how she felt about the process, you can see it on her face. 

In most of the paintings of her, she is always reclined on a version of a chaise lounge, with raised curved ends. These are now called a Récamier in honor of it’s most famous promoter. Also in the Louvre in the Aile Richelieu far from the normal path of people is a room that includes her original bedroom furniture. The Jacob Brothers, who was THE furniture maker of the time also making many pieces for Josephine, created a lovely mahogany gilded bronze bed with matching side tables, secretary and walls covered in one of her favorite colors, purple silk. 

Juliette held her Salons until the end of her life. Her sight began to go and almost completely blind her maids moved her furniture around so she was able to move through her apartment and never told anyone that she was blind.  Her close friend Chateaubriand died in July 1848 and was a huge blow and she felt she would go soon after. At the time Cholera was spreading through France and was active at the Abbey. Fearing for her health she left to stay with her niece at the Palais Royal. On May 11, 1849 she couldn’t fight it and died of Cholera at 71 years old.  She was buried in a rather plain tomb for such a beautiful woman in the Cemetery Montmartre. 

Today the Abbey is gone but the pedestrian street that once led to it is now named after her. Venture over and sit in the hidden Square Stéphane and think about the lovely Juliette.

Episode 27 - Queen Berthe

The statue of Reine Berthe in the Jardin du Luxembourg is one of my favorites of the twenty illustrious ladies in French history. She may not be as well known as Marie de Medicis but you will know the name of her son and her story is pretty amazing. 

Born in 720 to Count Caribert de Laon and Blanche-Fleur de Prum her beauty was known far and wide. When Pepin le Bref, future king of the Franks heard of her stunning beauty he wanted her for his wife. Different histories say he may have been married before to Leutburgie and when he heard of Berthe, he asked Leutburgie to leave court. The marriage was arranged and Berthe headed to court to meet her future husband. 

Traveling to court with her cousin Tybers and servant Margiste and his daughter Aliste who didn’t have the best of intentions. Margiste realized his daughter had a striking resemblance to Berthe and hatched a plan to replace the princess with his own daughter. He convinced Berthe that Pepin was a horrible brutal man, kidnapped her and planned to behead her. Luckily one of his men overheard and released Berthe in the forest of Le Mans. For years Berthe lived in a farmers home in the forest while Aliste lived her life in court until one day her mother came to town. 

Missing her lovely daughter she went to court and with one look she knew Aliste was not her beloved Berthe. Pepin and everyone at court told her she was wrong but Berthe had one distinct feature that couldn’t be faked. Berthe was also known as Berthe au Grand Pied due to her clubfoot. Her left foot was much larger than her right and all Blanche-Fleur had to do was lift her blanket to see this was not her daughter. Margiste and Aliste were arrested and burned to death but still Berthe was missing.  

One day as Pepin and his men were hunting in Le Mans he came across a beautiful woman praying in the woods, he and Berthe were finally united. Returning to court they were married in 743 or 744 and on April 2, 748 she gave birth to her first child, Charles followed in 751 by Carloman and five more children. Only three would survive to adulthood. 

Pepin’s father Charles Mantel held the title of the “Mayor of the Palace”, at the time the most powerful role one could hold in the Merovingian dynasty. In 741, Charles died and left his kingdom to be ruled by his two sons, Pepin and Carloman. In 747 he forced his brother out and held the title on his own. At the time Merovingian king Childeric III was in power and Pepin had eyes on his throne. Pepin was a defender and supporter of Pope Zacharius and asked how he could remove him. The Pope told him he was the one that held the power and could do whatever he wanted. Pepin had Childeric III sent to a monastery in 751 and crowned himself King of the Franks. 

In 768 Pepin died and left his throne to his two sons, Charles and Carloman. At first the two brothers ruled together and Berthe was involved in every aspect of the court. In 771 Carloman died unexpectedly and instead of giving his portion and power to Carloman’s son he decide to cut him out and rule alone. 

Berthe tried to reason with Charles who was not going to change his mind and in turn sent his mother away from court and to Choisy-au-Bac near Compiegne. Berthe would die on July 12, 1783 at 63 years old. Buried at the Église Saint Étienne in Choisy-au-Bac she was later moved to the Basilique Saint Denis to lay next to her husband Pepin. 

As for Charles, you may know him better as  Charlemagne, king of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans. 

Berthe, the lovely woman that went through so much to become the mother of the Father of Europe is rarely talked about. On the upper eastern terrace of the Jardin du Luxembourg, I love her statue by Eugène Ouidné created in 1856. With a strong fierce look on her face, in her hand she holds a small throne that her son Charlemagne sits on under the rustling trees on a perfect fall day.  

Episode 26 Jeanne Lanvin

There are many designers that have shaped fashion in France. However, before there was Dior and Chanel there was Jeanne Lanvin. Lanvin was a designer that paved the way for all the others to come after her but few know her name.  

Jeanne was born on January 1, 1867 in Paris at 35 Rue Mazarine. She was the oldest of eleven children to parents Bernard Lanvin and Sophie Blanche Deshayes. Her mother was a seamstress and taught Jeanne at a very young age how to sew which came in very handy. With eleven mouths to feed, money was tight at the Lanvin home. Jeanne got a job working at a hat shop at the age of 13, where she was a natural fit. In just three years she served as apprentice milliner and in 1889 at 22 years old she opened her own shop in Paris on the Rue Boissy d'Anglas. Her hats were very popular with the Paris elite and she had a long waiting list for her custom hats, long before Coco Chanel ever touched a hat. That same year she created her fashion house which would become the oldest fashion house in the world. 

In 1893 she signed a lease on a larger store at 22 Rue de Faubourg Saint Honoré, where her store remains to this day. While her business was growing she took enough time out to get married. On February 20, 1896 she married Italian Count Emile de Pietro and the next year her greatest inspiration was born. On August 31, 1897 Marguerite Marie Blanche came into the world and changed Jeanne’s life and business. 

From hats she moved onto designing clothes for Marie Blanche. Jeanne creates custom dresses complete with lavish fabrics and embellishments for her daughter and for the “little girls about town”. When the two would walk through Paris they would garner all the attention by passers by including women that wanted the dresses for themselves. So many women begged her for the same designs that she pivoted her business and renamed it Lanvin (Mademoiselle Jeanne) Modes and began producing dresses for the women as well for little ladies. 

In 1909, she expanded the store again taking up more of the block that included the young lady and women's department where mom and daughter could shop together. Unfortunately her marriage wasn’t as successful and ended with a separation in 1902 and divorce the next year. In 1907 she married again to French journalist Xavier Mélet, but her focus and love was always her daughter and her work, although she kept a very quiet and low profile in the Paris fashion scene. 

In 1918, she took over the entire building and added ten workrooms and a fur department. Always the clever business woman she also set up a system where women could store their fur coats for the summer months. It would get them into the store and would always leave with a few new frocks. After a weekend at the coast and a vacation in the mountains she saw a need for sportswear, long before ol Coco did it. Lanvin designed swimsuits, beach and tennis wear and everything you need for a weekend skiing. Jeanne also created an entire mens department, creating suits and casual fashion and becoming the first designer to dress the entire family. 

On a rare night out, she met decorator Armand Rateau at a Paris party. She was looking to branch out even more and the two began talking and decided to team up. With Armand they would create home goods including furniture, drapes and linens all in her custom colors that she loved. Her eye for colors was so specific in 1922 she opened her own dye factory in Nanterre. Her very specific colors included Lanvin blue she created after seeing the color on a Fra Angelico fresco in Florence in the 1920’s. Other colores included Rose Polignac named for her daughter and Vert Velazquez, but she also loved the chicness of black and used it in her designs frequently. 

Not wanting to follow trends she stayed with her own aesthetic, creating her own look that drew very loyal fans. The bouffant style was falling out of fashion but she stayed with it. The style was perfect for women of all shapes and sizes and they loved her for staying with it. Jeanne also created her own silhouette, the Robe de Style with its fitted bodice and wide skirt, today we also call it the fit and flare. 

