Video: Valtesse de La Bigne - "Her Highness" courtesan who ruled Paris from her bedroom
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the 19th century, there were two of the most famous places in Paris - the Eiffel Tower and the bedroom courtesans Valtesse de La Bigne … Among the lovers and close friends of this beauty were Edouard Manet, Eugene Boudin, Jean-Louis Forein. Emile Zola spoke with delight about her boudoir. It seemed that in the French capital there was no woman more influential than Valtesse de La Bigne.
Valtesse's real name is Lucy Emily Delabyne. The girl was born into a poor family, she did not know her father, and her mother was a simple seamstress. Lucy started working early to make ends meet. She was selling sweets in one of the pastry shops near the church of Notre Dame de Loret. This is the quarter of ordinary hard workers who liked to drop into the candy shops to exchange a few words with the pretty saleswomen. Soon the quarter became known as a place where they made easy acquaintances and looked for mistresses.
The women who agreed to easy connections were not professional courtesans. They were called lorettes. They were only rarely ready to spend the night with their favorite gentleman, as a rule, when it came time to pay the bills at the end of the month, and the meager salary was not enough at all. Love for money has become almost the only way for many poor girls to get out of poverty.
At the age of 20, Lucy realized that she was ready for anything to get a lucky ticket to life with normal income. She began to work on herself: she read a lot, learned to maintain small talk. Lucy understood: in order to hit the jackpot, you need to become the best among lorettes. It was then that the girl thought about the pseudonym and began to call herself Valtess, which was consonant with the French expression "Your Highness".
According to historians, Valtesse de La Bigne invented a legend according to which even Napoleon III was among her lovers. Catching luck by the tail turned out: the famous composer Jacques Offenbach got into the love networks of Valtesse. The connection with him was akin to "career growth": no longer a lorette, but a professional courtesan. Valtesse was looking for lovers in the legendary restaurant Laperuse. The luxurious establishment was opened in 1766 to allow wealthy gentlemen to meet ladies in a relaxed atmosphere for a gourmet dinner.
Secret rooms were provided in the restaurant so that visitors did not see each other. Interestingly, scratches can still be seen on the mirrors that have survived to this day: this is how the ladies checked the authenticity of the diamonds presented to them.
Valtesse de La Bigne quickly made a fortune. One of the lovers even built a mansion for her on Boulevard Malserbes. The idea turned out to be so expensive for him that after construction he remained bankrupt.
Valtesse became a muse for prominent Impressionist painters. Her portraits were painted by Edouard Manet, Henry Gerwex and Gustave Courbet. They jokingly called her home “Sobs of Artists,” considering how many talented artists drew inspiration here. Emile Zola compared Valtesse's bed to a throne, an altar to which all Paris comes with prayer. The bed of "Her Majesty" really looks like a throne, it can be seen in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris.
Valtesse never married. When her youth passed, she moved to the suburbs of the capital, where she began to train her successor Liana de Puji, revealing to her the secrets of the courtesan profession.
Valtesse lived for 62 years. After her death, a small bench was installed near the beauties' grave, where former lovers could spend time mourning her. Valtesse was sure that the real feeling was fleeting. She said: “A person should love only for a moment. Just like the rays of the sun at sunset, when the light is about to hide behind the horizon."
Fate Liana de Pugy, the most coveted courtesan of the Belle Époque, it was not easy: among her fans were not only men, but also … women.
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