NORA MAY FRENCH AND HARRY LAFLER : A WINDOW INTO HIS BOHEMIAN WORLD OF SAN FRANCISCO

Excerpt page 81: Then Harry Lafler entered her life. He seemed to offer a window into another world. He was one of the writers who frequented Coppa's, the restaurant at the center of San Francisco's thriving art scene. Poets and painters gathered at a table near the back, dining on sand dabs and green salads and drinking cheap red whine while talking into to the night. Everyone in California had heard of Coppa's. Every arist or writer who visited San Francisco stopped there. And Lafler was painted onto the very wall. .... Harry was at Coppa;s almost every night, writing and then reading his sonnets. He was most often in the company of George Sterling, whom they all called "The King Of Bohemia" because he had defined Bohemianism for the world.  

There are two elements, at least, that are essential to Bohemianism,"he decreed. "The first is devotion or addition to one or more of the Seven Arts, the other is poverty."

Nora realized she had never even seen what Harry Lafler looked like and that it was ridiculous to have developed such strong feelings for him because of a correspondence. However, they had an affair and after she commit suicide it was suggested she was pregnant by him.

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"MRS. EMMA HART'S" EXTRAVAGENT HOLIDAY IN NAPLES : EMMA IS SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON's NEW HOBBY and SHE LEARNS THE TRUTH THAT GREVILLE IS OVER HER

1786

Naples was the third largest city in Europe after London and Paris and a playground for the rich. There were glamorous parties, operas, exclusive shopping areas and amazing cuisine. A sort of boom town, it was also considered to be built quickly, with gorgeous but controversially colorfully painted architecture. Author Kate Williams compares it to an "eighteenth century Las Vegas" also because people gambled stayed up all night, drank, and womanized. It was a place to let go and get loose, to swim nude or forgo stiff protocols. Emma became Sir William's new hobby, showering her with gifts including a new wardrobe and a horse, and showing her off. However she continued to write to Greville, as though she were only aware of being on a vacation.

Excerpt page 127 : In July, Emma wrote to Greville, eager to share the excitement of her summer holiday.  They had visited Pompeii and Posillipo and planned to sail to the islands of Ischia and Capri.  She has been been bathing daily and her 'irruptions" were gone, leaving her, as she claims, "remarkably fair." Sir William had invited every artist and sculptor in Naples (apart from Mrs. Damer*) to portray her.  One, possibly Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, was painting her in a "Bacchante setting, in a turban, a Turkish dress," and she was modeling for another in blue silk gown and a black feathered hat. The young Swiss-German Angelica Kauffman, and two others planned to paint her, and the cameo maker Marchmont would soon carve her head into a stone that could be set into a ring.  Sir William already had five portraits, and he had asked for more from Romney.

Finally in August, Greville told the truth and she was shattered and both admonished him and begged him to take her back. He urged her to be Sir William Hamilton's mistress. Six months later she was still refusing to do so. She was faithful to Greville, her first lover. (The men she had sex with as a sex worker were not.)

Excerpt page 129 : Emma could not believe his hypocrisy. Exploited from the age of fourteen, she had thought that Greville had saved her, and she had grown proud of her hard-won respectability.  As she knew, mistresses tended to be passed on to progressively poorer protectors, and she expected that Sir William would keep her for no longer than a year and then pass her on.

But Sir William also proved to be a good shoulder to cry on. And by Christmas their relationship was an affair. Her letters were full of love and lust for him. He forgot his plan to also have her as a temporary mistress. She found herself more secure than ever but he, like Greville, aimed to make her over and improve her. Emma learned to sing, dance, and play the harpsichord and guitar and her coaches were those who taught the highest in society.

She was often asked to sing at dinners and even received an offer to sing at the opera in Madrid. Exposed to his extensive library of English literature, she read and then began to try to learn Italian. Sir William was proud of her.

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*Mrs. Damer was the sculptress who Sir William Hamilton was considering marrying after the death of his wife and whom Emma met when she first visited with Sir William while with the Honorable Charles Greville.

