CATHERINE WALTERS
"Skittles"
1839-1920
Though the Parisians and the French in particular were skeptical of the English Courtesans, and Paris therefore would seem an unlikely place for an English Courtesan to rise, this is where Catherine Walters did indeed become famous, though she wasn't there for long.
The astonishingly beautiful Catherine was first kept at the age of sixteen. Then in London, in 1863, she began a relationship with a young man who was inspired to write poetry by her, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, who, it was said, was so obsessed with her that he could never really love another woman again after Catherine. Some of the information we have about Catherine's life comes from Blunt who played a supportive role in her life but also seems to have been tremendously swayed by idealism, unable to fully face the reality of Catherine's lifestyle.
Catherine was reportedly a blond with deep blue eyes, though photographs show her to be brunette and her hair was also called auburn. (Perhaps she had dyed her hair?)
Her body was so exquisite that she was considered to be perfectly formed. She most impressed others - in particular the French. with her style as a horsewoman for when she was riding sidesaddle, she wore a garment so well cut to show her body that it was rumored she was naked beneath the cloth. People were in awe to see her as she joined the parade of other courtesans who rode to show off their fine clothing, jewelry, horses and carriages.
Page 279 : ... "And how smart, how elegant, what a horse woman, what an air of originality and honesty in the presentation of her carriages!' wrote Zed in his portrait of her. 'When she appeared on the avenue de L'Imperatrice driving herself with two beautiful sparkling pure-blooded horses, followed by two grooms on horseback in splendid and elegant uniform... every head turned, and all eyes were on her.'...
She gave off aristocratic bearing but she was born in Liverpool to a sea captain and his Irish wife and was raised as a Catholic. Blunt, who claimed to be her confidant, said her mother died when she was four and that as a girl Catherine was sent off to be raised in a convent school. After running away from the school she worked for a horse stable and rode the horses to display them to customers, earning a percentage. Her nickname 'Skittles' came from that time.
At sixteen she was already a mistress of a man named George Lord Fitzwilliam, the master of the Fitzwilliam Hounds. When she separated from him after a year, he gave her a settlement if 300 pounds a year plus a lump sum of 2000 pounds.
Her story reminds us a bit of that of CoCo Chanel, who was also motherless at a young age and raised in a convent school, and who left there in need of earning her own keep, becoming a a young kept woman in the process.
Walters' career as a courtesan did not end in her teenage years with a first lover, who, it could be argued, provided her enough money to settle into a different, more modest lifestyle. Like many a courtesan, she desired to experience more, to own more, to take it as far as it would go, and her beauty plus her horsemanship attracted many potential suitors.
Though we know the names if some of them, money she was given in her teens and early twenties may have allowed her to leave fame behind and settle into a house in Mayfair where she continued to maintain old friendships with some of the noteworthy men she'd had relationships with and possibly attract more such suitors. She was able to retire well, with the attention of some of those she had met years earlier seeming to care about her welfare and continuing to provide in some way.
Catherine Walter's will described her as a 'spinster.' She had never married and had no children. Unlike Sophia Baddeley she had not spent herself into poverty, though she surely had some times in her life when she had to budget carefully.
Something we always wonder is how or if or when a courtesan is in love or loves the man who has set her up in luxury. If not, how does she separate that relationship, in which she must show special devotion and often be on call for him from other relationships? Is she an expert at compartmentalization? Or is it that she separates love from sex? Or is it that she can love more than one person at a time? In the case of Blunt, author Katie Hickman gives us the impression that Catherine knew to keep him around because she needed him and his devotion to her, prioritizing the men who could provide for her as he, a mere diplomat, could not. As I see it, to do so took some diplomacy, keeping some air of mystery, some ability to not tell the whole truth perhaps, or to allow a man to think what he might while she took care of herself. Is that manipulative or is it simply that we cannot be fully responsible for what someone else is thinking or feeling?
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The image on the book cover of Courtesans by Katie Hickman is not Catherine Walters but is a portrait of actress Sarah Bernhardt..
Wikipedia is the source for the photo of Catherine Walters used above.
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