In 1924, she decided she wanted her own fragrance. Only designer Paul Poiret had done this before her, long before Coco. Her first fragrance was called My Sin, which became a huge hit in the US. In 1927 as a gift to her daughter on her 30th birthday, her newest fragrance Arpége was released. Marie-Blanche was an accomplished opera singer and musician and when she first smelled the notes of jasmine, honeysuckle and lily of the valley she said “it smelled of the arpeggio notes played in succession on the piano. The fragrances were so popular in 1925 she had a factory built for the production of perfume where she was able to control the entire process.  Josephine Baker, would later design her entire bathroom at the Chateau de Milandes in the Dordogne.

Jeanne was happier staying in her office or at home with her family and reading her vast collection of art and history books. Many of the symbolism she saw in her travels and in books she would bring into her designs. She wasn’t found at salons and parties adding an air of mystery to her. Although she saw an early importance of spreading her brand to the United States. In 1915 when she presented at the International Exhibition in San Francisco which drew her a lot of attention which helped when her perfume debuted nine years later. 

In 1935, the maiden voyage of the SS Normandie was headed to New York. With the French elite trapped on the ship for days, she held a fashion show of her newest season selling out her entire collection. She may have been quiet but she was fierce.  During World War II when other houses closed she kept her workshops and store open employing over 800 people in her twenty-three ateliers. Her employees were her family and they were just as attached to her. 

On July 6, 1946 in her apartment overlooking the Musée Rodin at 16  Rue Barbet, Jeanne Lanvin took her last breath. Her beloved daughter would take over the fashion house and carry on her vision. The business stayed in the family until 1994 when it was purchased by L’Oreal and then sold in 2001 to a private individual. Today her store on Rue Saint Honoré is still there. While they have moved away from the Haute Couture, they are branding to a younger hipper market as well as to women who appreciate the quality and design started by Jeanne. 

Today you can visit the beautiful rooms that she once lived in, now moved into the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Friend and designer Armand Rateau transformed her apartment and it’s many rooms into the perfect expression of Jeanne in her signature colors. You can take in every detail of her boudoir, bedroom and bathroom. Donated to the museum in 1965 when the building she lived in was going to be demolished. The bedroom includes her Lanvin blue curtains that cover the wall. Each one was embroidered with white and light orange thread and copper wire and it is a sight to behold. Move me in now, please. 

Her original hat store at 16 Rue Boissy d’Anglas, is the site of their corporate offices today along with the store on Rue Saint Honoré. I love how they have held onto this history more than a hundred years later. 

Jeanne Lanvin’s name is not one that is as known as so many other designers and she was fine with that. Karl Lagerfeld later criticized her for her low-key persona and Coco Chanel looked at her as one of her greatest rivals. Today everyone thinks it was Coco that pioneered perfume, sportswear, hats and the color black, but just like everything else that many people know about Chanel, it is completely wrong. It is Jeanne Lanvin that we owe so much.

Today it is still the oldest fashion house in the world. Louis Vuitton opened in 1854 and Hermès in 1837, but neither started in fashion. It’s the House of Jeanne that just keeps going.

Episode 25 - Ninon de Lenclose

Ninon de Lenclos was one of the most fascinating women of the 17th century and centuries before her time. Born on November 10, 1620 in the Marais, her father Henri de Lenclos or L’Enclos was a lutenist and a published composer who taught his daughter to play the lute and sing. Henri was a very liberal father who let Ninon read whatever she wanted. She adored the philosophers, studying science and learning Spanish and Italian, very uncommon for a girl at this time. 

In 1632 when she was twelve years old her father was exiled from Paris after a duel over a married woman where he killed his opponent.  Her mother was not very loving nor supportive of her educational pursuits, but did take advantage of musical talents. Anne De Lenclos would bring her daughter to all of the Salons in the Marais, which would work to Ninon’s advantage later. 

Her mother was very traditional in the way Ninon should behave and planned to marry her off. Women at the time only had a few choices, you could be a wife or a nun, that was about it. Ninon knew from a very early age that she did not want to get married and so to make sure that didn’t happen she went out and lost her virginity to the Comte de Coligny. When her mother found out she was furious and sent her to a convent.

Anne de Lenclose died shortly after in 1642 and Ninon was free to return to Paris. Ninon moved in with her friend and famed courtesan Marion Delorme who also shared all her secrets  to become a courtesan herself. With Marion she visited the Salons of the Marais and quickly understood that she was not forgotten. Ninon had visions of her own Salon and how she could change the shape of Paris and rented an apartment she would use only for her weekly Salons. 

The Salons were one of the only ways at the time for women to freely mingle with others in “public” and drew everyone from aristocrats to intellectuals. Ninon also used hers to empower women, teaching them how to share their voice, how to flirt and to own their sexuality. For the men she told them to listen to their ladies and how to properly treat them. If they needed more information, depending on the man they were able to have a more hands on personal lesson with the courtesan. 

A relationship with Louis de Mornay, Marquis de Villarceaux resulted in a child born in 1652. Louis François de la Boissière and would unite the couple for a short time. Pregnant with a child wasn’t a good optic for her profession and Ninon fled Paris for Mornay’s home in Villarceaux. Louis de Mornay was a painter and also had quite a way with the ladies, even serving time in the Bastille for seducing a virgin. Ninon lasted three years with him before she decided to return to Paris and made Mornay promise to never tell her son who she was.  Mornay didn’t take it well and followed her to Paris and begged her to return. In front of him, Ninon cut off her hair as some sort of strange keepsake and gave it to him. The act started a new trend and hairstyle, the Ninon bob. 

Many years later the young Louis François met Ninon in Paris while attending her Salon. Louis fell in love with her, not knowing she was also his mother. One day he arrived at her door and pledged his undying love to her. Ninon had to tell him who she was once and for all. Louis ran out of her home and onto the street. Pulling his pistol out he shot himself in the street and died. 

Ninon, the courtesan was very specific on who she would allow in her bed and had many rules. She had a very strict three month rule, a lover never lasted more than three months, but they were allowed special visitation later past the three months. The men fell into different categories. There was the prayers, martyrs and whims but it was the men that fell into the favored group that were allowed to join her in bed. 

Among the men that were given the honor included Charles Perrault, the author of childhood favorites Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood. Jean de la Fontaine, the master of the fables, Fontanelle and Henri de Sévigné husband of Madame de Sévigné. Molière was often seen with Ninon and relied on her input for many of his plays.  Louis XIV was also a close confidant. Through Madame de Maintenon he met Ninon and trusted her and was often quoted saying “What would Ninon do”. His mother, the very religious Anne of Austria didn’t appreciate her influence over her son and had Ninon tossed into a convent in Lagny-sur-Marne. 

Ninon’s influence reached very far and it was another queen that rescued her. Christina, queen of Sweden heard and contacted Cardinal Mazarin and pleaded with him to let her out. Ninon was released and returned to Paris and her Salons.  While in the convent she used her time to write a pamphlet, La Coquette Vengée and smuggled it out in her undergarments. 

Ninon ran her Salons for the rest of her life and continued to take lovers into her 80’s. Everyday from 5pm- 7pm at her apartment at 36 Rue de Tournelle the elite of Paris came to visit.  Her appeal was different from most women. She was incredibly smart and witty and her intellect drew people to her. Her path in life was decided at an early age because her father raised her with choices and to look beyond the norm of what women were to do at the time. She felt she was more of a man than a woman at the time in the way she thought and helped open the minds of the women of Paris. 

On October 17, 1705 at 84 years old she died in Paris a much loved and very rich woman. In her will she left a large amount of money for the son of her accountant François Marie-Arouet to buy books. You may know François a little better by his other name, Voltaire.

Episode 24 - Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun with her. lovely soft touch with the brushed is known mostly as the official painter to queen Marie Antoinette. Born on April 16, 1755 in Paris on Rue Coquillière, her father Louis Vigèe was an artist who began to teach her at a very young age to paint. Elisabeth was just twelve years old when her father died after swallowing a fish bone. Her mother Jeanne remarried quickly to jeweller Jacques-François Le Sèvre moving the family to Rue Saint-Honoré. Elisabeth wasn’t fond of her new step father and missed her father dearly. 

After her father's death she began to train under Gabriel Briard who had an atelier in the Louvre. During the days she would train and work as a copyist surrounded by the Dutch masters. Women had many restrictions at the time and the only way to mix and mingle with other artists, male or female was within the walls of the Louvre. 

