Paris-Lesbos

Before exploring the lives of the Australian women artists who spent time in France (mentioned in a previous post), it is interesting to learn something of the world they entered.

La Belle Époque (1871-1914) was a period of great cultural and social change in Paris marked by a flourishing of the arts and a general sense of optimism and progress. However, beneath the bourgeois surface of this glittering era, there was a vibrant, discreet, but not very well-hidden world of same-sex couples in the city. After the biblical city of Gomorrah and later Mytilene (the 7^th BCE capital of the Greek island of Lesbos), Paris had the honour of being identified as historically the most important city for the acceptance of female same-sex relationships. In fact, it was commonplace for Paris to be known as the Sapphic City or Paris-Lesbos.

As early as 1836, French physician and hygienist, Alexandre Parent-Duchâtelet’s, ‘La Prostitution dans la ville de Paris‘, located lesbianism as something that existed solely in the world of prostitution. Female same-sex behaviour was believed to occur only in brothels, either directed by brothel keepers as tableaux vivants for the pleasure of patrons; or between brothel inmates (the term favoured at the time) who formed intimate relationships for emotional comfort and stability.

However, during the Second Empire and subsequent Third Republic, lesbianism started to be understood outside the realm of the prostitute. In 1864, Parisian journalist, Alfred Delvau in his ‘Dictionnaire erotique moderne’ described a lesbian as: ‘a Parisian woman who seems to have been born in Lesbos, land of warm and languid nights’.  Later, Ali Coffignon in ‘Paris vivant: La corruption à Paris’ (1889), aware of the increasing visibility of lesbians – “now widespread among all classes of society” – attributed this to the burgeoning literature which “excites the woman’s curiosity and makes her indulge in a practice about which she certainly never would have dreamt if the perversions of her soul had not been aroused”. Apparently, women had been reading Théophile Gautier’s ‘Mademoiselle de Maupin‘ (1835) or Honoré de Balzac’s ‘La Fille aux yeux d’or’ (1835).

Indeed, during the 19^th century there was considerable ‘lesbian literature’, almost exclusively written by men, much of which was either bawdy fantasies or cautionary tales warning of the dangers of sexual immorality. One novel, ‘À Lesbos‘, written in 1891 by Jehan de Kellec, stands out as providing a positive view of ‘sapphism’.

During la Belle Epoque, women who loved women found ways to connect and form communities, often in defiance of societal norms and legal restrictions. As French historian Nicole Albert pointed out in ‘Saphisme et Décadence dans Paris fin-de- siècle’ in 2005, there were ‘two main spaces’ occupied by lesbians at this particular time. The first was a continuation of the salons of the Ancien Régime – the period of French life up to the revolution of 1789. This private domain – often with strictly codified behaviour – was where aesthetes, the rich, and often the expatriate community were likely to meet.

Two salons were especially noteworthy. The first, hosted by American writer, Getrude Stein, and her partner, Alice B. Toklas, appealed largely to the artistic, literary and especially expatriate community. Established at 27 Rue de Fleurus on the Left Bank, the salon met on Saturday evenings, the time when Henri Matisse was in the habit of dropping in. Initiated by Stein and her brother Leo in 1903, and surrounded by their increasing collection of art, Stein ‘directed proceedings’ in her highbacked chair. When Toklas moved in with Stein in 1910, Leo acrimoniously moved out taking his share of the art (sixteen Renoirs and a Cezanne painting of ‘5 apples’) leaving Gertrude the Piscassos and most of the Matisses.

Pierre Bonnard’s ‘La Sieste’ (1900), exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, Paris in 1905, and now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, was acquired at this time for the Stein’s by their dealer-collector, Ambroise Vollard. Two years later it was exchanged with Vollard for a Renoir, possibly at Leo’s request.

Stein’s relationship with Toklas was monogamous and conformed to the prevailing bourgeois gender roles. Stein dominated her art collection, her guests and her partner as Toklas acknowledged: “I am a person acted upon, not a person who acts”. However, Toklas was clearly active in managing their lives. Cooking, gardening, maintaining their house, caring for the obligatory poodles, making travel arrangements, typing Stein’s manuscripts (and even publishing some) were all part of Toklas’s duties. During the salons, while Stein ‘held court’, Toklas was called upon to entertain the wives of the guests in the kitchen. Stein and Toklas lived together for 39 years. Their ‘husband and wife’ relationship is succinctly described in Diana Souhami’s biography ‘Gertrude and Alice’: “she with a sheet of linen and he with a sheet of paper”.

The more infamous and sexually open Parisian salon was the one conducted by another American, Nathalie Barney. Barney came from a wealthy American family and was partly educated in France. She was aware of her sexual desire from a young age and moved to Paris aged 26 with her first romantic partner, Eva Palmer, an American thespian, dancer, and weaver who promoted Classical Greek culture.

