Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (July 3, 1908 – June 22, 1992) was an American food writer. She was a founder of the Napa Valley Wine Library. Over her lifetime she wrote 27 books, including a translation of The Physiology of Taste by Brillat-Savarin. Fisher believed that eating well was just one of the "arts of life" and explored this in her writing. W. H. Auden once remarked, "I do not know of anyone in the United States who writes better prose." BiographyFisher was born Mary Frances Kennedy on July 3, 1908, at 202 Irwin Avenue, Albion, Michigan. Rex was a co-owner (with his brother Walter) and editor of the Albion Evening Recorder newspaper. In 1919, her father Rex purchased a large white house outside the city limits on South Painter Avenue. The house sat on thirteen acres, with an orange grove; it was referred to by the family as "The Ranch." Although Whittier was primarily a Quaker community at that time, Mary Frances was brought up within the Episcopal Church. Mary enjoyed reading as a child, and began writing poetry at the age of five. The Kennedys had a vast home library, and her mother provided her access to many other books. Later, her father used her as stringer on his paper, and she would draft as many as fifteen stories a day. Mary received a formal education; however, she was an indifferent student who often skipped classes throughout her academic career. She attended Illinois College, but left after only one semester. In 1928, she enrolled in summer school at UCLA in order to obtain enough credits to transfer to Occidental College. While there, she met her future first husband: Alfred Fisher ("Al"). She attended Occidental College for one year then married Al on September 5, 1929, and moved with him to Dijon, France. Food became an early passion in her life. An early food influence was "Aunt" Gwen. Aunt Gwen was not family, but the daughter of friends — the Nettleship family. Mary recalled cooking outdoors with Gwen: steaming mussels on fresh seaweed over hot coals; catching and frying rock bass; skinning and cooking eel; and, making fried egg sandwiches to carry on hikes. Mary wrote of her meals with Gwen and Gwen's brothers: "I decided at the age of nine that one of the best ways to grow up is to eat and talk quietly with good people." Mary liked to cook meals in the kitchen at home, and "easily fell into the role of the cook's helper." In September 1929, newlyweds Mary and Al sailed on the RMS Berengaria to Cherbourg (now Cherbourg-Octeville), France. They traveled to Paris for a brief stay, before continuing south to Dijon. Al attended the Faculté des Lettres at the University of Dijon where he was working on his doctorate; when not in class, he worked on his epic poem, The Ghosts in the Underblows. The poem was based on the Bible and was analogous to James Joyce's Ulysses. Mary attended night classes at the École des Beaux-Arts where she spent three years studying painting and sculpture. They lodged at 14 Rue du Petit-Potet in a home owned by the Ollangnier family. The Ollangniers served good food at home, although Madame Ollangnier was "extremely penurious and stingy." Mary remembered big salads made at the table, deep-fried Jerusalem artichokes, and "reject cheese" that was always good. To celebrate their three-month anniversary, Al and Mary went to the Aux Trois Faisans restaurant — their first of many visits. There, Mary received her education in fine wine from a sommelier named Charles. The Fishers visited all the restaurants in town, where in Mary's words: We ate terrines of pate ten years old under their tight crusts of mildewed fat. We tied napkins under our chins and splashed in great odorous bowls of ecrevisses a la nage. We addled our palates with snipes hung so long they fell from their hooks, to be roasted then on cushions of toast softened with the paste of their rotted innards and fine brandy. By 1931, Fisher had finished the first twelve books of the poem, which he ultimately expected to contain sixty books. That year, Mary and Al moved to their own apartment, above a pastry shop at 26 Rue Monge. It was Mary's first kitchen. It was only five feet by three feet and contained a two-burner hotplate. Despite the kitchen's limitations, or perhaps because of it, Mary began developing her own personal cuisine, with the goal of "cooking meals that would 'shake [her guests] from their routines, not only of meat-potatoes-gravy, but of thought, of behavior.'" In The Gastronomical Me she describes one such meal: There in Dijon, the cauliflowers were very small and succulent, grown in that ancient soil. I separated the flowerlets and dropped them in boiling water for just a few minutes. Then I drained them and put them in a wide shallow casserole, and covered them with heavy cream, and a thick sprinkling of freshly grated Gruyere, the nice rubbery kind that didn't come from Switzerland at all, but from the Jura. It was called râpé in the market, and was grated while you watched, in a soft cloudy pile, onto your piece of paper. After Al was awarded his doctorate, they moved briefly to Strasbourg, France, then a tiny French fishing village, Le Cros-de-Cagnes. Al had stopped work on his poem, was trying to write novels and did not want to return to the States. After running out of funds, the Fishers returned to California, sailing on the Feltre out of Marseilles. Back in California, Al and Mary initially moved in with Mary's family at "The Ranch" and later moved into the Laguna cabin. Al spent two years looking for a teaching position until he found one at Occidental College. Mary began writing and she published her first piece — "Pacific Village" — in the February 1935 issue of Westways magazine. The article was a fictional account of life in Laguna Beach Mary worked part-time in a card shop and researched old cookery books at the Los Angeles Public Library. She began writing short pieces on gastronomy. The pieces were later to become her first book: Serve It Forth. Mary next began work on a novel she never finished; it was based on the founding of Whittier. During this period, Mary's marriage with Al was beginning to fail. In 1933, Dillwyn Parrish and his wife Gigi moved next door to them, and they rapidly became friends. After Parrish divorced Gigi in 1934, Mary found herself falling in love with him. In Mary's words, she one day sat next to Parrish at the piano and told him she loved him. In 1935, with Al's permission, Mary traveled to Europe with Parrish and his mother. The Parrishes had money, and they sailed on the luxury liner Hansa. Mary revisited Dijon and ate with Parrish at Aux Trois Faisans where she was recognized and served by her old friend, the waiter Charles. She later wrote a piece on their visit — "The Standing and the Waiting" — which was to become the centerpiece of Serve It Forth. Upon her return from Europe, Mary informed Al of her developing relationship with Parrish. In 1936, Dillwyn invited the Fishers to join him in creating an artists' colony at Le Paquis — a two-story stone house that Parrish had bought with his sister north of Vevey, Switzerland. Notwithstanding the clear threat to his marriage, Al agreed. "Le Paquis" means the grazing ground. The house sat on a