In 1770, at just 15 years old she finished her first portrait of her mother. Wanting to extend her education she enrolled in the Academy of Saint-Luc, one of the only schools that took women students. In no time, her portraits became very popular and were sought out by the upper class of Paris at just 17 years old. Her stepfather had other ideas and saw the young artists as his personal piggy bank taking all the money she made. 

Another move in 1775 took them to Rue de Cléry and to new neighbor Jean-Baptiste Le Brun, who was the great nephew of French painter and man behind Versailles Charles Le Brun. Jean-Baptiste might have already been married in Holland, but that didn’t stop him from asking Elisabeth to marry him. She wasn’t in love with him but she wanted away from her step-father.  On January 11, 1776 they were married in the Église Saint Eustache. 

The same year the Count de Provence, future Louis XVIII commissioned her for a portrait, it was her entry into the Court of Versailles and there was no turning back. Marie Antoinette saw her painting and loved her flattering female touch. Painting Marie Antoinette more than thirty times, but it was one portrait that would make her a household name. 

At the Salon of 1793 she entered a painting of the queen in a white muslin dress. Seeing the queen in essentially her underwear shocked everyone. Elisabeth was forced to remove it and replace it with a new version, this time in a blue-grey satin dress. It has become the most often used image of the queen since. 

It wasn’t her first time she caused a stir in the artistic Paris community. In 1786 she painted a self-portrait holding her daughter Julie. The classic Madonna and Child was an often seen subject, but this one was a bit different. Elisabeth painted her mouth slightly open and god forbid, smiling. People were outraged, and today it is known as one of the very first smiles in western art. 

In 1789, while at the Chateau de Louveciennes with Madame du Barry the Sans-Culottes arrived and destroyed all her paintings. It was the start of the Revolution and anyone associated with the crown was under threat of death. With her daughter Julie, born in 1780 they fled France for Italy while her husband remained in Paris. In Florence and Rome she met other exiled artists and continued to paint. 

Unable to return to France as her name was on the list of more than 140,000 French citizens wanted for their ties to royalty. Elisabeth and Julie stayed in Italy, at the same time sending paintings back to Paris as they were finished. Back in Paris, her husband was working as an appraiser of the royal collections that were being seized and was also able to keep an eye on his wife's paintings that were being pulled from view and did all he could to have her name removed from the list so she could return. 

On January 18, 1801 she was finally allowed to return and traveled with her old friend, the Count de Provence, now Louis XVIII  who was avoiding France and staying in London and Switzerland. Constantly reinventing herself and nibbling between sides, in 1805 she painted Napoleon’s sister Caroline Murat which put her in the good graces of Napoleon. 

In 1809, she purchased a house outside of Paris in Louveciennes and hosted Salons and continued to paint. In 1815 Louis XVIII took the throne in Paris and worked to restore the image of his brother Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Louis XVIII allowed Elisabeth’s portraits of the royal family to return to the walls of the Musée du Louvre, Versailles and Fontainebleau where they remain to this day. 

A long awaited divorce to her husband came in 1813 and in 1819 her estranged daughter Julie  died. As everyone died around her, she wrote her three volume memoir until she lost her sight due to a brain tumor which took her life on March 30, 1842 on Rue Saint-Lazare. 

Elisabeth is remembered mostly for her portraits of Marie Antoinette, but she also captured many other amazing images including the portrait of Hubert Robert. Of her 900 paintings she completed, 660 were portraits that are now spread around the world.

Episode 23 - Sarah Bernhardt

Sarah Bernhardt, the darling of the Paris stage of the 19th century had a life filled with ups and downs. Born on October 25, 1844 (maybe) in Paris to a mother that was a courtesan and never really knowing who her father was. Later in her life when she was to receive the Legion d’Honor a proof of citizenship was needed. Her original birth certificate was destroyed in the Commune fire at the Hotel de Ville. It was the perfect chance for Bernhardt to rewrite her story yet again.

In the new version she lists Edward Bernhardt as her father who was a wealthy shipowner and changed her birthday to October 23. Just a few steps away from Odeon on the Rue d'École de Médecine at number 5 is a plaque marking the location as the site of her birth on October 25, 1844. Like Moliere, there are a few other locations in Paris that also claim to be her birthplace. 

Due to her mother's profession, she had a few other children, all which she adored a bit more than Sarah. As a young child she was sent to live with a nanny in Quimperlé, Brittany. Growing up away from her mother, a kind gentleman and client of her mother, Duke of Morny offered to pay for Sarah’s education at a convent school in Versailles. Thriving at the school, she set her sights on becoming a nun, until her lizard died. Holding a full Catholic mass for her dead lizard, it didn’t go over with the nuns and they let her know she should maybe look into another line of work. 

In 1859 the Duke paid for her to join the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris, where she fell in love with acting. In just a few years she was performing on the stage of the Comedie Francaise. From very early on, Bernhardt had issues with her temper. At the Comedie Francaise she slapped a fellow actress on stage in the middle of a play and hit a guard on the head with her umbrella when he called her “little Bernhardt”.  She would slowly work her way through each of the stages of Paris, each taking a risk on her but knowing s69he would pack the seats. 

In 1869 she joined the Theatre de l’Odéon, just a few months before the Siege of Paris began. As it neared Paris, she had the theater turned into a makeshift hospital. Adding 32 beds in the foyer and lobby for the wounded and even assisted doctors in surgery. Her personal chef cooked soup and when the coal ran out they began to burn the stage scenes and furniture. As the Prussians were in Paris she had the patients moved to hotel rooms where they could be taken care of. 

An affair with a Belgian prince, Henri Maximilian Joseph de Ligne resulted in a pregnancy. She was living with her mother at the time in Paris. Her mother (the courtesan) told her she needed to leave, she didn’t want an unwed mother living in her home. Sarah moved out and found a lavish apartment on the Boulevard Malesherbes. Henri wanted to marry Sarah and raise their child together, but his family told him he would be cut off financially if he did, that was the end of their relationship. 

Returning to the stage of the Theatre de l’Odeom she performed in Victor Hugo’s Ruy Blas which drew large crowds. A huge fire raged through her Boulevard Malesherbes apartments destroying everything. Without insurance she was left with nothing but the few diamonds she picked out of the ashes. The manager of the Theatre de l’Odeon organized a fundraiser for the actress. So much money was raised that she was able to buy a larger apartment on Rue de Rome. With a staff and multiple rooms she was living in luxury and at times sleeping in a coffin she purchased to prepare for roles. 

In 1878 she returned to the Comedie Francaise much to the chagrin of the manager. A huge star and a slight temper made her difficult to deal with. One day she took a balloon ride at the exciting Universal Exhibition with artist George Clairin. The owner of the balloon had named it after one of her most famous characters and asked her to take the maiden voyage. As she and George took the short trip up a wind storm moved in, tearing it from its anchor and sweeping the balloon out over the Paris skyline. By the time it was able to come down it was outside of Paris. When she returned to the Comedie Francaise for her play the manager was waiting for her. There was a strict clause in her contract that she was never allowed to leave Paris without his permission. She was fined 100 francs that she refused to pay. She was the star of the show, what were they really going to do. 

Within two years she left the Comedie Francaise, breaking her contract and starting her own touring company and toured the world. Arriving in New York to perform at the Booth’s Theater to a packed crowd in 1880 and charging $40 a ticket which was a fortune at the time. Although the New York elite didn’t approve of her lifestyle, they weren’t going to miss a chance to see her on stage. In a year she traveled to more than 50 cities in a custom made luxurious train. WIth two maids, cooks and personal assistants in tow crossing the US she made $194,000, more than 5 million dollars today. 

When she returned to Paris she was no longer the darling of the stage, none of the theaters wanted to work with her. At a performance at the Paris Opera in 1881 with the president and local dignitaries in attendance, dressed in a white dress and holding the French flag she sang Le Marseillaise. There was a standing ovation and cheers for her to sing it again. She sang it two more times, and with that she was back in the good graces of the Parisians. 

Whenever she needed money she went on another “farewell” tour. All over Europe, Russia and Austria although she was met with anti-semitic crowds shouting slurs at her. On her return to Paris she decided she needed her own theater and on January 1, 1899 she signed the lease for the Theatre des Nation at the Place du Chatelet. Restoring the entire building and adding more that 5500 bulbs to the facade she made it into the theater of her dreams. Replacing the red velvet with gold velvet, turning the lobby into a showplace of its own complete with the lifesize lithographs created by Mucha. 