DANCER

No that's not Audrey....

 

FOLIES BERGERE CLEO DE MERODE

LITERARY MISTRESS

THE MARRYING FAMILY OF ROUSSY (ROUSSADENA MDIVANI) - HOLLYWOOD

Roussadana Mdivani "Roussy" became artist Jose Maria Sert's wife. leaving Misia in a complicated situation. 

The story goes that Roussy, from a family of Georgian Princesses and Princes, looking to make advantageous marriages, styled herself a sculptor and had her own tiny studio in Paris.  In 1925 she rang the bell of Sert's studio, a studio that Misia considered to be his turf and never visited without notice, to ask for advice. Some thought this was a predatory gambit. Hearing of the visit, Misia decided to turn up and see what was going on there. Her instincts were off and she didn't think of the girl as any threat. But she was. 

Roussy's real mother was dead, as Misia's had been, and she felt maternal towards her.  She said the girl was enchanting. 

Roussy died of a brief illness on December 26, 1938, age 32, having not given Sert the heir he claimed he desired.  She died of an infection that would likely easily be cured with antibiotics today. Misia was 66 years old and alone in the world, many of her friends had died and other people had taken over her role as muse of the creatives. Eventually she and Jose Maria would be good friends but never live together again.

Roussy's brothers were also considered fortune hunters who appealed to Hollywood actresses and young heiresses at a time when having a title by marrying a poor noble still held appeal to some and people could still "buy" titles.  As a result Roussy had sisters-in-law such as actress Pola Negri, a vamp, and Mae Murray.  

In 1931 a younger brother, Alexis, only 22, married an Astor family heiress named Louise Van Alen and came to America.  She was only 19 and he lived like a Prince he always was on her money.  Only 18 years later he divorced her to marry Woolworth stores heiress Barbara Hutton.  But another brother, Serge, went ahead and married Louise four years later, keeping her money in the family.

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MISIA REINE DE PARIS (MISIA SERT)

MISIA SERT : THIRD MARRIAGE TO ARTIST JOSE MARIA SERT and THE ACCOMMODATION OF ROUSSADANA MDIVANI

NOTE: April 2020
I got a comment that said two things that I question.  The link to the person who posted showed him on blogger but not to a blog.  The commenter first said that Serge Diaghilev was not a ballet dancer.  This is what Wikipedia says:  Serge Diaghilev was a Russian ballet impresario.  He was a Russian promoter of the arts who revitalized ballet by integrating the ideals of other art forms - music, painting, and drama - with those of dance.  From 1906 he lived in Paris, where in 1909 he founded the Ballets Russes.  Thereafter he toured Europe and the Americas with his ballet company, and he produced three ballet masterpieces by Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910),Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913.)

The other thing this poster said was that Misia did not get a settlement from her marriage, that she was, in so many words, too proud.  I'm basing my account on the book noted.

And not publishing this comment.

Please back up any statement you make with some reference such as a book title and page, an article on the internet, or otherwise.  I realize that in some cases there are very many books that contradict each other.  Thanks, Missy

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ORIGINAL POST STARTS HERE:

Misia met and became the mistress of famous and accomplished artist Jose Maria Sert, who was patronized by the Spanish royal family. They lived together for twelve years before they married in 1920 when he was 45 and she was 48. She knew he had a lifetime habit of affairs. Two marriages behind her, she was finally with a man who wanted and needed more than a playmate or wife to show off. She was finally with an equal. Misia was said to be - for the first time - "Sexually overwhelmed" for the first time.  And she became serious with Sert quickly, so quickly that he seemed to want to back out of a relationship.  But she followed him to continue the affair and they went on an art and architecture tour where he played tour guide. She was now considered a liberated woman but she did not want to go it alone. Her money came from a settlement with her last ex-husband, Edwards, in their divorce.  (Before he died in 1914 he had even begged her to marry him again.)

