"M" : OCTAVIA JOSEPHINE MARCHAND : MISTRESS OF THE ART COLLECTOR GEORGE ALOYSIUS LUCAS of BALTIMORE

The bulk of the information in this art collection lover's book is in chapter seven called 'M, Eugene, and Maud.' The book serves as the primary reference for this month's post.

George Aloysius Lucas went to West Point and also trained as a civil engineer but went to Paris in 1957 where he found his profession and calling as a collector of art and agent to other collectors. He was born in 1824 and died after M did in 1900.  According to Wikipedia, at his death, he owned 19000 prints, 300 paintings, and 170 bronze sculptures.  

OCTAVIA JOSEPHINE MARCHAND - Mistress of GEORGE ALOYSIUS LUCAS

Born about 1833 - Died 1909

George Aloysius Lucas, who would one day become famous as an art collector who gifted Baltimore, never married or had children of his own, but he had a mistress for decades, living almost as husband and wife for 40 years, and he hid her so well, it's primarily his diary that gives evidence of their relationship.  Not one to blurt, he simply called her M. Were it not that his closest friends, often artists who also had mistresses in France, and their mistresses too, knew of her, we might not know M existed, unable to infer much of anything from his sparse recordings.

Octavia Josephine Marchand was a married woman with a child whose husband seems to have left her in France while he lived in England.  When this husband died, if he knew of her relationship with Lucas, if the two ever divorced, her motivations for staying with Lucas - all of this is unknown - making 'M' another mysterious muse of a mistress.  Possibly she modeled for two of the paintings that dressed the walls of the country house they eventually bought. The images that are possibly M are Charles Baugniet's "Skating" and Alfred Alboy-Rebovet's "Figure in Blue."  We know so little of her that we don't actually know what she looks like. 

In 1857 Lucas' notations recorded in his diary indicate that they were introduced at a dinner by a mutual friend, possibly her best male friend.

She was 24 years old, married but separated from a husband - officially or not - who lived in London, had a three year old son, Eugene, and was considered a "lorette." The pair did go out on the town to concerts, strolls through parts, and museums, but perhaps they claimed to be friends.  By July of 1858 they were likely lovers.  (And I personally wonder if perhaps her legal husband married her to cover his homosexuality - pure speculation on my part.)

The year 1857 the controversial book Madame Bovery by Gustave Flaubert had been published and society was shocked - or claimed to be - and Flaubert was roasted for not turning the story of adultery into a morality tale. Supposedly even sophisticated Paris thought of women as either wives or prostitutes, or maybe virgins or whores?  This double standard meant that a married woman with a child who had an affair was considered a criminal while the man she had the affair with was simply immoral. Lucas, born in Baltimore Maryland, trained as a civil engineer, had come to Paris after not much success in general in America, and he found his profession and his calling in collecting art, sometimes purchased directly from artists who would someday be famous. His closest friends included the artist Jimmy Whistler  (known for portraits such as "Whistler's Mother), who had a mistress named Joanna Hiffernan and then a mistress named Maud Franklin; both of these mistresses liked M. Lucas loved his life in France and would never return to American though he bought art for many Americans.

As a lorette, M could be introduced to his closest friends but not his family.  It's thought that he kept the existence of M and their relationship hidden in order to maintain an impeccable reputation with his American clients first and foremost.  And so there are no letters between them to be found, no photos, sculptures, or other images - expect possibly the already mentioned paintings. 

Was she simply a beautiful woman to show off to his friends or did he love her?  Evidence of love is that in August 1880 when she went to London to visit her ailing husband and wouldn't say for sure when or if she would return, he recorded in his diary that he was heartbroken. He wrote to her urging her to return and she did a week after the mother and son departed.

He sought a country house for them to share as a family and found one in Boissise in August 1866 but it would take years before it was completely paid for, remodeled, and decorated.  And then it became the home that hosted a great many friends. He took M and Eugene all to his favorite place called La Maison Blanche for a month in 1868 and so you could say they were out as a couple.

1870 was the Franco-Prussian war and there is no mention of her in his diaries and so it's possible that the couple split up - lived separately during that time.  It wasn't until 1873 that the house was complete and by 1875 maybe the whole Flaubert scandal behind them, Lucas began to entertain including American artists at the house, revealing himself and his relationship to more people.  Still in the fall they would go live at 41 rue de l'Arc de Triomphe in adjoining apartments, Lucas paying the rent on hers - the two front doors adjoined.  There on the 4th floor in the apartments - including hers - Lucas kept his collections in cabinets, armoires, and cardboard boxes. The apartments held prints, drawings, watercolors, oils, letters and photos of the artists, this and that.  There were hundreds.  He was earning a good income on commissions as he sought out and sold art for collectors.

In Paris Lucas lived the life of a wealthy businessman outwardly but his heart was in the Fontainebleau Countryside where he had vineyards and a Bohemian atmosphere went on and other unmarried people were open in their relationships.  Artists Rousseau and Millet  who lived in nearby villages openly had mistresses.  His frind Huntington, a journalist, brought around Angele Allaine,his mistress and after he died Lucas supported her for a couple months in 1885.

Eugene was treated as a son by Lucas and the two became close.  in 1874 he left France for college.  College completed, he returned to Paris.  Lucas loaned him money to start up as a civil engineer in London but eventually he was back to Paris. In 1886 Eugene was 32 years old and got married.  His five children were treated well by Lucas who paid the rent on a family home for them and they frequently came to dinner.

By 1904 both Lucas and M were in failing health and, as seriously ill as she was, they could not care for each other.  Their last trip to the country house was in 1897. Lucas gifted the country house to Eugene for his family  and still Eugene came to Paris to visit.  Meanwhile the Maryland Institute wanted the collection of art. There had been a fire in 1904 and then a half million raised and a Neoclassical building designed to house an art collection. M died in 1909 so she could not be the heir to the collection. Eugene was the likely candidate but this was not meant to be. This is where, perhaps not surprisingly, a plot was hatched. His last will was written October 23, 1909.

To let you hang on that cliff just a bit, let's just say that the death of M left Lucas shattered.  She burned to death in his apartment and he is said to have escaped by miracle as did thousands of art objects.  (Perhaps a murder mystery is implied?)  His relative's machinations to get that art to Baltimore had become mean spirited for they blamed M and hated her. 


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This post was edited due to formatting issue on September 9, 2019 and due to not holding corrections on September 17, 2019.