At the start of World War I the French ministry was worried for her safety as one of the most popular people in Paris. She found a home in Andernos-Les-Bains in the southwest of France. While there a nagging injury she suffered on stage became too much. After jumping down from a scene she hurt her knee that continued to get worse with repeated injury. In seclusion gangrene moved in and she had to have her leg amputated just above the knee. She refused to wear a wooden leg or any braces and for the rest of her life she would perform on stage either seated or leaning against something so nobody would ever notice she lost her leg. 

In the final years of her life she turned to the film world for her roles. While on the set of a film by Sascha Guitry she collapsed and fell into a coma for over an hour. Worried about her health they moved the film set to her home at 56 avenue Pierre in the 17e. On March 21, 1923 in the middle of filming she collapsed again, but this time she wouldn’t pull out of the coma. On March 26 she died in her home in the arms of her son. 

A large service at Saint Francois-de-Sales was held followed by a large procession to Pere Lachaise.More than 30,000 people walked behind her through the streets of Paris to her final resting place.  

Episode 22 - Camille Claudel

The story of Camille Claudel is one of heartbreak and sadness. A genius of an artist she never got her due and ended her life alone. 

Born on December 8, 1864 to Louis Prosper Claudel and Louise Athanaise in Fère-en-Tardenois in the Aisne department. The oldest child of three, later they would have Paul in 1868 and Louise in 1866.  At just 12 years old she began to play with clay and her talent got the attention of artist Alfred Boucher. Her father supported her pursuit and agreed to move to Paris so she would be able to study under Boucher. Her mother on the other hand did not and never would support her. 

In 1882, when she was 18 she rented a studio at 117 Rue Notre-Dame des Champs, giving it another forty years and she could have been neighbors with Ernest and Hadley Hemingway. Working each day with a group of female artists under the guidance of Boucher until he left for Rome.  Winning the Salon prize, he went to Rome and asked his friend and fellow sculptor Auguste Rodin to take over. If you know her story, you may have taken a gulp at this moment knowing where it will go. At 19 years old in 1883, her affair with Rodin began. Rodin was fascinated with the young lady who was incredibly talented and inspired his own art.  

Working close together Camille would assist Rodin on some of his most famous pieces. The Kiss, the Gates of Hell and on Les Burghers de Calais. For ten years they were together in the studio and in the bedroom. Twenty-four years older than Camille, Rodin was also involved with Rose Beuret, a relationship that began in 1864 and would last until the end of his life. Camille wanted to marry Rodin, but he never agreed, staying with Rose and marrying her in the final year of his life. 

In 1892, Camille became pregnant. Ending the pregnancy and also ended their affair. The two artists continued to work together but after years of Rodin taking credit for her work, even taking some of her sculptures as his own.  She decided to find her own studio at 31 Boulevard de Port-Royal near the Gobelins. 

It was in this studio that she created one of her most beautiful and haunting sculptures. L’Age Mur. It depicts an older woman leading an older man away while his arm reaches back to a young woman on her knees pleading with him to stay.  Many including Roden thought this was a message to their relationship and was outraged. The French government had originally commissioned the piece in 1895 but cancelled it when they saw the subject and how it offended Rodin. Camille would still complete it and it would be exhibited in 1899, much to the chagrin of Rodin.  Up until this point Rodin supported her financially but that ended with L’Age Mur and her final break from the sculptor. 

That same year she moved to the Hotel de Jassaud on Ile Saint Louis at 19 Quai de Bourbon into a ground floor apartment and studio. Commissions for private pieces kept her going but eventually her mental health started to crumble. Alone in her apartment she was convinced Rodin was out to get her. With paranoia too much to handle she never walked out her door and began to destroy many of her sculptures. 

In 1910, her apartment at the tip of Ile Saint Louis was flooded followed by her taking a sledgehammer and destroying all her plaster molds. The neighbors were getting tired of her antics and loud noises and contacted her brother Paul Claudel. Her parents were still alive and her father was the only one in the family that supported her and her art. 

On March 2, 1913 her father,  Louis Prosper Claudel died. Paul, Louise and their mother decided not to tell Camille of his passing or his funeral. Paul took action and had Camille committed and convinced their mother to sign the papers placing her in an asylum. On March 7, 1913 she was diagnosed with dementia, malnutrition, alcoholism and paranoia. Placed in the Ville Evrard asylum in Seine St Denis, Paul told the doctors that no one was allowed to visit and letters were never to be given to her. Back at her studio on Ile Saint Louis, her family destroyed what was left of it. Nothing was spared. 

Later in September of that year a journalist published an article in L’Avenir de l’Aisne that Camille was being held against her will and should be released. Her doctors told Paul and her mother that she didn’t need to be there and Rodin even did all he could to intervene and have her released. Paul, Louise and their mother were steadfast in their plan to keep her locked up.  Her sister Louise wanted her cut out of the will and out of the family and her brother and mother felt the same and did just that. 

For thirty years Camille was locked up and alone and at two in the morning on October 19, 1943 she died alone of a stroke brought on by malnutrition at the age of 78. For thirty years she rarely had a visitor including her family. When she died, Paul declined to pay for a tomb or marker and the beautiful artist was buried in the cemetery at the asylum with only a few staff in attendance. 

When Paul protested even a small grave she was dug up and tossed into a mass grave of fellow patients. The family never came. In 2008 her niece Reine-Marie Paris Claudel, granddaughter of Paul, had a stone erected where she once lay in memory of her aunt. Reine-Marie hadn’t learned about her aunt until she was older and married. Nobody in the family was allowed to talk about her or even speak her name. Later an art dealer contacted Reine-Marie to see if she would be interested in buying some of the work of Camille Claudel. It sparked a passion and a mission she would fight the rest of her life and even take her to court.   

Tirelessly amassing a catalog of all her aunts' work, she was able to track down more than 67 of the 110 sculptures said to have survived since her death in 1943. Reine-Marie helped create the Musée Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur Seine where their family once lived that opened in 2017. In order to raise money she sold copies of Camille’s work which would land her in court for 17 years charged with counterfeiting. Today she still works to make sure her aunt, her art and her pain are never forgotten. The Musée Rodin has a room dedicated to Camille and the large bronze version of L’Age Mur can be found in the Musée d’Orsay. 

In 2017, two of her pieces sold for 4.1 million dollars, far over asking. Guess her horrible family should have saved more of her work instead of destroying the woman and all her work.

Episode 21 - Edith Piaf

Edith Giovanna Gassion, the French singer we know as Edith Piaf had quite the life. Starting on a doorstep in Belleville where her mother Annette Giovanna and Louis Alphonse Gassion lived. She famously told the story that her mother gave birth right there for all the world to see. It makes for a great story but it is believed that she was born in the nearby Hopital Tenon. Annette, a circus performer, walked out shortly after she was born leaving baby Edith with her father. 

While World War I raged through Europe, Louis enlisted in the army leaving the Edith without a parent. Her father left her with her maternal grandmother where she was treated terribly. It seems the motherly genes missed that side of the family.The poor child was rarely bathed and instead of water or milk was given bottles of wine. After some time, when it was discovered how badly she was treated her other grandmother took her in. 

The paternal grandmother may not have been much better as a madame of a brothel in Besnay, Normandy. The ladies of the brothel looked after her and kept her fed, clean and healthy. At three years old, Edith went blind and was diagnosed with Keratitis and suffered for more than four years. The ladies had heard of people being cured by visiting Lisieux where Saint Therese had lived her final short years and saved money for their young friend. Saving up enough money for Edith and her father to make the pilgrimage, they traveled to Lisieux with high hopes. Once they arrived,  her eyes were wrapped in bandages and  rubbed with the dirt of Lisieux. Given a bucket of dirt they were sent home and told to wrap her eyes each night and continue to rub dirt into the bandages. After eight days, her sight was restored and she was heeled. She would wear a Saint Therese medal for the rest of her life. 

In 1929, her father, the street performer, took her on the road with him touring all over France. Extremely shy, she began to sing on  the streets with her father and draw large crowds. Months later Simon “Momone” Bertreaut joined the act. The two girls that may have been half sisters started making so much money they branched out on their own and sang around Montmartre. 

