37.Catalogue de tableaux modernes, pastels, aquarelles, dessins etc de Mme Valtesse de la Bigne (Paris: Imprimerie de la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, June 1902), pp. I–II.
38.Le Figaro, 15 May 1902, p. 6.
39.The Times, 22 May 1902, p. 1.
40.Le Figaro, 3 June 1902, p. 1. All currency equivalents calculated according to: http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/relativevalue.php
41.Le Figaro, 6 June 1902, p. 1.
42.Gil Blas, 10 June 1902, p. 1.
43.Le Matin, 8 June 1902, p. 4.
44.Jules Claretie, La Vie à Paris (Paris, 1911), p. 240.
45.Claretie, pp. 239–40. I am indebted to Dominique Cécile Claudius-Petit for her kind assistance in my research of Valtesse’s property in Ville-d’Avray.
46.Dominique Cécile Claudius-Petit, Ville-d’Avray: mémoire en images (Saint-Avertin: Éditions Sutton, 2013), p. 94.
47.Odile Nouvel-Kammerer, ‘Le lit d’une lionne: Valtesse de la Bigne’, in Rêves d’Alcôves: la chambre au cours des siècles, exhib. cat. (Paris: Musée des Arts décoratifs, 1995), pp. 211–13 (p. 212).
48.Claretie, p. 240.
49.Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 31 December 1910, p. 321.
50.The 55th doge of Venice lived between the 13th and 14th centuries, and was beheaded for attempting to stage a coup d’état. He was condemned to death and his portrait in the Doge’s Palace was removed and the space covered with a black veil.
51.René Picard, conclusion to Gaston Boudan, ‘Madame Valtesse de la Bigne’, Au Pays Virois, (October–December 1933), p. 170.
52.Ego, Isola (Paris, 1876), pp. 160–1.
53.Jean-Marcel Humbert, Édouard Detaille: L’héroisme d’un siècle (Paris: Éditions Copernic, 1979), p. 29.
54.Letter dated 16 June 1994 from the Commune de Ville-d’Avray held by the Musée des Arts décoratifs.
55.Auriant, Les Lionnes du Second Empire (Paris: Gallimard, 1935), pp. 223–4.
56.Le Supplément, 16 July 1903, p. 1.
57.Le Rire, 21 September 1906, p. 5.
58.Claretie, p. 242.
59.Claretie, p. 242.
CHAPTER 18
1.Jules Claretie, La Vie à Paris (Paris, 1911), p. 244.
2.Jean Chalon, Liane de Pougy: Courtisane, princesse et sainte (Paris: Flammarion, 1994), pp. 147–51; Gil Blas, 9 June 1910, p. 1.
3.Claretie, p. 245.
4.Detaille’s diary, held at the Bibliothèque de l’Institut, Paris, extracts held by the Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, MS 5525 and MS 5526.
5.Detaille’s diary, MS 5525 and MS 5526.
6.Detaille’s diary, MS 5525 and MS 5526.
7.Jules Claretie noted how the handwriting on Valtesse’s notecards was ‘large’ but ‘resolute’. Claretie, p. 245.
8.Gaston Boudan, ‘Madame Valtesse de la Bigne’, Au Pays Virois, (October–December 1933), 164–9 (p. 168).
9.Detaille’s diary, MS 5525 and MS 5526.
10.Boudan, p. 168.
11.Le Figaro, 1 August 1910, p. 1.
12.Claretie, p. 245.
13.Le Temps, 3 August 1910, p. 3.
14.Inventaire de Chaville, IA000 51459. Valtesse’s tomb was recently dismantled. All that remains is the square plinth and a circular base where it once stood.
15.Claretie, p. 238.
16.Liane de Pougy, My Blue Notebooks, trans. by Diane Athill (New York: Tarcher Putnam, 2002), p. 44; Jean-Marcel Humbert, Édouard Detaille: L’héroisme d’un siècle (Paris: Éditions Copernic, 1979), p. 30.
17.Claretie, p. 246.
EPILOGUE
1.Auriant, Les Lionnes du Second Empire (Paris: Gallimard, 1935), p. 226.
2.Jules Claretie, La Vie à Paris (Paris, 1911), p. 245.
3.‘Nécrologie’, Le Matin, 21 December 1903, p. 5; ‘Nécrologie’, Gil Blas, 21 December 1903, p. 2.
4.Gaston Boudan, ‘Madame Valtesse de la Bigne’, Au Pays Virois, (October–December 1933), 164–9 (p. 165).
