How a fashion model obsessed with ballet turned the heads of artists and monks: Diane de Merode

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Cleopatra Diana de Merode is a mysterious personality, a famous dancer, ballerina, a popular fashion model of the 20th century, who turned her head not only for wealthy patrons, but also for some monarchs. Who is she, the muse of Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Boldini and dozens of other sculptors and artists who could not tear themselves away from her angelic, refined and pure beauty, and how did a girl live, whose life was filled with evil rumors, gossip and excessive attention?

Various artists, from painters to sculptors, literally adored Cleo, idolized her and considered her incredible. Photographers from a bygone era even helped a professional ballerina to become the world's first fashion model. In the 1900s, pictures of this woman could be found almost everywhere, in every more or less popular European town.

Amazing dancer

Cleopatra was born in 1875 in the capital of France. Her father, Karl von Merode, was very popular in the world as an artist who created unique landscapes. But her mother, Vincent de Merode, was a baroness and it was thanks to her that the girl entered the ballet school at the Paris Opera at the age of seven. Soon after, as her teachers discovered incredible potential in the girl, she began performing at the Grand Opera.

There were always a lot of rumors around the girl. Her envious people claimed that she owed her dizzying career not so much to her skill as to her amazing beauty. However, not a single historical source confirms, but does not refute this statement either. It is only known that the career of the ballerina young Cleo was entirely occupied by her mother, which supported this undertaking.

When the girl was twenty-three, she began to build her solo career, performing at the Royal Theaters in France. She also easily collected sold out in the Folies-Bergere cabaret, and also traveled with tours not only in Europe, but also in America as well. Her popularity fell in the 1900s and 10s, but even after the girl quit ballet in 1924, she continued to give rare, specific concerts. According to some reports, she accepted invitations from entrepreneurs at a respectable age, performing for them with private concerts, which was quite a rarity among ballerinas.

Beautiful and amazing, Cleo attracted artists and sculptors from all over the world. It is known that she posed for the paintings of Edgar Degas and his famous series with the ballerina. But to this day, art critics cannot find the very picture that would depict the outlines of Cleo. However, Edgar, being a regular visitor to concerts at the Opera, as well as directly to classes in ballroom studios, was able, like no one else, to convey not so much the gloss and brilliance, the skill of dance in his paintings, but to look into its very essence and depth.

But the artist Jean-Louis Forein was interested not so much in what was happening on the stage, as in what was happening directly behind the scenes. He skillfully portrayed fans in black tailcoats, which looked more like Moles, hunting for light, airy and cute Thumbelina.

It is noteworthy that from the beginning of the 18th century and inclusively until the First World War, there were a number of prejudices around women who performed on stage and were fond of creative professions. So, dancers, ballerinas, circus performers, as well as cabaret singers were automatically considered courtesans because they openly, although not fully, showed their bodies for all to see.

Young girls between the ages of twelve and sixteen were often called "mice". Only the most famous and influential gentlemen could see them on stage directly in the Opera itself, which was then called the temple of debauchery, a harem and a refuge for the descendants of Venus. It was these absurd nicknames that caused a lot of rumors and speculation about artists, including Cleo, and also became the reason for the creation of many parodies and cartoons.

Of course, Cleo herself faced such public condemnation and several times was even forced to defend her honor in court. During this period, Toulouse-Lautrec created a small sketch of Cleo in the courtroom. And, perhaps, this is the only sketch and image of this woman, which shows her as a resolute, cold, arrogant and arrogant, unapproachable society lady, who seems to be indifferent to gossip and gossip behind her back.

Royal passion for a beautiful ballerina

The amazing and attractive Cleopatra fascinated not only artists and ordinary men, but also the Belgian monarch himself, Leopold II. For the first time he appeared at her performance, and, being fascinated by her beauty and grace, since then he attended absolutely all the shows with her participation. At that time, Leopold was thirty-eight years older than the girl, being at the venerable, 61-year-old age, but this did not prevent him from passionately and ardently in love with her.

Most people actively said that the romance between them took place. However, the ballerina herself denied this, claiming that they never crossed the line of what was permissible, and the only sign of attention shown to them was a donated, magnificent bouquet that the king presented to her personally after one of the performances on stage.

Despite the fact that Cleo actively defended her clean reputation, she became known as the mistress of the Belgian king. Residents of Paris nicknamed the monarch "Cleopold", drawing with him a lot of caricatures and images, as well as depicting a couple together in a very sharp and romantic way.

In her memoirs, the girl will write:.

At that time, the Russian media actively wrote in the newspapers that Leopold was planning to marry his beloved, while giving up the throne. However, there was also talk that the frequent visits to Paris, allegedly to Cleo, were in fact a cover for secret negotiations between politicians.