At 17 years old Edith met and fell for Louis Dupont who quickly moved into the girls' Pigalle apartment. Before long Edith was pregnant and Louis did not like the idea of her signing on the streets and convinced her to take a job at a wreath factory. In February 1933, her daughter Marcelle (Cecelle) was born and much like her mother and grandmothers before her Edith wasn’t really the mother type. She took the baby from Louis when he told her he didn’t want her singing in the streets and with Simone they checked into a hotel. The two girls would leave the baby alone to sing in the streets all night. Once Louis heard he took the baby back and told her if she wanted to see her she needed to come home. She made her choice and it wasn’t baby Marcelle. Two years later Marcelle died of meningitis. Years later she would be buried with Edith in Pere Lachaise.

Louis Leplée, owner of Le Gerry’s nightclub just off the Champs Elysees spotted Edith on the streets of Pigalle and asked her to perform at the club. Terrified to take the stage he gave her lessons in stage presence, to dress in black and gave her the nickname Piaf since she was so tiny. Her one week booking turned into seven months and ended when Leplée was murdered on April 6, 1936. Edith was arrested and held for two days as they investigated the mobsters that pulled off the hit. Living in brothels and performing on the streets brought her into contact with many unsavory characters over time, and a few of them were thought to have killed Leplée. Cleared of all charges but it had impacted her short live fame she had achieved. 

Getting serious she hired Raymon Osso, a songwriter that helped revamp her image. He banned her from seeing any of the unsavory characters of her past and had to focus on her music. It was at this time she began to write many of the lyrics for her songs. As WWII started, her career had reached new heights. Performing in the clubs and cabarets of Paris attended by German soldiers and collaborators she would also be labeled a collaborator herself. So popular with the officers she went to Berlin in August 1943 to perform in the clubs. When she returned to France she was put on trial and the people campaigned to pull her music from the radio. 

As a  woman raised on the streets essentially she was a smart cookie. She began to perform for the Germans in the prisoner camps and during her performance Resistance members were able to break a few lucky soles out. 

After the war and back in everyone's good graces she kept writing and performing and also helped nurture other young singers like Charles Aznavour and Yves Montand. In the summer of 1948 she met French boxer Marcel Cerdan. Cerdan was married with three children, but that didn’t keep the two apart. For a little over a year Cerdan and Piaf were inseparable and the talk of France. In October 1949, on a flight to New York to meet Edith his plane crashed killing everyone on board. She was devastated and never really recovered. 

In 1951 a  horrible car accident with Charles Aznavour broke her arm and two ribs. Quickly followed by two more accidents that would begin her lifelong journey of addiction to morphine and alcohol. With another chance at love she married Jacques Pells the following year with close friend Marlene Dietrich serving as her maid of honor. 

With the years of addiction taking their toll on her tiny body and slowing down,  Bruno Coquatrix, close friend and owner of the Olympia, asked her to help him save the historic venue. She had performed there many times but this time she took the stage and debuted her newest song, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. It was recorded and released and saved the Olympia. 

Her marriage to Pells didn’t last long and in 1962 she married again. This time to the much younger Greek singer and actor Theo Sarapo. She seemed to finally find the perfect match although he was more than 20 years younger. The marriage wasn’t too last long when on October 10, 1963 the little sparrow would take her last breath at the age of 47. At her villa in Grasse she died of liver failure and an aneurysm at such a young age. 

With a lifelong tie to Paris, Theo acted quickly and decided against doctors wishes to take her body back to Paris. Driving all through the night she was returned to her home at 67 Boulevard Lannes. Such a beloved figure in French history she was denied a funeral mass by the Cardinal Maurice Feltin. Even the Pope weighed in and said “She lived a life in a state of public sin” and the church would not recognize her. Fifty years after her death on October 10, 2013 at the Saint Jean-Baptiste Church in Belleville she was finally given permission by the Catholic church to have a mass in her name. 

Her funeral procession wound its way through the streets of Paris starting at her apartment on the far end of the 16th to Pere Lachaise cemetery. More than 500,000 people lined the streets of the 10 kilometer route with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Aznevour leading the way.

For more Edith Piaf, check out the amazing movie La Vie en Rose staring the wonderful Marion Cotillard playing Edith Piaf. Half way through it you will know exactly why she won an Oscar for the role. I get the chills just thinking about this movie. It’s so good!

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Episode 20 - Johanna Bonger van Gogh

Some of the women that we talk about on La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway podcast I get really attached to, Johanna Bonger van-Gogh is one of them that I adore so much and her amazing story that everyone should know. 

Johanna Bonger was born on October 4, 1862 in Amsterdam to a musical family. The fifth of seven children, she showed a keen mind at a very early age. While her older sister stayed at home, Johanna’s parents let her pursue her studies focusing on English which would lead her to the British Museum in London working in the library. 

Returning to Utrecht she began teaching at a girls boarding school when one day her brother Andries asked her to meet some of his friends.. Andries had been living in Paris and met many artists including Vincent and Theo van Gogh. For Theo it was love at first site, but Johanna didn’t have the same feelings. Months later Theo paid her a visit in Utrecht and let Johanna know he was in love with her. Johanna was taken back by such a pledge of love by a man that she didn’t even know. 

Theo must have worn her down and on April 17, 1889 the two were married. Johanna would move to Paris with Theo and nine months later on January 31, 1890 their son, Vincent Willem van Gogh was born, named after his uncle. 

Theo, the champion of his older brother Vincent and his art was also a great art dealer in Paris. He had started working in the Hague for Paris art dealer Goupil & Cie when they asked him in 1884 to work in the Paris gallery. With any money that Theo made he purchased paint and art supplies and sent to his brother. In 1886, Vincent moved to Paris sharing Theo’s very tiny Parisian apartment and through Theo would meet many of the greatest artists of the time. Pissarro, Seurat, Cézanne, Rousseau, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gauguin. 

In 1888, Theo convinced Gauguin to visit Vincent in the south of France. Vincent wanted to set up an artist colony like the Japanese artists had,  but Gauguin wasn’t so sure of the idea. Theo paid for all of his travel expenses while Gauguin sent Theo letters letting him know how Vincent was doing. The two brothers would also write to each other every day. Vincent's letters also include sketches of paintings he was working on with details of the colors he would use and his daily thoughts. Theo would save every single letter. 

Johanna adored her brother in law and saw how close the two brothers were and was happy to support him in any way she could. On June 8, 1890, less than two months before he died, Theo, Johanna and baby Vincent went to see him in Auvers-sur-Oise, it would be the only time Vincent met his nephew. Vincent was in very good spirits but a short time later on July 29, 1890 Vincent died. Theo was devastated and just four months later he was admitted to the Den Dolder asylum in the Netherlands. On January 25, 1891, Theo would die, just six months after his brother. The notes as his cause of death are heartbreaking, “Heredity, Chronic disease, overwork and sadness”.

Johanna and Theo had been married for less than two years when it all ended. Left with a baby and an apartment filled with paintings she wasn’t sure where to start. Her brother told her she should just toss all the paintings out, but Johanna loved Theo and Vincent and couldn’t do it. Vincent only sold one painting while he was alive so the outlook at the time didn’t look good. 

Returning to the Netherlands she moved to the small town of Bussum to open a boarding school for girls, but Johanna was also a smart business woman and knew that the town also had a high concentration of art critics and dealers. She had worked very closely with Theo and knew what to do. Women in the art world,  just before the turn of the century were mostly unknown which worked in her favor. The mens art club didn’t see her coming. Before he died Theo told her to never sell Vincent’s paintings in groups, bring them out one at a time to generate interest. 

In 1901, Johanna married Johan Cohen Gosschalk, a Dutch painter that was a great support. Later that year, with art dealer Paul Cassirer and his cousin Bruno she helped create an exhibition of Vincent’s paintings in Berlin. Germany was an early market that discovered Vincent long before anyone else including the wealthy Helen Kroller-Muller. Muller over time would build the largest personal collection with 91 of Vincent’s paintings.

Controlling the circulation of paintings she created the narrative of Vincent’s story and was just getting started. Remember all those letters Vincent sent Theo? After Theo’s death in a box she found piles and piles of letters, Theo saved every single one. Johanna started to transcribe each of the letters with Vincent's thoughts, state of mind and sketches. You have to remember at the time that nobody outside the artist community knew who Vincent was, he wasn’t famous when he was alive or after his death and many thought his paintings were horrible and his use of color shocking. However, that was about to change. 