sloping meadow on the north shore of Lake Geneva, looking across to the snowcapped Alps. They had a large garden in which "We grew beautiful salads, a dozen different kinds, and several herbs. There were shallots and onion and garlic, and I braided them into long silky ropes and hung them over rafters in the attic." In mid-1937 Al and Mary separated. He returned to the States where he began a distinguished career as a teacher and poet at Smith College. In 1938, Mary returned home briefly to inform her parents in person of her separation and pending divorce from Al. Meanwhile, her first book, Serve It Forth, had opened to largely glowing reviews, including reviews in Harper's Monthly, The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Mary, however, was disappointed in the book's meager sales because she needed the money. During this same period, Mary and Parrish also co-wrote (alternating chapters) a light romance entitled Touch and Go under the pseudonym Victoria Berne. The book was published by Harper and Brothers in 1939. In September 1938, Mary and Parrish could no longer afford to live at Les Paquis and they moved to Bern, where Parrish underwent two surgeries but could not get a good diagnosis from his doctors. With the onset of World War II, and Parrish's need for medical care, Mary and Parrish returned to the States, where he ultimately was diagnosed as having Buerger's disease (Thromboangiitis obliterans) — a circulatory system malady that causes extreme thrombosis of the arteries and veins, causing severe pain, and often necessitating multiple amputations. The disease is progressive and there was (and is) no known successful treatment. They returned briefly to Switzerland to close down their apartment, and returned to California. Once in California, Mary searched for a warm dry climate that would be beneficial for Parrish's health. She found a small cabin on ninety acres of land south of Hemet, California. They bought the property and named it "Bareacres" after the character Lord Bareacres in Vanity Fair by Thackeray. Lord Bareacres was land-poor; his only asset was his estate. Although Parrish's life at Bareacres had its ups and downs, its course was a downward spiral. Ultimately, Parrish could no longer tolerate the pain and the probable need for additional amputations. On the morning of August 6, 1941, Mary was awakened by a gunshot. Venturing outside, she discovered that Parrish had committed suicide. Mary later would write, "I have never understood some (a lot of) taboos and it seems silly to me to make suicide one of them in our social life." During the period leading up to Tim's death (Parrish was often called "Tim" by family and friends, but referred to as "Chexbres" in Fisher's autobiographical books), Mary completed three books. The first was a novel entitled The Theoretical Foot. It was a fictional account of expatriates enjoying a summer romp when the protagonist, suffering great pain, ends up losing a leg. The second book was an unsuccessful attempt by her to revise a novel written by Tim, Daniel Among the Women. Third, she completed and published Consider the Oyster, which she dedicated to Tim. The book was humorous and informative. It contained numerous recipes incorporating oysters, mixed with musings on the history of the oyster, oyster cuisine, and the love life of the oyster. In 1942, Mary published How to Cook a Wolf. The book was published at the height of WWII food shortages. In May 1942 Mary began working in Hollywood for Paramount Studios. While there she wrote gags for Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour. Mary became pregnant in 1943, and secluded herself in a boarding house in Altadena. While there she worked on the book that would become The Gastronomical Me. On August 15, 1943, she gave birth to Anne Kennedy Parrish (later known as Anna). Mary listed a fictional father on the birth certificate, Michael Parrish. She never revealed the father's identity. In 1944, Mary broke her contract with Paramount. On a trip to New York, she met and fell in love with publisher Donald Friede. She spent the summer in Greenwich Village with Friede, working on the book that would become Let Us Feast. Her relationship with Friede gave her entree to additional publishing markets, and she wrote articles for Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Town and Country, Today's Woman and Gourmet. In fall 1945, Friede's publishing entity failed, and Mary and Donald returned to Bareacres, both to write. On March 12, 1946, Mary gave birth to her second daughter, Kennedy Mary Friede. Mary began work on With Bold Knife and Fork. Mary's mother died in 1948. In 1949, she moved to the Ranch to take care of her father, Rex. On Christmas Eve 1949, the limited edition release of her translation of Savarin's The Physiology of Taste received rave reviews. During this period, Mary also was working on a biography of Madame Récamier for which she had received an advance. Her marriage with Donald was starting to unravel. He became ill with intestinal pains and after considerable medical treatment, it became apparent that the pain was psychosomatic, and Don began receiving psychiatric care. Mary in turn had been under considerable stress. She had been caretaker for Tim, had weathered his suicide, suffered her brother's suicide a year later, followed by the death of her mother, only to be thrust into the role of caretaker for Rex. Despite her financially successful writing career, Don lived a lifestyle that exceeded their income, leaving her $27,000 in debt. She sought psychiatric counseling for what essentially was a nervous breakdown. By 1949, Donald had become frustrated by his isolation in a small Southern California town and separated from Mary. They divorced on August 8, 1950. Her father died June 2, 1953. Mary subsequently sold the Ranch and the newspaper. She rented out Bareacres and moved to Napa Valley, renting "Red Cottage" south of St. Helena, California. Dissatisfied with the educational opportunities available to her children, Mary sailed to France in 1954. She ended up in Aix-en-Provence, France. She planned to live in Aix using the proceeds from the sale of her father's paper. Once in Aix, Mary employed a French tutor and enrolled Anna and Kennedy, then aged 11 and 8, in the École St Catherine. In Aix, her life developed a pattern. Each day she would walk across town to pick up the girls from school at noon, and in late afternoon they ate snacks or ices at the Deux Garçons or Glacière, but she never felt completely at home. Mary left Provence in July 1955, and sailed for San Francisco on the freighter Vesuvio. After living in the city for a short period, she decided that the intense urban environment did not provide the children enough freedom. She sold Bareacres and used the proceeds to buy an old Victorian house on Oak Street in St. Helena. She owned the house until 1970, using it as a base for frequent travels. During extended absences she would rent it out. In fall 1959 she moved the family to Lugano, Switzerland, where she hoped to introduce her daughters to a new language and culture. She revisited Dijon and Aix. Falling back in love with Aix, she rented the L'Harmas farmhouse outside Aix.