Her life was continually entwined with the up and coming and the renown artists, sculptors, ballet dancers, choreographers - the biggest talents in arts, culture, and society in France. Together the couple were friends with ballet dancer Serge Diaghilev, who had been born in Russia in 1872.  He was a fashion "dandy," a homosexual and he and Misia gossiped and intrigued for the next twenty years as special friends.  Friends even said that she was the only woman Diaghilev could ever have married. By 1910-1911 Paris season his ballets were considered to be a "revelation" attended by aristocrats, royals, high society, and homosexual society, (Including Isadora Duncan, the dancer, who has also been a Mistress of the Month here at Mistress Manifesto.)

Misia rarely visited Sert at his studio, thinking of it as his sacred space but it is there that the young Georgian Princess Roussadana Mdivani, called Roussy, as a neophyte sculptor herself appeared, looking for advice in 1925.

For some reason, Misia did not initially feel threatened when she heard about her.  But then the young woman was young enough to be a daughter and so Misia felt that she and her husband could take the playful Roussy underwing. The day came though when she showed up at the studio hoping to meet her.  She was enchanted. Misia had grown up without her birth mother and Roussy's mother was dead.  The Serts were childless.  

Misia and Jose Maria had a Catholic marriage in Spain, considered impossible to divorce and had been married for 20  plus years and Misia loved the girl too but the idea that she would remain a surrogate daughter to the couple was ridiculous. The girl had once even crept in on all fours and watched Misia and Sert have sex!  The girl claimed she loved Misia as well. Would they go on as three?

They sure didn't want Misia along on their honeymoon.

Was it an act of love on Misia's part to let him go to the girl?  She cooperated with civil divorce and an annulment (considered invalid in France) so her old husband and the girl could marry.  She agreed there was something wrong with her sexual organs and he said he had married Misia in order to have an heir!  (Well, we wonder, how the childbirth adverse Misia managed to perhaps never become pregnant at a time when contraception was not what it is today.)

As the truth came to her, Misia became depressed, even driven insane.  She even took a job in a dress shop in New York to get away and it was there that she got the letter from Sert saying he had married again and in the Catholic church.

Roussy died of what sounds to be a throat infection that she went to Switzerland to cure, not having created an heir, and then Misia and her ex-husband lived separate but became friends.  They visited daily and sometimes went out to dinner.

Sert died November 27, 1945 and she didn't make it to his death bed. He left his property to others but he did give Misia his apartment and everything in it on the rue de Rivoli including paintings, furniture, and the library.  Over the next five years Misia sold whatever when she needed money as she herself had little.  It was there she died.

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References for this post are Misia's own memoir and the book about her by Fizdale and Gold.

MISIA SERT'S SECOND MARRIAGE TO ALFRED EDWARDS : HIS MISTRESS BEFORE HIS WIFE

Alfred Edwards was married and 30 years older than Misia, who was married to her first husband Thadee Natanson, when they met.  She was out shopping when he saw her and approached.  From the beginning he seems to have been obsessed with her and determined to get her alone.  She evaded him some of the time.  Considered to be extremely wealthy compared to Natanson and his family, Edwards gave her jewelry and with Thandee out of the country so much, she began to consider him.

Edwards offered Thandee the chance of a lifetime, to be in charge of a coal mine he had in Hungary.  Thandee went and as Edwards pursued his wife, seems to have become complicit in Misia becoming Edward's mistress.

However, Misia went to meet his Edward's mother, another person now encouraging her to remain a mistress and not pursue marriage with the her son. 

As for Edwards, he had her followed.  He would probably be considered a stalker today.  He was considered rude and crude, even perverted; not saying she complied.  He purchased fans for her and she owned a beautiful and expensive collection of them. But he once locked her in a room so she couldn't get away from him.  He managed a  fast divorces and after that they married quickly.  He had a house boat built just for Misia called the Aimee.  The houseboat figures in what happened a couple years later.

Having acquired Misia as a trophy wife, near 60 years old, he began an affair with a famous actress named Lanthelme who had been born in a brothel and entered that profession young.  He became obsessed and had her followed. He set her up as his mistress. He brought the affair home to Misia's torment, claiming that this woman, who didn't shy away from his perversions, disgusted him. Yet he divorced Misia and then quickly married Lanthelme: there's a pattern here. His marriage with Misia ended exactly 4 years after their marriage, on Feb 24, 1909. 