Johanna began to release pieces of the letters and the Vincent we all know now with all the ups and downs came to life. Suddenly his paintings began to sell and the interest in his life was a topic at the local cafe. In 1915 she would lose her second husband and decided to go to New York with her son. Johanna spent all her time on the letters, for four years she diligently transcribed them and also translated them into English. She was very careful not to let the letters overshadow the paintings, the two had to go hand in hand building interest into Vincent and his paintings. 

Johanna also kept a detailed diary that her son would later release after her death. One entry she wrote “Imagine for one moment my experience when I came back to Holland realizing the greatness and the nobility of that lonely artist's life”, She held her responsibility to Theo  & Vincent very close to her heart. As Vincent Willem grew up he was surrounded by more than 200 paintings of his uncle covering the walls. Out of all of them one was the most important to his mother, Sunflowers painted in 1888. When news of Gauguin's arrival came, Vincent decided to paint a series of paintings to surround his friend's room. Seven paintings, three of which were copies he did himself all of the happy sunflower that would jump off the wall.

After his death alongside all of his other paintings, Theo would hang Sunflowers of sixteen stems in a vase on his wall, it was his favorite. After their deaths, Johanna had held onto this painting and would never part with it or let it be exhibited. In 1924 Jim Eend working for the National Gallery in London was given a large amount of money from Samuel Courtauld to purchase paintings of modern artists. Jim went to visit Johanna and wanted to purchase her beloved Sunflowers. She told him no, and it wasn’t for sale,  “I have seen this painting everyday of my life for 30 years and can’t part with it”. Jim persisted and just before Johanna died she sent him a letter that she would sell it to him. Vincent had spent time in London at the National Gallery and her goal was to get his paintings into the public museums so generations could enjoy them. 

On September 2, 1925 Johanna died in Laren, Netherlands at 62 years old. Her son Vincent continued the legacy of their family and in the 1960’s created the Van Gogh foundation. The over 200 paintings that she could never sell that surrounded their home would become the basis of the collection in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1973. 

In 1914,she had Theo’s body moved to lay beside his brother in Auvers-sur-Oise, the two brothers together once again. 

Johanna wrote in her diary, “I wish I could make you feel the influence Vincent had on my life”. If it wasn’t for Johanna van Gogh, we would never know the life and genius of Vincent and for that gift she gave us all she should be remembered as a saint. 

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Episode 19 - Sylvia Beach

This weeks podcast is all about Sylvia Beach the American that would become one of the most important literary connections in Paris for the “Lost Generation”. Born on March 14, 1887 in Baltimore Maryland, her father was a minister whose job would take the family to France in 1901. Her first taste of France would stay with her like it does with so many and would bring her back in 1917. 

Towards the end of WWI she returned to Paris to study French literature when one day she stumbled across a lending library on Rue de l’Odeon, La Maison des Amis des Livres run by Adrienne Monnier. Beach would spend a lot of time at the shop and the two would become involved. She was going to return to Baltimore and open up her own shop but she decided to stay in Paris after her parents told her it would be easier to open her own shop in Paris and gave her $300. 

Original location at 8 Rue Dupuytren

Almost 101 years ago on 19 November 1919 on 8 Rue Dupuytren she opened the very first Shakespeare and Company. Beach said the name came to her one night as she lay in bed and had her friend Charles Winzer create a sign and an oval portrait of Shakespeare to hang above the door. Furniture from flea markets filled the shop and books Beach found at bookshops in the Chevillet, Bourse and Boiveau filled the shelves. Friends in the states sent her boxes of books and Sylvia would visit London and return with trunks full of books whenever she had the money. She never set an opening date deciding the doors would open when she was finally ready.  A friendly nearby waiter assisted in opening her shutters and in the windows the works of T.S. Eliot, Joyce and Whitman as she waited for her first customer. Her friends flooded in immediately and never stopped coming.  Opening as a bookshop but also a lending library worked much better at this time in Paris. Customers could purchase a subscription and would allow them each month to borrow a few books. 

Sylvia would remain at this location until May 1921  when she would move to the nearby Rue de l’Odeon where a young american writer, Ernest Hemingway would discover her as soon as he arrived in Paris. Hemingway and Beach had a close relationship that would last until he moved back to the US and one he always looked back on fondly with the literary trailblazer. 

Second location at 12 Rue de l’Odeon

Many of the American expats spent hours in her store a day and  served as a post office for them as well. Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ford Maddox Ford and James Joyce could be found every day getting all the latest news and gossip. James Joyce, the rather melancholy author would sit at the small table by the window each and every day, working on Ulysses and sharing his frustration on his lack of publisher. The book that had already been seen in excerpts in the United States  and was banned as soon as copies appeared. As an author of an English book it was a huge problem. One day Sylvia offered to publish Ulysses for Joyce, and he was of course over the moon. 

To fund the project Sylvia began to pre-sell advanced copies and a printer in Dijon was happy to work with her. Joyce unfortunately wasn’t so easy to work with. He constantly kept changing the text and as soon as an edition was printed. Sylvia lost most of her money and without a contract for the first seven years she had very little protection. Joyce would later find a publisher and would walk away from Sylvia and all the work she had done that almost cost her Shakespeare & Co. When Andre Gide walked in one day and asked how she was and she let him know she may close, he organized all of the writers to sell tickets to live readings So much money was raised she was able to save her shop. She also created a catalog selling many of her first editions. Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises had been released and was in high demand. 

Sylvia and James Joyce

When World War II began she kept her doors open until a German officer came in one day and wanted to buy her copy of FInnegans Wake that was sitting in the window. She refused to sell it to him which enraged him and he told her he would return. Two weeks later he arrived looking for the book that was no longer in the window or on the shelves. She told him it was gone but he didn’t like the answer and said she needed to find it and he would be back later that night for it. 

Sylvia told all her friends who arrived with baskets and boxes. Within a few hours her shop was emptied into an apartment above including every piece of furniture, the shelves were removed  and the sign painted over. When they came back weeks later they came this time for Sylvia herself. She was arrested and sent to an internment camp in Vittel where she would remain for six months. Thankfully she returned to Paris and hid in a student hostel on Boulevard Saint Michel. She was able to sneak out once a day to visit Adrienne but couldn’t return home until after the Liberation. 

As soon as she returned to 18 Rue de l’Odeon her old friend Ernest Hemingway arrived barreling down the street calling up to her. It was August 26, 1944 and he would run up the stairs to his dear friend and ask what he could do for her.  Sylvia and Adrienne asked him if he could remove the Germans still firing from the roofs of Odeon.  Hemingway returned to his liberated Mercedes, grabbed some men and guns and returned to the roof of her building. Gun fire was heard for a few minutes and then total silence, Odeon was liberated and the nightmare was over. 

Adrienne and Sylvia lived out the rest of their life on Rue de l’Odeon. Adrienne died on June 19, 1955 after she overdosed on sleeping pills. Sylvia would live on alone until October 5, 1962 of a heart attack. She wasn’t discovered for days. Such a sad ending to a woman that meant so much to so many and shaped many of the greatest American writers in history. 

18 Rue de l’Odeon

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Episode 18 - Barbe-Nicol Ponsardin- Veuve Clicquot

On December 16,  1777 Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the mother of champagne  was born.  Ponsardin came from a wealthy family in Reims, France. Her father Ponce Jean Nicolas Philippe Ponsardin was a textile merchant and politician who worked with Philippe Clicquot. Clicquot was also an important textile merchant and they decided to strengthen their companies and families through the arranged marriage of their children. At 21 years old Barbe-Nicole married François Clicquot uniting the family. Clicquot also owned some vineyards but hadn’t been too serious in the winemaking game yet but his son François saw it had great promise. 

 François began work right away in the champagne business with his father expanding the company to 60,000 bottles a year and shipping throughout Europe at the start of the 19th century.  On March 20, 1799, their daughter Clémentine was born and six short years later her husband François would die of typhoid or suicide on October 23, 1805. Now with a small child and a champagne house Barbe-Nicole, now Veuve Clicquot had to decide what to do next. 