In July 1961, she returned to San Francisco. She contracted to write a series of cookbook reviews for The New Yorker magazine. In 1966, Time-Life hired Mary to write The Cooking of Provincial France. She traveled to Paris to research material for the book. While there, she met Paul and Julia Child, and through them James Beard. Child was hired to be a consultant on the book; Michael Field was the consulting editor. Fisher was disappointed in the book's final form; it contained restaurant recipes, without regard to regional cuisine, and much of her signature prose had been cut. In 1971, Mary's friend David Bouverie, who owned a ranch in Glen Ellen, California, offered to build Mary a house on his ranch. Mary designed it, calling it "Last House". And she spent the last twenty years of her life in "Last House". After Dillwyn Parrish's death, Fisher considered herself a "ghost" of a person, but she continued to have a long and productive life, while suffering from Parkinson's disease and arthritis. M.F.K. Fisher died at the age of 83 in Glen Ellen, California, in 1992.
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Liane de Pougy (born Anne-Marie Chassaigne, 2 July 1869 – 26 December 1950), was a Folies Bergère vedette and dancer renowned as one of Paris's most beautiful and notorious courtesans.
Anne-Marie Chassaigne, dite Liane de Pougy, épouse d’Armand Pourpe puis, par son second mariage, princesse Ghika, est une danseuse et courtisane française de la Belle Époque, puis religieuse, née à La Flèche (Sarthe, France) le 2 juillet 1869 et morte à Lausanne (canton de Vaud, Suisse) le 26 décembre 1950)
Biography
Anne-Marie Chassaigne was born in La Flèche, Sarthe, France, the fourth child and only daughter of Pierre Blaise Eugène Chassaigne and his Spanish-French wife Aimée Lopez. She had three older brother. She was raised in a nunnery. At the age of 16, she ran off with Joseph Armand Henri Pourpe, a naval officer, whom she married after getting pregnant. The baby was named Marc Pourpe. De Pougy described herself as a terrible mother, saying, "My son was like a living doll given to a little girl." She also admitted she would have preferred the baby to be a girl ‘because of the dresses and the curly hair’. Marc grew up to volunteer as an airman in World War I and was killed on 2 December 1914 near Villers-Brettoneux.
The marriage was not a happy one. Anne-Marie later wrote in her memoirs that her new husband took her violently on their wedding night, an event which left her emotionally scarred. It is said that the groom was a brute and abused her – she wore the scar of his beatings on her breast for the rest of her life. When Armand Pourpe's naval career led him to a billet in Marseille, Anne-Marie took a lover, Charles-Marie de Mac-Mahon, 5th marquis of Éguilly. When her husband found them in bed together he shot her with a revolver, wounding her on the wrist. Deciding to leave her husband, Anne-Marie sold her rosewood piano to a young man who paid 400 francs cash for the instrument. Within an hour, she was on her way to Paris, leaving her infant son with his father, who in turn sent his son to live with the boy's grandparents in Suez. With the failure of her marriage, Anne-Marie began dabbling in acting and prostitution and she became a heavy user of both cocaine and opium. She began her career as a courtesan with the Countess Valtesse de la Bigne, who taught Anne-Marie the profession. Anne-Marie felt she was capable but not overly cerebral, and described herself as "vain but not a fool". Anne-Marie cultivated an interest in paintings, books and poetry, but avoided intellectual depth, which she considered dull. She preferred café-concerts and popular songs to William Shakespeare or Richard Wagner, and made minor appearances in the chorus of Folies Bergère in Paris in St. Petersburg and cabaret clubs in Rome and the French Riviera. She was a conscientious bookkeeper.
After moving to Paris, from her position at the Folies she became a noted demimondaine, and a rival of Caroline Otero-"La Belle Otero", counting Mathilde de Morny and Émilienne d'Alençon as her paramours. She took her last name from one of her paramours, a Comte or Vicomte de Pougy, and became Liane de Pougy. Actress Sarah Bernhardt, faced with the task of teaching Liane to act, advised her that when she was on stage, it would be best to keep her "pretty mouth shut except for smiling". Liane became so well known as a performer at the Folies Bergère that the 1890s English female impersonator Herbert Charles Pollitt referenced her in his drag name Diane de Rougy.
Pougy's lesbian affair with writer Natalie Clifford Barney is recorded in Pougy's novel Idylle Saphique, published in 1901 (later published in Spain in translation by the poet Luis Antonio de Villena). In 1899, after seeing Pougy at a dance hall in Paris, Barney presented herself at her residence in an Italian page costume and announced that she was a "page of love" sent by Sappho. Although Pougy was one of the most famous women in France at the time, constantly sought after by wealthy and titled men, Barney's audacity charmed and seduced her. Of their liaison, Pougy notes: "That was in the days of the Amazon's youth, and of my own. We were passionate, rebels against a woman's lot, voluptuous and cerebral little apostles, rather poetical, full of illusions and dreams. We loved long hair, pretty breasts, pouts, simpers, charm, grace; not boyishness." Their amorous relationship lasted less than a year and their love letters reflect the passions they shared and also the conflicts. The two were said to have had deep feelings for each other for the remainder of their lives, although their relationship was not without its ups and downs.