5.Yolaine de la Bigne, Valtesse de la Bigne ou Le pouvoir de la volupté (Paris: Perrin, 1999), p. 232.
6.Adrien Marx, ‘La Plaine Monceau’, Le Figaro, 21 June 1880, p. 1.
7.Le Figaro, 24 December 1910, p. 5; Claretie, p. 244.
8.Jean Chalon, Liane de Pougy: Courtisane, princesse et sainte (Paris: Flammarion, 1994), p. 151.
9.Le Figaro, 23 December 1910, p. 7; Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 31 December 1910, pp. 320–1. All currency equivalents calculated according to: http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/relativevalue.php
10.Le Figaro, 19 February 1911, p. 7; Le Matin, 4 March 1911, p. 6.
11.England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966 for Louise Emilie Valtesse de la Bigne.
12.Le Figaro, 31 August 1910, p. 4.
13.Liane de Pougy, My Blue Notebooks, trans. by Diane Athill (New York: Tarcher Putnam, 2002), p. 181.
14.Pougy, My Blue Notebooks, p. 261.
15.Pougy, My Blue Notebooks, p. 104.
16.Niagara Falls Gazette, 1 October 1923, p. 11.
17.Lehigh Brown and White, 22 February 1924, p. 4.
18.Lehigh Brown and White, 22 February 1924, p. 4.
19.Celine Colassin, ‘663 – Andrée Lafayette’, http://cinevedette4.unblog.fr/663-andree-lafayette/ (accessed 18 February 2015)
20.‘French Actress Quits Hubby and Goes Home’, Reading Eagle, 26 November 1924, p. 1.
21.Philip Eade, Young Prince Philip: His Turbulent Early Life (London: Harper Press, 2012), pp. 165–6.
22.Eade, p. 166.
23.Eade, p. 167.
24.Le Temps, 24 December 1910, p. 3; Le Figaro, 24 December 1910, p. 5.
25.Le Figaro, 24 December 1910, p. 5.
26.Le Matin, 20 December 1910, p. 6.
Index
98, Boulevard Malesherbes 100–4, 262
demolished 280
sale 273, 276–7
actresses 36–7
afternoon tea 241–3 see also ‘five o’clocks’
Alençon, Émilienne d’ 247–8
Liane de Pougy and 256–7
Valtesse and 248
Alexander II, Tsar 265
Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress 226
Alexis, Paul 140, 147
Alis, Harry 153, 220–2 see also Reine Soleil, une fille de la glèbe
Allée des Acacias 258, 263
anarchist attacks 264
Andrea, Prince 295
Anglomania 242
Annam 172, 173, 174, 180, 182–6
anti-Semitism 265
Antigny, Blanche d’ 63, 66–7, 90, 92, 151, 215
Antoinette (courtesan) 270–1
Appay (engraver) 284
Archbishop of Paris 76
artists 105–18
evening soirées 110–11
female 108
Aspasia 118, 185
Association of Dramatic Artists’ ball 224–5
Auriac, L.M. 288, 289–90
Auteuil 96
baccarat 214
Bagnères-de-Luchon 232
Balcony, The (painting) 112
bals publiques 27–8
Balthy, Louise 249–50
Balzac, Honoré de 97, 176, 270
Barney, Natalie Clifford 257–9
Barral, Mme de 94
Barucci, La 95
Bay of Along 173
Bay of Tourane 173
bed
at 98, Boulevard Malesherbes 103–4, 149, 277
bequeathed 296
moved to Ville d’Avray 277, 278
Bedford, Duchess of 241
Belle Époque 217
Belot, Adolphe 240
Benard, Mme de 225
Berne-Bellecour, Etienne Prosper 116
Bernhardt, Sarah 111, 137, 234, 281–2
bicycle 239
Bigne, Andrée de la see Lafayette, Andrée
Bigne, Gacé de la 279
Bigne, Valtesse de la (Louise Delabigne)
as actress 35, 37–8,
40–5, 53–8, 59
ageing 269–70
and alcohol 29–30, 32, 37
and artists 105–18
bequests 291, 295–7
birth 9
categorisation of men 83, 126
childhood 10–14
as collector 109, 114–18, 173–4, 275–6
and M. Commandos 80–2
complaint against 85
courtesan aspirations 66–7
on courtesans 77
Julia-Pâquerette custody case 191–203
death 285
and Dreyfus affair 266–8, 290