Barney hosted a weekly Friday salon for over 60 years in her home in Paris’s Latin Quarter. As well as providing a place for intellectual discussion and exchange, Barney also held literary readings, plays, concerts and dance performances.  Because Barney was openly a lesbian and did not believe in monogamy, her relationships were the subject of gossip, speculation and writing. Joan Schenkar in ‘Truly Wilde: The Unsettling Story of Dolly Wilde, Oscar’s Unusual Niece’ (2000), (Dolly was also a conquest of Barney’s), describes Barney’s salon as: “a place where lesbian assignations and appointments with academics could coexist in a kind of cheerful, cross-pollinating, cognitive dissonance”.   Many lesbian and bisexual artists and writers were regular attendees including artist Romaine Brooks, dancer Loïe Fuller, poet Renée Vivien, writer Colette, and the courtesan Liane de Pougy. Pougy, one of Barney’s lovers, published a best-selling novel in 1901, ‘l’Idylle Saphique‘, based on their romance.

Born in 1869 as Anne-Marie Chassaigne, Liane de Pougy exemplified the Belle Epoque demimondaine – a pleasure-loving woman who lived an extravagant lifestyle supported by the generosity and gifts from various lovers. Renowned as one of Paris’s most beautiful and notorious courtesans, Pougy was a dancer and star of the Folies Bergère. Apart from her lesbian relationship with Barney, Pougy was also involved with Mathilde de Morny, an aristocrat, socialite and artist known as Missy or Max, and Émilienne d’Alençon, another dancer at the Folies Bergère.   Her life story is extraordinary. Starting with a childhood in a nunnery, then an early marriage to an abusive husband who shot her when he discovered her in bed with another man, followed by drug addiction, prostitution and later stardom her final years were deeply spiritual and religious as Sister Anne-Mary, a Dominican tertiary. Along the way, she was coached as a courtesan by Valtesse de la Bigne, (Jacques Offenbach’s protégé, model for Manet, and the inspiration for ‘Nana’ by Emile Zola) and told by Sarah Bernhardt that her acting was so bad she should ‘keep her pretty mouth shut’.

In 1899, after seeing Pougy perform on stage, Barney presented herself at Pougy’s residence in a page costume claiming to be a ‘page of love’ sent by Sappho. Charmed by Barney’s audacity, Pougy later recorded the meeting in her memoirs ‘Mes cahiers bleus’: “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”. Although their amorous relationship was short-lived, they were said to have strong feelings for each other for the remainder of their lives.

The theatre offered another recognised space where same-sex attracted performers were visible. Sarah Bernhardt, the legendary French actress, had numerous and notorious male lovers, but also a longstanding relationship with artist, Louise Abbéma. In 1876, aged 18, Abbéma painted her first portrait of Bernhardt. Shown at the Paris Salon, it was an instant success and the artist became Bernhardt’s official portraitist. Abbéma was brash, smoked cigars, dressed in men’s clothing and was renowned for her flamboyant behaviour. The artist and the actor enjoyed a friendship and, it is believed, more intimate relationship that lasted for almost fifty years. Abbéma served as Bernhardt’s companion and confidante until Bernhardt’s death in 1823.

Marie Louise ‘Loïe’ Fuller from Chicago moved to Paris in 1892 at the age of thirty. Having just received critical acclaim for ‘The Serpentine Dance’ in New York, she entranced Parisian audiences at the Folies Bergère where she was dubbed the ‘Fée Électricité or ‘Fairy of Light’. Considered one of the most original pioneers of modern dance, she inspired artists, sculptors, scientists and cinematographers. Fuller didn’t hide her feminist ideas or same-sex attraction and created her own female world with her students known as the ‘Fullerets’. Isadora Duncan, a beneficiary of Fuller’s support, recalled visiting Fuller surrounded by a “dozen or so beautiful girls … alternately stroking her hands and kissing her”.  Although briefly married, Fuller only had lesbian relationships. Her long-term partner was her student and collaborator Gabrielle Bloch, and they lived together for 23 years until Fuller’s death.

French novelist, actress and journalist, Colette, was another of Barney’s regular salon attendees who explored a world of relationships. Aged 20, she married the well-known author, publisher and libertine Henry Gauthier-Villars. Gauthier-Villars introduced Colette to the avant-garde Parisian world and encouraged both her literary ambitions and lesbian alliances. Colette’s first four novels, the ‘Claudine’ series (published under her husband’s name) chart the coming of age and young adulthood of an unapologetically bisexual, male-apparel wearing girl who becomes the doyenne of the literary salons in fin-de-siecle Paris.

Colette and her husband separated and divorced when they discovered that they were both having affairs with the same American female socialite, Georgie Raoul-Duval. Not having the copyright to her Claudine books, Colette struggled financially and initiated a stage career ‘playing Claudine’ in music halls across France. During these years, she embarked on a series of relationships with women including Barney and Mathilde de Morny with whom she sometimes shared the stage. In 1907, an onstage kiss between Colette and Morny in a pantomime caused a near-riot. As a result, they were no longer able to live together openly, however their relationship continued for another five years.