In Women Lovers, Barney recounts the bittersweet romantic rivalry she shared with Pougy in a "barely disguised roman à clef" in which "Barney, the dashing Italian baroness Mimi Franchetti, and the beautiful French courtesan Liane de Pougy share erotic liaisons that break all taboos and end in devastation as one unexpectedly becomes the “third woman.” For her part, Pougy depicts their relationship in My Blue Notebooks as one that grew more distant over the years, possibly ending in 1934 when the two ran into each other in Toulon, but did not exchange a word. Although best known for her Idylle Saphique and her posthumous Notebooks, Pougy authored several other works critics label "autofiction." Her first two novels, L'Insaisissable [The Elusive One] (1898) and Myrrhille, ou la Mauvaise part [Myrrhille, or the Lesser Portion] (1899) are "courtesan novels," "a sub-genre of popular fiction by renowned demi-mondaines in France from the Second empire through the Belle Époque, who challenged in their novels Alexandre Dumas's portrayal of Marguerite in his La Dame aux camélias (1848), claiming that his work not only promotes unrealistic stereotypes of courtesans but also harmful ones." L'Insaississable, Pougy's first novel, depicts Josiane de Valneige's quick rise to fame in Paris and "features much braggadocio" about this "grande courtisane" who "fails to find happiness through love." In her second novel, she "depicts a weary demi-mondaine much less arrogant and self-assured than Josiane and much more sensitive to prejudices, against not only courtesans but women in general. Women have 'la mauvaise part' [the lesser portion], and are exploited and broken mentally and physically by men." Pougy's subsequent two novels, Idylle saphique (1901) and Les Sensations de Mlle de la Bringue (1904) make intertextual references to Émile Zola's Nana (1880). "In both works, de Pougy vividly depicts the dangers, harassment, humiliation, and psychological damage endured by sex workers, an important but harsh reality never described by Zola and his coterie. In addition to the counter-discourse in Idylle, de Pougy's writing also serves as a form of therapy for working through trauma. In Sensations, de Pougy recounts her alter ego demi-mondaine's rise to the top and subsequent retirement in Brittany, which is an optimistic ending on her part because it allows her courtesan heroine to not only avoid death but also escape the drudgery of prostitution." According to Jean Chalon, Pougy met an American actress named Eva Palmer through Barney and fashioned her protagonist in Yvée Lester (1906) and Yvée Jourdan (1908) after Palmer. Neither novel evokes any demi-mondaines (although a character named Flossie appears) and Chalon compares the novels to texts by the Countess of Ségur, the author of several tales destined for children. The Catalogue général of the French National Library also lists Pougy as the author of L'enlizement, a one-act play (1900), and Ecce homo! D'ici et de là, a collection of short stories from 1903.
Upon her marriage to Prince Georges Ghika on 8 June 1910 Liane de Pougy became Princess Ghika; eighteen years into their marriage, her husband left her for another woman, his wife's last conquest, but the following year he came back to her after Liane de Pougy threatened him with divorce.
Her son's death as an aviator in World War I turned her more deeply towards religion. After her husband and she stumbled onto the Asylum of Saint Agnes while driving through Savoy in 1928, she became deeply involved in this institution devoted to the care of children with birth defects. Thanks to Pougy's fundraising efforts, Coco Chanel became the "leading benefactress" of the asylum. The couple moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, during World War II where they reconnected with Father Rzewuski, a Dominican priest who became "her confidant from whom she hoped to get help for the advancement of her religious and spiritual life." Pougy became a tertiary of the Order of Saint Dominic as Sister Anne-Mary after her husband's death. She died in Lausanne, Switzerland on 26 December 1950 and was buried in the enclosure of the sisters of the Sainte-Agnès asylum in Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux. Her memoirs, Mes cahiers bleus(My blue notebooks), were translated into English by Diana Athill and published by Andre Deutsch. Biographie
Fille de Pierre Chassaigne, officier de cavalerie et d'Aimée Marie Gabrielle Lopez, d'une famille d'origine espagnole de tradition militaire, Anne-Marie Olympe, cadette et seule fille parmi quatre enfants, reçoit l'éducation d'une jeune fille de son milieu au couvent de Sainte-Anne-d'Auray, dans le Morbihan, où elle entre en 1878, à neuf ans, et restera jusqu'en 1885.
Elle est mariée à dix-sept ans, le 15 juillet 1886, à Lorient, à un officier de marine, l'enseigne de vaisseau Joseph Armand Henri Pourpe, né le 8 février 1862 à Marseille. Le 17 mai 1887, à Lorient, elle donne le jour à un fils, Marc Marie Edmond Armand, qui deviendra l'un des pilotes pionniers de l'aviation française et mourra pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, le décembre 1914, âgé de 27 ans. Mais alors qu'elle réside à Marseille, son mari ayant été affecté à Toulon, elle prend un amant. Mis au courant de son infortune, Armand Pourpe « tire un coup de feu qu' Anne-Marie reçoit dans le bas du dos ». Elle s'enfuit, s'installe à Paris et demande le divorce en profitant des nouvelles lois, au scandale de sa famille. Elle a 19 ans. Son fils est alors confié à ses grands-parents paternels à Suez ; elle ne le retrouvera qu'une dizaine d'année plus tard (après la mort d'Armand).