education 119–21, 142–3
evening salons 126–8
fall into prostitution 23–4
‘family’ portraits 278–9
First Communion 12–13, 151
first job 16–18
first sexual experience 21–2
‘five o’clocks’ 243–5, 269
funeral 286–8
girlfriends 225, 227, 235–7, 241, 245–9
as grisette 26–31
high-profile lovers 82–7
homes 81
illness 283–5
and Lubomirski 78–80
military lovers 172–3, 271
motherhood 47–9
names assumed 41, 90–3
and Nana 138–55, 165
novel see Isola
painting by 218–19
in paintings 167–8, 169–70
play see Cintho
and politics 171–86
portraits 161–4, 165–7, 296
property sales 273–7, 291–2
and Riviera 226–32, 234–7, 269
sexual repertoire 83
sexuality 237, 246
suitors, approach to 83–4
tomb 287–8, 289
wardrobe 91–2, 137–8
and writers 119–35
writing 130–5, 213–16
see also Isola; Lettres à Nana
Bignon, Louis 102
blue, as adopted colour 92
Bois de Boulogne 86
Bonaparte, Napoleon see Napoleon I
Bonapartism 171
bordereau 264
Bornay, Mme de 225
Bosviaux, Dr 284
Boudin, Eugène 116, 290
boudoir, importance 255
Bouffar, Zulma 59–61, 62–3, 66
Bouffes-Parisiens 38–45, 47, 53–7, 68, 70, 78
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe 161
Boulevard des Capucines 95, 261, 272
Bourget, Paul 220
Bouvier, Jeanne 15–16, 18–19, 22
brasseries de femmes 31–2
Brazier, Mme Armande (Amandine) 245
Brohan, Augustine 55, 275
Brohan, Madeleine 275
Bullier, M. 28
burlesque balls 219–20
Caen 1, 296
Café Guerbois 109
Café Riche 102
Caillebotte, Gustave 101
Calvados 6, 7
Camp, Maxime du 20
Cannes 227, 228
cars 261–3
Cassatt, Mary 108, 243, 257
Cassatt, Robert 257
Castellane, Comte de 45
Catherine the Great 108–9
Céard, Henri 140, 150, 151–2
Chamber of Deputies 264
Chambord, Comte de 218
Champ de Mars 233
Champsaur, Félicien 119, 125–6, 147, 178
Chantilly 87, 96
Chapelle-du-Roy, La 277–80
Charron-Girardot car 262
Chartes, Angèle de 244
Chasles, Philarète 17
Chassaigne, Anne-Marie see Pougy, Liane de
Châtelaine de Vergi, The (13th-century romance) 167
Chemins de Fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée 226, 231
Cherie (novel) 209
Chevalier, Julien 240, 241
Chincholle, C. 218
Christina, Queen of Sweden 108–9
Cimiez 236
Cintho (play) 281–2
Cirque d’éte 247
Cirque Molier 271
Civil Marriage, The (painting) 168–70, 227
civil war 75–6
Claretie, Jules
as childhood friend of Valtesse 13–14, 151
on ‘Ego’ 133
on Portraits of the Century exhibition 163–4
and tomb inscription 288, 289
on Valtesse 119, 223
Valtesse and 277, 281–2
and Valtesse’s death 285–6, 288
CLEDAT 280
Closerie des Lilas 28–9
Cody, William F. 234
Coffignon, A. 23, 31, 240
Comédie Francaise 36, 117, 275, 281
Commandos, General 80–2
Commune de Paris 75
Concours Hippique 266
Constant, Max 293
Corday, Charlotte 180
Corot, Camille 14, 97, 105, 110, 277
Côte d’Azur 226, 232
country properties 96–7
Courbet, Gustave 116, 290
courtesans 25–6, 66–7
habits 140
safeguarding fortune 252–3
Crémieux, M. 85
Crémieux, Mme 85–6
cuisine, provided by Valtesse 102
Dalmont, Suzanne 244
dancing 29
Dandeau (journalist) 212
Dash, Comtesse 17
Degas, Edgar 45, 96, 111, 115
Delabigne, Emilie (mother)
book dedication to 216
and Camille 20–1, 33–4
custody case 191–203
death 269
and grandchildren 53, 93–4, 188–9, 191
in Louise’s childhood 9–14
and Louise’s lovers 30
Meldola incident 206–9
message from Valtesse to 72
move to country 93–4
move to Paris 3–7
pregnancy 8–9
Delabigne, Emilie (sister) see Tremblay, Emilie
