LIANE DE POUGY's COURTESAN MENTOR VALTESSE DE LA BIGNE RETIRES WITH DIGNITY

By 1900, Liane de Pougy, a talented woman, had decided to write. Eventually she would write books called fictions which were tantalizing due to her thinly disguised real life characters, including herself. She also wrote a diary in later life.  In 1901  Liane de Pougy published the book Idylle Saphique which was semi autobiographical. 

Liane was 31 years old and her mentor, Valtesse de la Bigne, was near 52 when the older courtesan understood that it was time to retire openly and with grace. She was gaining weight and going grey.  (Notes from page 268)

Of interest to us here at Mistress Manifesto is also the mention on page 272 of Cora Pearl. sometimes called The English Rose of Paris. It says that had been the Princess of Paris but had been caste out of society when Paris knew she had ruined a man financially and she was reduced to a common prostitute.

*****

Here is an excerpt from July 2012 when CORA PEARL was our Mistress of the Month.

Cora tells the story that she was 15 when she was taken to bed by a man who could have been 35, who she first saw in a market. Later, though she started out curious, she was disgusted. In Cora's day many poor women were considered to be unmarriageable because they didn't have a dowry or, out of innocence or hunger, they found sex to be the only way to resolve their destitution and couldn't marry because they had lost their virginity before marriage, even if they were molested or raped.

*****

Valtesse was all too aware that she needed to take control of her life, her career at its end, and her reputation. She did not want to be banished from society for any reason but she needed to remove herself from Paris, where the younger courtesans were taking over.  In 1902 she announced that she was auctioning off all her property (this was not quite true because she kept some of the things she most treasured) but this sale messaged two things, one that she was ending her life as a courtesan and the other that she had lived a most successful life as one. Like the auctions of the estates of many famous and wealthy people today, prices were about who had owned the item as much as what the item might be worth in itself. She earned enough to refurbish her new home in the finest décor. Called Ville d'Avray, her home held 'family portraits" of nobles that were beautifully painted but were fake because she had not come from the nobility.  She was far enough away from her fame in Paris that the locals thought she had been a Madam rather than a Courtesan herself.  

Valtesse lived long enough to see her protégé do what seemed impossible to the most successful courtesan and that was to marry a prince, which Liane did in 1909 at the age of 41.  Liane became the wife of Prince Georges Ghika of Romania.

Valtese died July, 29th, 1910, age 62, and Liane grieved deeply.  She was in Valtesse's last will, receiving a tea service and a desk.

Valtesse had a granddaughter.  Her granddaughter would become a Mistress, living in Monaco...

C 2022 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

Our primary reference for this month's subject, Courtesan Laine De Pougy, is the book titled the Mistress of Paris by author Catherine Hewitt.