À Paris, Anne-Marie prend des leçons de danse sous la direction de Mme Mariquita. Sous le pseudonyme de « Liane de Pougy », elle commence alors une carrière de danseuse de cabaret, et devient rapidement une des « courtisanes » les plus en vue de la capitale. Ainsi le quotidien Gil Blas décrit-il avec une pointe d'humour « le luxe intime d'une horizontale de grande marque, Liane de Pougy : elle dort sous des rideaux d'Alençon, cette reine des dentelles, et le transparent rideau est doublé de satin hortensia (...) Rassurez-vous la chambre possède un système de ventilation qui écarte tout danger d'asphyxie »
Elle se lie d'amitié avec Sarah Bernhardt, qui lui donne quelques cours d'art dramatique mais lui fait comprendre qu'elle n'a aucun talent dans ce domaine, lui conseillant de « n'ouvrir la bouche que pour sourire ». Elle rencontre Henri Meilhac, auteur dramatique à succès, septuagénaire mais amateur de jolies femmes, qui succombe à son charme et la lance dans le monde du théâtre en la faisant engager aux Folies Bergère, où elle débute en avril 1894, lors d' « une soirée éblouissante ».
Très liée avec Jean Lorrain, elle joue à l'Olympia dans la pantomime Rêve de Noël puis « triomphe » aux Folies Bergère en 1896 avec le rôle d'Oriane dans l' Araignée d'or, qui sera « le great event de la saison parisienne ». Edmond de Goncourt la qualifiera alors de « plus jolie femme du siècle ».
Parmi ses adorateurs, on compte Charles de Mac-Mahon (1856-1894), Roman Potocki (1851-1915) ou le jeune Maurice de Rothschild (1881-1957) qui la couvrent de bijoux, lui offrent des équipages et le luxueux « nécessaire » à la vie d'une courtisane d'alors. Sa rivalité avec la Belle Otero contribue à la célébrité de l'une comme de l'autre. Le guide Paris-Parisien la considère bientôt comme une « notoriété de la vie parisienne ». L'édition de 1896 la décrit comme une « demi-mondaine connue pour ses beaux bijoux »; celle de 1899, comme une « demi-mondaine connue pour ses ventes, son suicide, ses essais littéraires et dramatiques ». Georges Montorgueil, dans son ouvrage sur Les Parisiennes d'à présent (1897), s'amuse : « Mais si elle n'est de Pougy elle est bien Liane pour sa souple beauté et ses enlacements ». Antonio de La Gandara, avec qui on lui prête une liaison, était un familier du 15, rue de la Néva, l’hôtel particulier de Liane de Pougy. C'est là qu'il réalisa, en 1903, un grand tableau d'elle allongée sur une duchesse brisée. Il fit aussi plusieurs dessins et pastels qui sont reproduits dans la biographie de l'artiste. Le compositeur Reynaldo Hahn note à ce propos dans son journal : « Observations, réflexions diverses, hier, après deux heures passées chez Liane de Pougy pendant qu'elle posait pour La Gandara. Beauté surnaturelle de cette femme, poésie céleste qui dérange ma sceptique quiétude ».
Jean Cocteau, qui compta Liane parmi ses Reines de la France, se rappelait : « Le poing sur la hanche, harnachée de perles, cuirassée de diamants, Liane de Pougy avançait parmi les tables de Maxim's avec l’indifférence des astres. Les hommes se levaient, la saluaient. Elle continuait sa route ».
Au tournant du siècle, à 30 ans, Liane est, selon son biographe Jean Chalon, « une des reines du demi-monde ». Ouvertement bisexuelle, elle a des amants des deux sexes et entretient des liaisons amoureuses avec Valtesse de La Bigne ou bien Émilienne d'Alençon. En 1899, elle rencontre « Nathalie, un don du ciel, (...) un rayon lumineux et subtil qui dore tout sur son passage » mais aussi « Nathalie l'inconstante, qui sait être si fidèle malgré ses infidélités », une jeune américaine de vingt-trois ans, Natalie Clifford Barney, qui deviendra poétesse et romancière. Celle-ci se présente chez Liane déguisée en page florentin et Liane, touchée par tant de fraîcheur et de spontanéité, se prend d'une réelle affection pour la jeune femme : « la jeune Américaine, fascinée par Liane, lui offrira la démesure de son innocence, l'insolence de cet amour ».
Durant l’été 1899, Liane écrit à Natalie : « Des mots, des caresses, des effleurements, cela, c'est nous deux ». Natalie, fascinée par sa « sveltesse angélique » et quelque peu « androgyne »veut retrouver Liane à Lesbos : « Passer ma vie à tes pieds comme ces jours derniers (...) Nous nous retrouverons à Lesbos (...) Je veux nous imaginer dans cette île enchantée d'immortelles. Je la vois si belle. Viens, je te décrirai ces frêles couples d'amoureuses, et nous oublierons, loin des villes et des vacarmes, tout ce qui n'est pas la Morale de la Beauté ». Leur liaison, qui ne dure qu'une année, défraie la chronique, mais Natalie est rapidement infidèle et c'est avec la poétesse Renée Vivien qu'elle séjournera à Lesbos.
Liane met en scène sa liaison avec Natalie (le personnage de Flossie) dans un livre intitulé Idylle saphique qui paraît en septembre 1901. Présenté comme un roman, le livre à la réputation sulfureuse est un grand succès de librairie. Liane en envoie un exemplaire à Natalie et lui écrit : « L'Idylle a vu le jour et le public s'arrache, c'est le mot, ces lambeaux de nous et de nos anciennes aspirations ». Bien des années plus tard, Natalie Barney déclarera à Jean Chalon : « Liane, ah ! ma Liane, c'est mon souvenir le plus voluptueux. Et dire que, à la fin de sa vie, elle prétendait que j'avais été son plus grand péché ! ». (Une édition de la Correspondance amoureuse de Natalie Clifford Barney et Liane de Pougy a été publiée en juin 2019.)