Her father-in-law Philippe wanted to sell the company but Barbe-Nicole wanted to take it over. At the time the new Napoleonic Code didn’t allow for women to work or head a company, unless you were a widow. She had enough family money that she would be able to take on the business on her own, something that women did not do at the time. One of the first women to lead an International business, forever known as Veuve Clicquot was born in that moment. In 1810 she launched Veuve-Clicquot Ponsardin and became the first female champagne producer and the first to lead a champagne house. 

 A keen head for business and the help of lifelong employee Louis Bohne, she discovered that the Russian royalty loved her Champagne and shipped thousands of bottles to them. When Napoleon’s naval blockades thwarted her business, she used other boats to get her liquid gold to them. On the brink of losing everything she would charter a Dutch boat to sneak down the rivers to Russia with over 10,000 bottles. Selling out in just a few weeks she would do it again and again. This decision would change her business, surviving on the waterways of France and why you see the anchor on the bottle today. As for that distinct yellow color of the label,  well that comes from a perfect French chicken egg yoke.

While many Champagne houses waited for the conflicts to be over she used the time to build her brand and when things eased up she was ready to take on the world. By 1814, she was producing 400,000 bottles a year. 

 One day when they were trying to figure out a better method to remove the lees (yeast) from the bottle. Sitting around her kitchen table she came up with an idea and began to cut holes into her table. She created the technique of riddling that allowed the bottles to be placed at a 45 degree angle so the yeast would gather in the neck of the bottle, frozen and removed, thus ending in that perfectly clear glass of bubbles. 

La Grande Dame de la Champagne would die on July 29, 1866 at 89 years old, leaving behind a legacy that would last until this day. At the time of her death she was now producing 750,000 bottles a year. Today the house is owned by LVMH, the largest luxury brand in the world and produces more than 4,000,000 bottles a year. I think Madame Clicquot would be pretty proud how beloved her champagne is today. 

 On my first visit to France a trip to the motherland was on the top of my list. As we drove into Reims it was straight to the golden gates of the Madame herself. A tour of the champagne house includes a visit down into the caves that have been used for hundreds of years. Along the rows and rows of riddling racks keep an eye out at the chalk walls. During World War I they were used as a hospital and red crosses still remain to remind us of the past and especially important today when we need to know what we can survive. 

I’ll keep my Vueve colored heels following in  her steps everyday with a glass of Champagne bien sur.

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Episode 17 - Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein was the woman behind many of the greatest writers and artists in Paris of the 1920’s and her famous catch phrase, the “Lost Generation”. However, there is of course much more to her life and in this week's episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec A Hemingway we explore her entire story. 

The youngest of five children born to upper class parents in Pennsylvania. Her father was very wealthy from his wide ranging real estate holdings. At just three years old the entire family picked up and moved to Europe. First landing in Vienna for a few months before they ventured to Paris with nannies and tutors in tow for the five children. The Stein’s wanted to raise there children with an appreciation of art and culture and there wasn’t a better place than Europe to do that. It was the 1880’s, the days when the Impressionists were branching out to shake up the art world and create their own exhibition.  

A year later the family returned to America, settling in Oakland where Mr. Stein became the director of the San Francisco Market Street line. He would have been working alongside my Great-Great Grandfather Henry Casebolt who also had the Sutter and Bush lines and designed the cable car break still used today. 

At 14 years old, Gertrude would lose her mother and three years later her father. As one of the youngest her older brother Michael looked after her and decided to send her and her sister Bertha to Baltimore to live with family. It was in Baltimore that she would meet the Cone Sisters. Two worldly and progressive women that loved art and hosted a weekly salon in their home, and were the inspiration of her very own in Paris. 

Gertrude was incredibly smart and enrolled in Radcliff college to study psychology from 1893-1897. Her professor Williams James said she was one the most brilliant students he had and encouraged her to study medicine at John Hopkins. While she may have excelled she didn’t fit in and found the school to be far too patreolistic for her taste. She became more and more outspoken about the role of women in medicine and John Hopkins wasn’t pleased. In her fourth year she dropped out and decided to travel to London with her brother Leo. 

In 1903 Gertrude and Leo found an apartment and studio at 27 Rue de Fleurs perfect for the two of them and Leo who fancied himself an artist as well.  Leo already had been collecting art on his trips to Europe and Gertrude also caught the bug. Through their friend Bernard Bereson who was also a collector and friends with many of the artists and art dealers of the time. 

Ambroise Vollard, a gallery owner with a personal relationship with Cézanne; Renoir and Picasso but also with an odd way to do business. He would only sell to people he knew and his gallery was always a mess and hard to even walk through. He warmed up to the Stein’s and when their brother Michael gave them 8,000 francs from the family business they knew exactly where to spend it. 

They couldn’t afford the well known painters like Delacroix, Ingres and Manet but they could afford some of the other less known artists. With the money they purchased six Cézanne paintings and also a few from Renoir and Gauguin. Whenever they had any money they visited their friend Vollard and bought whatever they could, mostly more Cézanne’s.  

In 1905 Leo discovered the young Spanish painter and visited his studio at Le Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre. Picasso was in the midst of his Rose Period and sold Leo a few of his Blue Period paintings as well as the Acrobat Family from the Rose Period. This wonderful painting was on display a few years ago at the Musée d’Orsay’s Picasso Rose et Bleu exhibition. Gertrude wasn’t so sold on the Spanish painter at first but would eventually sit for him for a portrait. A process that took a year as he kept restarting it over and over, but gave the two lots of time to get to know each other. Many said later it didn’t look anything like her to which he would say “it will”, and he was right. 

In 1907 Gertrude met Alice B Toklas on her first day in Paris. They had an instant connection and were rarely apart. In 1910 she would move into the Stein’s apartment on Rue de Fleurs and the three would live together as every space on the wall began to be covered with paintings. Leo and Gertrude discovered Matisse and began collecting everything they could and also created a close and lasting friendship. Matisse would stop by and bring friends to visit the apartment and the walls covered with not only his work but also Picasso, Cézanne, Renoir, Pissarro and Toulouse-Lautrec. It was so often that Gertrude couldn’t have a moment to herself to focus on her writing. It was then that she decided to recreate the salon of the Cohn sisters here in Paris. 

Leo couldn’t take it much more and decided to move to Florence and the split of the siblings and their art began. He let her keep the Matisse paintings and  all but one of the Cézanne’s that he loved. It was an amicable split but the two would only see each other one time and not even speak. He was bothered by her writing which was beginning to take a controversial route and she seemed to have little regard for anything but herself. 

In the 1920’s the expats of America began to arrive and many came knocking on her door. The young Ernest Hemingway armed with a letter of introduction from Sherwood Anderson would meet Gertrude in Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company on Rue de l’Odeon and the Hemingway’s were quickly a fixture in Stein’s apartment.  They became so close that Ernest and Hadley named Gertrude and Alice their son Jack’s godmothers. Many say that Gertrude was the one that molded many of these writers and didn’t want anyone to forget that. 

Hemingway pushed her to writer the Autobiography of Alice B Toklas but in the end may have not been his best idea. In the pages Stein lashed out Hemingway saying she is the one that created him but he never wrote anything of worth after the Sun Also Rises. He wasn’t the only one, she also went after Picasso. When the book was released they were not happy and let her know.  The book was a success and even got her back to America for a book tour funded by her friend Mabel Dodge. Exerts of the book were released and the feud between Hemingway and  Picasso was ignited. 

During World War II Gertrude and Alice looked up her art collection in her apartment at 5 rue Christine and left for a house she rented in the Rhone Alps. Gertrude as a Jewish lesbian woman thought she was untuchable to what others in her same situation had to go through. Thinking her money would keep her above any of that and her friendship with Bernard Fay, Vichy collaborator and friend of the Gestapo.  He made sure that Stein and Toklas arrived safely. With only her portrait by Picasso and Cézanne’s Madame Cézanne with Fan they were able to stay undisturbed until the end of the war. As for her art collection, it was one of the only one in all of Paris that escaped the hands of the greedy Nazi’s. That wasn’t at all by luck. 

While in the Alps she spent time translating Marshal Petain’s speeches into English and found a publisher in America. As soon as her editor saw the opening and her analogy of comparing Petain to George Washington they turned it down. Stein also felt that Hitler should be nominated for a Nobel Prize and even while Petain was on trial and sentenced to death  she still supported him. It’s stunning to think a Jewish, lesbian, anti-Semitic woman that was against women’s independence could have these feelings, her entitlement and wealth in the end really did warp her entire vision of reality. 