Delabigne, Julia-Pâquerette 49, 53, 70, 93–4, 187–90, 287
Auriac and 290
children 292–5
custody case 191–203
death 293
engagement 232
inheritance 292
marriage 292
Delabigne, Louise see Bigne, Valtesse de la
Delabigne, Valérie-Albertine 49, 53, 70, 93–4
Deloye, Jean-Baptiste-Gustave 296
demi-monde 24, 139, 151, 153, 237
Dentu 132–3
Desgenétais, Henri 253
Desprez, Adrien 37
Detaille, Édouard 1, 113
in Alis novel 222
paintings 1, 114–15, 276, 277, 278, 296–7 see also Passing Regiment, The; Tsarevitch Reviewing the Troops, The
Réjane and 158–60
Valtesse and 82, 100, 113–15, 129, 157–60, 162, 278–9
and Valtesse’s illness and death 284–5, 288
Devil’s Island 265
Dieppe 229
diligences 3–4
divorce 239
dressmaking 16–19
Dreyfus, Alfred 264–8
Dreyfus, Mathieu 266
Dumas, Alexandre, fils 111, 122–3 see also Lady of the Camellias, The
Dumas, Alexandre, père 122, 130
Dupray, Henri 114, 143
Dupuy, Gabrielle 138, 235, 284, 296
Duval, Alexandre 272–3
Duvernet, Blanche 231, 244
École des Beaux-Arts 108, 115
Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) 141, 169–70, 226, 227, 234, 247, 290
‘Ego’ (pseudonym) 93, 132–3, 194
Eiffel, Gustave 233
Eiffel Tower 233–4
electricity 216, 217
entremetteuses 281
espionage 264
Esplanade des Invalides 233
Esterhazy, Ferdinand Walsin 265–6
, 268
etiquette 48, 147, 242, 263
Eugénie, Empress 16, 91, 213
Exposition Universelle 39, 67, 68, 87, 216, 232–4
Fantasio (opera) 63
fashion 17, 217
Faure, Mme 225
female emancipation 239, 240, 243
femmes galantes 25, 250
Fénéon, Félix 218
Fervacques, M. 134
Février, Jules 100
Figaro, Le (newspaper)
Valtesse article in 183–4
Valtesse letter to 128–9
Zola article in 185–6
filles insoumises 23–4
filles soumises 23–4
fireworks displays 99, 171, 186, 194
‘five o’clocks’ 242–5, 255, 269
Flaubert, Gustave 51, 111, 139, 140
Flottow, Friedrich von 57
Floury (bookshop) 272
Folies Bergère 247, 254
Fontaine, Clara 29
footmen 263
Fossey, Richard 33–5, 45–50, 72, 93, 200, 241
Valtesse and 33–5, 45–6, 47–50, 72, 241
Franco-Prussian war 68–73, 75, 175
French Revolution, centenary of 233
Galerie de la Vie Moderne 167
Galerie Vivienne 218
Galland, Pierre-Victor 278
Gambetta, Léon 174–86, 209–13
death 211–12, 215
glass eye 177–8
Léonie Léon and 175–7
shooting 209–11
Valtesse and 177, 178–82, 211–13, 290
Gare Saint-Lazare 264
Garnier, Charles 102, 229
Gaulois, Le (newspaper)
on Gambetta shooting 210, 211
Nana serialisation 150–1
on Valtesse 213–15
Gautier, Théophile 69
Gémier, Firmin 281–2
gender bias 51–2
Georges (witness) 207, 208
Gervex, Henri 82, 100, 115
in Alis novel 222
Valtesse and 115–16, 138, 143, 162–4, 166–8, 227–8 see also Civil Marriage, The; Rolla
Ghika, Prince Georges 55, 283
Gil Blas (periodical), on Valtesse departure 274
Godard, Andrée see Lafayette, Andrée
Godard, Margot 292–3
Godard, Paul (son of Pâquerette) 292
Godard, Paul Jules Auguste 232, 292
Godin, Léontine 220
Goetchy, Gustave 113
Goncourt, Edmond de 69, 73, 76–7, 108, 111, 114, 120 see also Cherie
Grand Café 261
Gribelin, M. 266
grisettes 24–5, 26–8
Guestre, Gabrielle de 235, 246, 269
Guillemet, Antoine 112, 113
Gunsbourg, M. 86
Halévy, Ludovic 39, 45, 141–2
Hanneton, Le 245
Hanoi 172, 212
Hennique, Léon 138, 142–3, 154
Henry, Hubert 264–5
horseracing 94–6, 223–4, 252
Hôtel Drouot 291
Hôtel du Helder 81
hôtels particuliers 25, 110 see also 98, Boulevard Malesherbes
The Mistress of Paris Page 35