En 1898, Liane de Pougy avait déjà fait sensation en publiant son premier roman, intitulé L'insaisissable. L'ouvrage paraît d'abord en feuilleton dans le quotidien Gil Blas en juillet. Dans ce qui est « le roman de Liane de Pougy écrivain sur Liane de Pougy courtisane », l'auteur décrit la vie d'une courtisane, Josiane de Valneige, et offre une réflexion sur l' image dans la société de ces demi-mondaines dont l'unique péché serait tout autant d'aimer que de vouloir être aimées : « Aimer !!! Aimer !!! Oh ! Oui (...) Rencontrer un regard pur où mirer mon cœur fatigué. Palpiter dans une étreinte d'un bonheur non joué, laisser tomber sur mes joues une larme, une vraie ! ». Le roman trace aussi ce que pourrait être un chemin de rédemption sociale et spirituelle dans la quête de l'amour véritable.
Entre 1899 et 1908, outre Idylle saphique, Liane de Pougy publiera une comédie, L'Enlizement, et cinq romans qui « répètent uniformément la lassitude, l'ennui et le dégoût de la courtisane à faire ce métier, sa souffrance, mais une souffrance nécessaire à ses yeux qui lui permettra de racheter ses péchés et de connaître la béatitude ». En juillet 1904 paraît une revue illustrée féminine, L'Art d’être jolie, dont Liane Pougy assure la direction. L’éditorial du premier numéro, dont la couverture offre un portrait de Liane d’après Léopold-Émile Reutlinger, affirme l'objet de cette publication hebdomadaire : guider chez la femme « cet art instinctif en elle, l'art d’être jolie (...) en apportant chaque semaine, en son format élégant et parfumé, véritablement digne de celles qui le feuilletteront, l'essence même de ce qui fait le charme féminin ». Vingt-cinq numéros de L'Art d’être jolie paraîtront jusqu'en janvier 1905. Avec les encouragements de plusieurs de ses amis, en particulier Salomon Reinach, Liane commence à tenir un journal. Il couvrira la période de 1919 à 1941 et sera publié de manière posthume, en 1977, sous le titre Mes cahiers bleus. On y lit une chronique de la vie de l'entre-deux-guerres mêlée de souvenirs de la Belle Époque parmi lesquels se trouvent d'innombrables portraits. Ainsi peut-on lire sur ses amis, dans les Cahiers, au mois de mars 1921, des remarques tendres mais non dénuées d'ironie : « Salomon est venu nous voir hier. Il fut affable, tendre, souriant, complimenteur, prit souvent ma main entre les siennes et ne nous débita en somme que des fadaises. Albert de Monaco vient de lui octroyer le grand cordon de son État, avec une décoration brillante de diamants. Il en semblait tout fier. Qu'il est futile ! Nous fîmes deux ou trois tours dans le parc. Je lui cueillis des violettes ... qu'il mit dans sa poche. Ça n'est plus du tout ça ! » « Nous avons eu hier notre Max habité par un diable, dissipé à outrance. Il était allé toute la nuit au bal masqué et en restait très agité : les masques, les intrigues, la musique, les danses, les lumières, le buffet ! Il n'avait pu communier le matin, n'étant pas à jeun, et se trouvait ainsi plus près des hommes que de Dieu. » « Miss Barney m'a envoyé une douzaine d'iris noirs en boutons, contenant, fermés, tout leur mystère. À peine les eus-je mis dans l'eau qu'ils se sont ouverts. Elle m'écrit : "Voici le retour des iris noirs, à quand le tien ?" C'était une fleur que nous aimions, une fleur d'époque à la Jean Lorrain qui les avait chantés : "Je suis, fiers iris noirs, fervent de vos ténèbres". » Les Cahiers bleus sont aussi le témoignage de l’évolution spirituelle de Liane de Pougy, qui écrivait en 1926 : « Je voudrais ne pas trop penser à moi. Je voudrais m'occuper, me vouer à quelque chose... Mes aspirations vont toujours vers le haut. Recevront-elles un couronnement en rapport avec cette élévation ? »
En 1908, alors au sommet de sa carrière, Liane de Pougy, qui aura bientôt quarante ans, rencontre le prince roumain Georges Ghika, neveu de la reine Nathalie de Serbie, de quinze ans son cadet, très noble mais fort désargenté, qu'elle épouse le 8 juin 1910, en l'église Saint-Philippe-du-Roule. Le lendemain, le mariage fait la une du New York Times. « Comme la fortune de Liane est infiniment supérieure à la sienne, Georges Ghika, grand seigneur, a exigé la séparation des biens ».
En 1914, cependant, la mort de son fils unique l'affectera beaucoup, comme elle l’écrira plus tard dans son journal : « Ma plus poignante douleur, celle qui a failli me tuer, me faire perdre la raison (je suis restée quinze mois dans de cruelles maisons de santé), ce fut la mort de mon fils, de mon unique enfant, l'aviateur Marc Pourpe, engagé volontaire, tombé au champ d'honneur, le 2 décembre 1914, près de Villers-Bretonneux ». Liane ne s'en remet jamais vraiment malgré plusieurs séjours en maisons de repos. Elle met beaucoup d'énergie pour obtenir une reconnaissance officielle des vols de son fils par une Légion d'honneur qui ne viendra jamais.