Lanthelme drowned in the Rhine River on July 25, 1911.  It was called an accident.  Edwards was accused of murdering his latest wife but he sued for libel. Seems she would have found it awkward to jump out of a window.  Maybe someone was hoisting her from behind and pushing.


Edwards died in 1914.  Misia needed to see him but his newest young mistress, Colonna Romano, who also had been painted by Renoir) fled after he died.  He left everything to her including his theater and casino.

Misia had come to think she had been a playmate to her first husband.  With Edwards she came to think of herself as a show piece, a trophy wife, someone to show off.  She needed more. 

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References for this post are Misia's own memoir and the book about her by Fizdale and Gold

WARHOLESQUE MONROE

This image from http://www.freetoshareanduse.com

 

Authentic or a copy, I don't know, but issues of Andy Warhol's series of

 MARILYN MONROE

can be found all over the world in museums and private collections. 

Here is the official site of the ANDY WARHOL MUSEUM

WARHOL ORG

 

THE GUERILLA GIRLS MESSAGE : WOMEN ARE UNDER REPRESENTED IN THE ARTS

GUERILLAGIRLS - FEMINIST ACTIVISTS FOR WOMEN IN THE ARTS

FROM THEIR SITE:  "We’re feminist masked avengers in the tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Wonder Woman and Batman. How do we expose sexism, racism and corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture? With facts, humor and outrageous visuals. We reveal the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair. Our work has been passed around the world by our tireless supporters. Just in the last several years, we’ve appeared at over 90 universities and museums, as well as The New York Times, Interview, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Bitch, and Artforum; on NPR, the BBC and CBC; and in many art and feminist texts. We are authors of stickers, billboards, many, many posters and street projects, and several books including The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art and Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Guide to Female Stereotypes. We’re part of Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign in the UK; we're brainstorming with Greenpeace. We've unveiled anti-film industry billboards in Hollywood just in time for the Oscars, and created a large scale installation for the Venice Biennall, and street projects for Krakow, Istanbul, Mexico City and Montreal. We dissed the Museum of Modern Art at its own Feminist Futures Symposium, examined the museums of Washington DC in a full page in the Washington Post, and exhibited large-scale posters and banners in London, Athens, Bilbao, Montreal, Rotterdam, Sarajevo and Shanghai."

 

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IF YOU'RE A TALENTED WOMAN ARTIST you do not have the opportunities for employment, agent representation, gallery representation, art sales, or to ever make it into a book or museum.  I saw the Guerilla Girls at a college years ago.  I was impressed.  The masked women said that if their employers knew they were part of this group they would be fired.  I have to wonder, if women artists were experiencing equality, would fewer of them become mistresses?

JACKSON POLLOCK DOCUMENTARY

A long video... but watch a little!

LOVE AFFAIR : A MEMOIR OF JACKSON POLLOCK BY RUTH KLIGMAN

RUTH KLIGMAN OFFICIAL WEB SITE

Here is the history of her art, for Ruth Kligman was also an artist, and influenced by artist Wilhem de Kooning.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE : ARTIST MISTRESS WHO REVERSED ROLES LATE IN LIFE

Georgia O'Keeffe is an interesting Mistress because, like CoCo Chanel, it seems that when she became a widow and made her fortune, she may have become the one who kept a man (or at least was very generous), a much much younger man, Juan Hamilton, who came to work as a handyman, and turned her onto sculpture.

But first this great American artist, became the mistress of married Alfred Stieglitz. They lived together for 6 years and then married, despite their 23 age difference. After some time, she began to live separate of him in New Mexico. Theirs was a partnership initiated and driven by the fine arts. She sketched and painted and he was a photographer.

Linking at the title above to the PBS biography of Georgia O'Keeffe which focuses on Georgia the artist.

The Image Above is from Google Images.