But among all the rumors, there was one that was true. They say that when the king of Belgium decided to make a gift to France, it was Cleo who offered him to finance the construction of the metro. And, curiously, he agreed: the metro was indeed built with the money of the Belgian monarch.

Hostage of her beauty

In 1896, L'Eclat launched a French beauty pageant, where the most beautiful woman had to be chosen by the readers themselves. There were a hundred and thirty applicants in total, but it was the young ballerina who was considered the most beautiful woman on stage. She even managed to bypass the unique Sarah Bernhardt.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the autumn salon in the same year spoke tirelessly about this woman and not always in a good way. The French creator Alexandre Falguier showed there a sculpture called "The Dancer", which was created thanks to the direct posing of the ballerina herself. The sculpture appeared before the world in a nude format. And because of this, the ballerina had to prove to the world that, in fact, only her face was taken for the sculpture, and not her body, but this did not succeed: the audience still remembered their "romance" with the king of Belgium, and was no longer inclined to believe in the words of the ballerina.

The famous writer Georges Rodenbach sent a letter to the Le Figaro edition, in which he defended the girl. He reproached the sculptor for depriving the image of the dancer of poetics, showing her completely naked, which made the public think that they could all have her. However, despite the best and most honest intentions that the writer pursued, all this had the opposite effect and did the girl a disservice, because of which new satires and rumors about her appeared.

Malicious rumors followed Cleopatra throughout her life. The last straw was Simone de Beauvoir's book The Second Sex, which was published in the fifties. There, the writer calls Cleopatra "the lady of the half-light", which at that time meant either a kept woman or a prostitute of a higher, elite class. After that, the ballerina's patience ran out: she went to court to defend her honor and dignity, and was able to win this case. Shortly thereafter, in 1955, she published her own book, The Ballet of My Life, which was essentially her memoir.

It is noteworthy that Cleo initially sued the writer, wanting to recover five million francs from her. However, despite the fact that the court was on the side of the ballerina, she was forced to refuse this, since the payment of such a large amount would cause unwanted public attention and would become a kind of advertisement for the book. Therefore, Cleo received only one franc from this court case.

Forced to hide from her scandalous fame, the girl left Paris, traveling around New York, Budapest, Berlin and other cities, giving small performances there. She is also known for visiting St. Petersburg, where she performed and became known as the first lady to be on stage with a male partner.

Fashion model career

The development of photography at that time went by leaps and bounds not only in France, but also far beyond its borders. The then most famous photographers, namely Paul and Felix Nadar, as well as Leopold-Emil Reutlinger, were the ones who most often took pictures of the young beauty.

She appeared in photos and small postcards in a variety of ways - as a fashionable, socialite, as well as a dancer, like an angel, and she was often filmed in religious, prayer poses. Cleo loved it, and she willingly posed for many publications, which made her, in fact, one of the first professional models in the world.

In her book, the girl recalls that when she was met on the street during a tour, people immediately ran to any nearest newspaper kiosk, bought postcards with her photographs in order to get the coveted autograph. Often, such over-attention of people made Cleo not leave the confines of her hotel room.

Cleopatra's phenomenal fashion

In addition to her other hobbies, Cleo also loved designing clothes and was a Parisian fashion designer. Now those things and models of her that have survived can be seen in the Galliera Museum, in the capital of fashion.

Most recently, he also released a huge publication on the bicentennial of fashion. For the cover of this edition, a blouse was chosen, which was created by Cleo herself, and which even today is considered incredible and sophisticated.

In addition to clothes, Cleo also came up with a new type of hairstyle. In most of the photographs, as well as objects of art with her participation, her hair is characteristically collected, has a parting, covers her ears and is a small bun. Many fashionistas of the 20th century, as well as characters from Fitzgerald's books, loved to do this at that time.

The hairstyle that Cleo adapted was called her name. However, as soon as something like this happened, evil gossip immediately appeared. Many ladies claimed that Cleo covered her ears with her hair, because in fact she either does not have them, or they are so ugly that they need to be hidden.

Cleopatra died in the late sixties when she was ninety-one. She was buried in the French capital, and a statue of a dancer was installed on her grave instead of a tombstone. It was sponsored by a diplomat from Spain who worked at the embassy, as well as by the sculptor Louis de Perin. The latter was considered Cleo's documented lover, who kept secret all the secrets of his personal life with the famous ballerina. It is believed that they met in 1906-19, and in 1909 Louis created a portrait of his beloved.

Someone, but a woman, knows exactly a thousand and one ways to impress a man, making him a hostage to her spell. However, three women close to Rembrandt's heart Is a great example of this. After all, each of them, one way or another, influenced his life and fate.