Dès 1920, elle sera liée d'amitié avec Max Jacob qu'elle reçoit, avec son mari, dans leur maison de Roscoff. Une correspondance s'échangera entre eux jusqu’à la mort de l'écrivain. À Roscoff également, « Jean Cocteau vient souvent, entraînant des amis à sa suite ». Liane écrit dans son journal (7 décembre 1919) : « Cocteau est un causeur éblouissant, ardent, ironique, bondissant, élégant et abondant. Il est délicieux, un peu... répugnant et très inquiétant. Il tuerait avec un mot (...) ». En 1922, l'abbé Mugnier fait la connaissance de la princesse Ghika : « Elle disait avoir été en Grèce, en Égypte, à Constantinople, promené son chagrin d'aimer. Elle racontait les coups reçus de son premier mari. Elle est d'une famille des environs de Rennes et d'une autre espagnole. Elle a été élevée à Saint-Anne d'Auray qu'elle aime beaucoup. Elle lit L'Imitation et le Pater de Sainte-Thérèse : Dieu est mon Père » Son mariage est parfaitement heureux durant seize ans, jusqu'à ce que Georges Ghika ne la quitte brusquement, en juillet 1926, pour l'ultime conquête de sa femme, une jeune artiste de vingt-trois ans, « mignonne et délicate », Manon Thiébaut, qu'il emmène en Roumanie. Pour se consoler, la princesse retrouve Natalie Barney à Paris et forme avec elle et son amie Mimy Franchetti - « qui réunit tous les dons du Ciel » - une sorte de ménage à trois, dont Natalie fera l'objet d'un récit autobiographique publié de manière posthume : Amants féminins ou la troisième. Menacé de divorce, le prince finit par lui revenir, mais leur relation devient difficile et chaotique.
Le R.P. Rzewuski, dominicain, à qui Liane avait confié en 1942 les manuscrits de ses Cahiers bleus, écrit dans la préface à l’édition qui en a été faite : « D'après les pages de ses Cahiers bleus, on peut constater que Liane n'avait jamais cessé de chercher à aimer Dieu. Mais ceci à sa manière (...) Sa foi se heurtait cependant à ce qui lui semblait un obstacle. Comment accorder les exigences et la pureté du Fils de Dieu, son enseignement et son exemple avec ce qu'elle savait être, sa vie, son passé et même son présent ? ».
En 1928, la princesse Ghika se lie d'amitié avec mère Marie-Xavier, mère supérieure de l'asile Sainte-Agnès à Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux, près de Grenoble. Elle récupère auprès de ses amis parisiens des fonds pour l'entretien des pensionnaires de cet institut : « Gabrielle Chanel a été spontanément et magnifiquement généreuse », rappelle-t-elle dans Mes cahiers bleus. Anne-Marie demeure très attachée à cette œuvre de bienfaisance : « Je m'occupe de Sainte-Agnès - ce lot m'est échu - je m'en occupe tant que je peux », peut-on lire encore dans son journal. Et elle exprime le désir d'y être inhumée. Dans les années qui suivirent, Mère Marie-Xavier guide la lente métamorphose spirituelle de la princesse Ghika. En 1943, le R.P. Rzewuski, son confesseur depuis 1939, « juge sa pénitente digne d’être reçue dans le Tiers-Ordre de Saint-Dominique » : le 14 août 1943, l'ancienne étoile des Folies Bergère, la scandaleuse, prononce ses vœux et prend le nom de Sœur Anne-Marie de la Pénitence. Laïque consacrée, elle vivra désormais selon la règle dominicaine.
Après la mort de Georges Ghika, le 19 avril 1945, Anne-Marie s'installe à Lausanne où elle transforme une chambre de l'hôtel Carlton en cellule. C'est là qu'elle meurt le 26 décembre 1950, lendemain de Noël. Selon ses vœux, elle est enterrée dans l'enclos des sœurs de l'asile Sainte-Agnès au cimetière communal de Saint-Martin-le-Vinoux (Isère), « mon cher Sainte-Agnès, où le Ciel a guidé mes pas, le 15 août 1928, le jour de ma fête ».
« Elle est morte à quatre-vingt-deux ans, gardant sur son visage et dans son regard admirable les signes encore visibles de sa beauté passée. Elle avait souhaité mourir un soir de Noël ; la divine Providence a exaucé ce vœu. Elle avait désiré que nul ne suivît le cercueil de celle qui n'entendait plus être que Anne-Marie-Madeleine de la Pénitence. Cette dépouille terrestre tant vantée, tant aimée, s'en alla solitaire. Liane de Pougy était bien morte. »
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Jeanne Paquin(23 June 1869–28 August 1936) was a leading French fashion designer, known for her resolutely modern and innovative designs. She was the first major female couturier and one of the pioneers of the modern fashion business. Jeanne Paquin, née Jeanne Beckers le 23 juin 1869 à L'Île-Saint-Denis et décédée le 28 août 1936 à Paris 7e, est une grande couturière française. Elle est l'une des premières à avoir acquis une renommée internationale, à la fin du xixe siècle. BiographyJeanne Paquin was born Jeanne Marie Charlotte Beckers in 1869. Her father was a physician. She was one of five children. Sent out to work as a young teenager, Jeanne trained as a dressmaker at Rouff (a Paris couture house established in 1884 and located on Boulevard Haussmann). She quickly rose through to ranks becoming première, in charge of the atelier. In 1891, Jeanne Marie Charlotte Beckers married Isidore René Jacob, who was also known as Paquin. Isidore owned Paquin Lalanne et cie, a couture house which had grown out of a menswear shop in the 1840s. The couple renamed the company Paquin and set about building the business. In 1891, Jeanne and Isidore Paquin opened their Maison de Couture at 3 Rue de la Paix in Paris, next to the celebrated House of Worth. Jeanne was in charge of design, while Isidore ran the business. Initially, Jeanne favored the pastels in fashion at the time. Eventually, she moved on to stronger colors like black and her signature red. Black had been traditionally the color of mourning. Jeanne made the color fashionable by blending it with vividly colorful linings and embroidered trim. Jeanne Paquin was the first couturier to send models dressed in her apparel to public events such operas and horse races for publicity. Paquin also frequently collaborated with the illustrators and architects such as Léon Bakst, George Barbier, Robert Mallet-Stevens, and Louis Süe. She was also known to collaborate with the theatre, in a time when other houses rejected collaboration. In 1913, a New