Nicole Albert’s ‘second space’ includes the Pigalle bars like La Souris, Le Hanneton and Le Rat-Mort (named as the clientele complained it smelled like a dead rat), Palmyre’s brasserie, cheap restaurants, brothels and other public places, more or less dedicated to a lesbian clientele, which permitted female same-sex relationships to be visible and explored. In his provocative 1880 novel ‘Nana’, Emile Zola describes these establishments as predatory with aging and degenerate lesbians “excited by the scent of … [unsuspecting young and beautiful girls] … anxious to ply them with dainty titi-bits”.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec lived in, and chronicled, this quartier of Paris and provides a much more sympathetic and less sensational picture of the exploration of female same-sex experiences.  An excellent overview of the social influences and Lautrec’s work at this time can be found in the catalogue for the exhibition ‘Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre’ National Gallery of Art, Washington (2005) see: www.nga.gov/research/publications/pdf-library/toulouse-lautrec-and-montmartre.html

A regular drinker in the lesbian bars located close to his studio, Lautrec sketched the patrons in the 1890s. In À la Souris, we see the bar owner, Madame Palmyre on the right. Described as: ‘a large woman with a generous heart and a harsh exterior, she had certain characteristics in common with her little bulldog, Bouboule … [who was] hideously jealous of his mistress’s favours, frequently biting the calves of the customers’.

Sylvain Bonmariage, a friend of Lautrec, noted that the painter observed the lesbians “with a sort of troubled fascination”. Lautrec carried a carte postale depicting two naked women embracing which he described as: “this is superior to everything. Nothing can compare to something so simple”.

Lautrec provides two windows into the world of late 19^th century Parisian lesbianism. The first is his series of scenes of same-sex intimacy in the maisons closes. Lautrec lived in some of the more fashionable brothels on and off for several years in the 1890s and was regarded by the workers as not just a client but also a friend and confidante. In Au salon de la rue des Moulins, we see Lautrec’s sensitive observation of the attitudes and expressions of the filles de maison as they await the arrival of their clients.

In 1892, Lautrec created a series of paintings depicting intimacy between women in the bedroom.  His pictures of couples are not voyeuristic but give the sense of real-life moments and highlight both the tenderness and the affection that existed between the couples. As ‘unerotic’ art, the paintings were unlikely to have a commercial market and it is probable that they were necessary personal statements by the artist. Ultimately, all these works were acquired by his friends for their own collections.

The other presence of lesbians by Lautrec is in his depictions of the well-known same-sex attracted celebrity entertainers in Montmartre: Jane Avril, La Goulue, Cha-U-Kao and May Milton. While rarely explicit in their representation of lesbianism, and never exploiting their sexual preference as the main focus of his art, Lautrec nevertheless, ensures that these performers are recognised and valued.

Ashley Bruckbauer in ‘Flânerie and the Lesbian Gaze: Female Spectatorship in the Work of Toulouse-Lautrec’ (2009), discusses how the artist was drawn to the depiction of different lesbian subcultures and, in particular, his fascination with Jane Avril.

Lautrec met the performer in the early 1890s and they remained close throughout his life. Born in Paris in 1868, Avril was the illegitimate daughter of a Parisian demimondaine and an Italian marquis. Despite being raised in a poor and abusive environment, Avril was both educated and refined. However, at the age of 16 she experienced neurological and mental health issues and was admitted to La Salpetrière hospital. Here she discovered an aptitude for dancing and after discharge she began performing at venues in Montmartre in the evenings while working menial jobs during the day. Hired by the Moulin Rouge in 1889, she was soon headlining the can-can at the Jardin de Paris and is pictured there in a poster by Lautrec.

Over the years, Lautrec depicted Avril in twenty paintings, fifteen drawings, and several lithographs and posters. Although the artist never shows Avril in a manner that identifies her as a lesbian (she was known to be involved in an intimate relationship with English performer, May Milton), she does feature in works with famous lesbian women and lesbian couples. In ‘At The Moulin Rouge, Two Women Waltzing’, we see Cha-U-Kao dancing with an unknown woman, while Avril stands behind them in a red jacket.

Unlike Lautrec’s pictures of performers like La Goulue or Cha-U-Kao, the artist did not often present Avril as a ‘packaged celebrity’ available for consumption, but rather allowed her greater emotional privacy. In works like ‘Le Divan Japonais‘, Avril appears as the engaged spectator who, by turning her back on Baron Edouard Dujardin and focussing on the entertainment, takes control of the environment, making her a strong and determined presence. Bruckbauer points out that lesbians occupied a significant amount of Lautrec’s oeuvre and they were often shown dominating the space they occupied thus providing a new female model of looking.

Over the past twenty years there has been an increasing interest in, and availability of, materials which document the world of same-sex attraction in fin-de-siecle France. Clearly there is a considerable amount of information that describes the ‘lure of Paris’ for people who wanted to live in a more permissive world than late 19^th/early 20^th century Australia. How much of this information was available to them at the time is unknown.

While London and Paris had been key destinations for Australian artists for many years, it is worth considering the local awareness of Paris’s bohemian atmosphere and tolerance of same-sex relationships as an influence for France to become the place to go for female artists in the late 19^th and early 20^th century. Or, as Peter Di Sciascio points out in ‘Australian Lesbian Artists of the Early Twentieth Century’ (2011), many female artists arriving in Paris in la Belle Epoque would have encountered the lesbian community, and if they were so inclined or interested, engaged with it.