On July 27, 1946 at 72 years old after surgery for stomach cancer she would die. Alice would live on until 1967 and would spend the years in bitter fights over art with Gertrude’s surviving family.  The two women were later interred together at Pere Lachaise. 

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Episode 16 - Catherine de' Medicis

Catherine de’ Medicis the other Florentine queen that would leave her mark on France. Catherine and Marie de’ Medicis are often mixed up and we hope we can help you tell the two apart like a pro in no time. 

Catherine was born in Florence to Laurent II de Medicis and Madeline de la Tour d’Auvergne on April 15, 1519. Her mother,  Madeline would die after giving birth to her and her father died just days later. The newborn Catherine was now the sole heir of the Medicis grand banking fortune.  Raised and educated by her aunt, Pope Leo X and Pope Clement VII while many suitors looked to align themselves with the Medicis. 

At 14 years old it was decided she would marry the son of French king Francois I, Henri II.  Second in line to the throne, the marriage would wipe out the debt France had with the Medicis and provide a large dowry. Francois also had a fascination with all things Italian, including of course Leonardo da Vinci and bringing the Renaissance to France. 

On September 1 with Pope Clement she headed to France where they had a grand wedding in Marseilles at the Eglise Saint-Ferréol des Augustins on October 28, 1533. After the lavish party the  young 14 year old couple were taken to their royal chambers by his father and remained until the marriage was consummated. Henri even at the age of 14 was in love with another, the older Diane de Poitiers.  It would take ten years before the first royal heir was born. 

 In 1536, the Dauphin and Henri’s older brother Francis died and suddenly Henri was next in line to the throne. Catherine and king Francois I were very close. He loved to talk with her about art, architecture and appreciated her guidance. Henri didn’t share the same relationship with his wife. On March 31, 1547 Francois I died and now Catherine was the queen of France. Henri II kept her out of any state business giving her time to hatch plans against Diane and other members of the court that she didn’t care for. 

 Henri II and Catherine finally had a child and heir, Francis in 1544 and then quickly more children came. In fifteen years she had ten children. Three would become kings and two queens adding to her power over time that Henri II wouldn’t give her. 

 Catherine was known to have a long fascination with the dark arts, psychics and astrologers and more than a few people met their end from her hand. She couldn’t get rid of her main rival Diane de Poitiers until June 30, 1559. In a jousting tournament on the Rue Saint Antoine, Henri II was injured in the eye by a splinter from his opponent's lance. While he lay dying of sepsis he called out for Diane, but Catherine would have none of it. She banished Diane from his bedside, court and his funeral. We will have another episode all about the fascinating Diane. 

On July 10, 1559 the widowed mother helped her oldest son Francis, now king of France and his bride Mary Queen of Scots by controlling many of the ministers of his court. Five months later Francis would die and her son Charles IX took the throne but at ten years old, Catherine needed to serve as regent, now she finally had the power she thought she so richly deserved. 

 It was under the reign of Charles IX that one of the bloodiest episodes in Paris occurred, the St Bartholomew Day massacre on 23 August 1572. Just days after the marriage of her daughter Margaret to the Protestant Prince Henri III of Navarre on the 18 August 1572 at Notre-Dame de Paris a horrible choice would be made.  Henri, was the son of the Huguenot Jeanne d'Albret and would become King Henri IV of France, first Bourbon king and later marry her distant cousin Marie. Following the assassination of Admiral and Huguenot leader Gaspard Coligny, Catherine and her son King Charles IX was worried that there would be a Huguenot uprising as many of the most prominent leaders  were in town still for the royal wedding. During the dark of night just outside the Palais du Louvre, on the 23rd of August Charles IX with the urging of his mother ordered "Kill them, kill them all". It would last weeks and thousands would die in what was one of the worst moments in the French Wars on Religion. 

Following the untimely death of her husband King Henri II at the Hotel des Tournelles in 1559 wanting to distance herself from the bad memory she left the palace and had a new one built, just outside the Palais du Louvre, the Palais du Tuileries. Catherine was a big believer in astrology and counted Nostradamus as one of her closest friends. One of her advisors, Como Ruggeri, told her she would die near Saint-Germain. In the midst of building the Palais du Tuileries, near the Eglise Saint Germain l’Auxerrois, she abruptly moved to the Hôtel de Saissons on the right back near Eglise Saint-Eustache. 

On the 5th of January 1589 on her deathbed she called for a priest. In the last hours of her life she asked him his name, he whispered, Julien Saint-Germain.  She is laid to rest alongside her husband Henri II in not one but two monuments built to them inside the   Basilique Saint-Denis, where most of the Royal history of France can be found.  

The first tomb depicts Henri II & Catherine in their coronation robes laying on a bed made of bronze with their royal symbols and initials created by French sculptor Germain Pilon. As you stand looking at these amazing marble effigies look straight up and see the very large second tomb. 

 The day after her husband's death she ordered the large rectangle temple to be built by Francesco Primaticcio. With the help of Germain Pilon the temple would include nude full sculptures of the king and queen laying on a bed. On each corner are bronze allegories guarding them as they lay in their final slumber and on the top are two large bronze statues of the king and queen knelt in prayer. It's stunning to see in person, the entire Basilique Saint-Denis is.  Just a short metro ride out of Paris, it’s not to be missed. 

 After his death Catherine did everything she could to rewrite the story of her marriage. Trying to erase the influence of Diane de Poitiers, but Henri II would leave his own marks behind, those of he and Diane.

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Episode 15 - Berthe Morisot

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    

Born on January 14, 1841 to a wealthy family, her father was the prefect but also studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Her mother was the niece of the Rococo master Jean-Honoré Fragonard, she was born with art running in her veins. In 1852 they moved to Paris and her parents let Berthe and her sister Edma take art lessons from Joseph Guichard. 

The two girls visited the Louvre as art students and spent their day copying the great masters under the watchful eye of Guichard.  One day artist Henri Fantin-Latour took his friend Édouard Manet to the Louvre to meet the Morisot sisters who were copying a Rubens painting. It would be the start of a very long friendship. 

Following Manet’s shocking of 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. I can stand in front of this painting for hours and lose all track of time. 

In the summer of 1874, Manet’s brother Eugène spent time painting in the country with Berthe. On December 22, 1874 the two were married, joining her to the Manet’s forever. The marriage gave her the luxury of time to focus solely 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 and lighter colors moved away from Manet’s style and rivaled that of many of the men of the Impressionist movement.  

1874 was also the first exposition of the Impressionist Painters at 35 Boulevard des Capucines in the former studio of photographer Nader. Of the 29 artists that exhibited, Morisot was the only woman. With more than 20 pieces on display she would leave quite the mark on visitors. Although, at the time it still wasn’t acceptable to be an artist for a woman in those days, she was protected by her fellow Impressionist artists.  Later in that year at an auction at the Drouot auction house, twelve of her works were up for sale. It caused a scandal and one viewer even called her a prostitute. Fellow artist and friend Camille Pissarro took such an offense he punched the man. 

Julie Manet, their only child was born on November 14, 1878 would be the subject of many of her mother’s paintings as well as her uncle Edouard and also dear family friend Renoir. Her young life was well documented on canvas and thankfully  we are able to see her grow up.  When Julie was just 5 years old, Eugéne Manet died of syphilis, the same thing that took his brother and father. He was just 59 and Julie would have a wide group of “uncles” that would look after her. Degas, Monet, Renoir and poet Stéphane Mallermé were always close if they ever needed anything. 

Sadly three years later Berthe would also die on March 2, 1895 at 54 years old. It is normally mentioned that she died of pneumonia as she was also nursing her daughter who was suffering the same illness. However, her husband's death of syphilis is thought to be what actually ended her life, but kept it hidden to protect her reputation. 

Morisot would be buried in the Manet family tomb at the Passy Cemetery in the Trocadero in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. With her husband Eugène and brother in law Édouard, the two artists would spend eternity together Through Julie and a large family of artists that looked after her, Berthe’s art lived on. Whether she was in front or behind the canvas she was an amazing woman who we are lucky to enjoy today. 

You can find many of her pieces in the Musée d’Orsay , Petit Palais and the Musée Marmottan Monet where you can also find some of the sketches Manet did of her.

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