York Times reporter described Jeanne as "the most commercial artist alive". A London branch of The House of Paquin was opened in 1896 and the business became a limited company the same year. This shop employed a young Madeleine Vionnet. The company later expanded with shops in Buenos Aires and Madrid. In 1900, Jeanne was instrumental in organizing the Universal Exhibition and she was elected president of the Fashion Section. Her designs were featured prominently at the Exhibition and Jeanne created a mannequin of herself for display. Isidore Paquin died in 1907 at the age of 45, leaving Jeanne a widow at 38. Over 2,000 people attended Isidore's funeral. After Isidore's death, Jeanne dressed mostly in black and white. In 1912, Jeanne and her half-brother opened a furrier, Paquin-Joire, on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The same year, Jeanne signed an exclusive illustration contract with La Gazette du Bon Ton, which featured six other leading Paris designers of the day – Louise Chéruit, Georges Doeuillet, Jacques Doucet, Paul Poiret, Redfern & Sons, and the House of Worth. In 1913, Jeanne accepted France's prestigious Legion d’Honneur in recognition of her economic contributions to the country – the first woman designer to receive the honor. A year later, Jeanne toured the United States. For five dollars, attendees saw The House of Paquin's latest designs. Despite the high ticket price, the tour sold out. During World War I, Jeanne served as president of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture. She was the first woman to serve as president of an employers syndicate in France. At its height, the House of Paquin was so well known that Edith Wharton mentioned the company by name in The House of Mirth. At a time when couture houses employed 50 to 400 workers, the House of Paquin employed up to 2,000 people at its apex. The Queens of Spain, Belgium, and Portugal were all customers of Paquin. So were courtesans such as La Belle Otero and Liane de Pougy. When Jeanne Paquin retired in 1920, she passed responsibility to her assistant Madeleine Wallis. Wallis remained as house designer for Paquin until 1936, the same year that Jeanne Paquin died. Between 1936 and 1941, the Spanish designer Ana de Pombo, Wallis's assistant, was house designer. In 1941, de Pombo left, and her assistant, Antonio del Castillo (1908–1984) took over as head designer. In 1945 del Castillo left Paquin to become a designer for Elizabeth Arden, and would later become head designer for the house of Lanvin. He was succeeded by Colette Massignac, who was tasked with the challenge of keeping Paquin going during the post-War years, when new designers such as Christian Dior were receiving greater publicity and attention. In 1949, the Basque designer Lou Claverie became head designer at Paquin, until 1953, when he was succeeded by a young American designer, Alan Graham. However, Graham's understated designs failed to reinvigorate the brand of Paquin, and the Paris house closed on 1 July 1956. BiographieNée à L'Île-Saint-Denis, Jeanne Beckers commence sa formation de modeliste pour faire son apprentissage. En 1891, après son mariage avec Isidore Jacob, dit Paquin, elle ouvre sa propre maison de couture à Paris, 3, rue de la Paix. Ses robes du soir aux motifs « xviiie siècle », ses modèles ornés de fourrure ou de dentelle, lui assurent une grande notoriété. Femme d’affaires avisée, elle est l’une des premières à pressentir l’intérêt des techniques de promotion, n’hésitant pas à apparaître entourée de ses mannequins lors de soirées à l'opéra Garnier ou encore lors des jours de grands prix équestres, et à organiser de véritables défilés de mode pour promouvoir ses nouveaux modèles. Elle préside la section Modes de l'Exposition universelle de 1900. Dans son stand, elle se fait représenter par un mannequin de cire vêtu d'un déshabillé brodé de roses d'or. Associée à des partenaires britanniques, Jeanne Paquin transfère, en 1896, son siège à Londres, au 39 Dover Street, tout en gardant sa succursale de Paris. En 1912, elle ouvre à New York, au 398 de la Cinquième Avenue, une boutique consacrée à la fourrure, qu’elle confie à son demi-frère, Henri Joire et dont l'agencement est réalisé par Robert Mallet-Stevens. La même année elle fait réaliser une villa au 33, rue du Mont-Valérien à Saint-Cloud (alors en Seine-et-Oise, aujourd'hui dans les Hauts-de-Seine) par l'architecte décorateur Louis Süe. Peu de temps après, deux nouvelles succursales voient le jour à Madrid et à Buenos Aires. Elle est la première grande couturière à recevoir, en 1913, la croix de la Légion d'honneur. Si l’inspiration de Jeanne Paquin puise largement dans le passé, elle sait également s’adapter aux évolutions de l’époque, proposant un modèle de tailleur adapté à la « civilisation du métro » ou, à la veille de la Première Guerre mondiale, une robe intermédiaire entre le tailleur et le costume. Son esprit résolument moderne s’exprime encore dans sa collaboration avec Léon Bakst pour la création de costumes de théâtre. Présidente de la Chambre syndicale de la couture de 1917 à 1919, Jeanne Paquin se retire en 1920, laissant l’administration de la maison à Henri Joire, et la direction artistique à Madeleine Wallis. Ana de Pombo la remplace en 1936, année de la mort de Jeanne Paquin, puis cède la place en 1942 à Antonio Canovas del Castillo. La direction de la maison revient ensuite à Colette Massignac, puis à Lou Claverie, qui sauront adapter le style des collections au New Look mis à la mode par Christian Dior. En 1956, la maison Paquin, essuyant de graves difficultés financières, cessera son activité. La « maison Paquin » est immortalisée par la chanson de Léo Lelièvre, La Biaiseuse en 1912 (reprise notamment par Annie Cordy et Marie-Paule Belle) : « Je suis biaiseuse chez Paquin... ».
La couturière se fait construire une villa à Deauville en 1909 : le premier projet, demandé à Robert Mallet-Stevens, semblant ne pas avoir abouti, c'est finalement l'architecte Auguste Bluysen qui est retenu. Au xxie siècle, la villa est baptisée Les Abeilles. |
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