Colette in 1886 by Jacques Hubert.
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I admit it. The big reason I picked
the birthday of French novelist,
sexual adventuress, and outsized personality Colette to write
about is so I could post the semi-salacious
photos of her decked out as the Queen of the Nile. This blog is not
too high minded to provide a little historical cheesecake. The French have
an expression that may have become a
cliché on the lips of Pepe Le Pew
in this country, but is apt none the less—ooh-la-la!
Colette with her first husband Henri Gauthier Villars a/k/a Willy.
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Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born on January 28, 1873 in provincial Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, Yonne, in Burgundy.
Bright, buxom, and beautiful, she was married at twenty to an older man, the music and literary critic Henri Gauthier-Villars who wrote under the
name Willy. Willy was a bi-sexual
and famous libertine. He was also a literary charlatan. Recognizing his
wife’s superior talent, he kept her
as a virtual slave churning out
material that he published under his
own name. This eventually included
Colette’s first novels destined to become classics. The semi-autobiographical Claudine series scandalized French
society when they were published but are now cherished as charming tales of a strong willed young girl blossoming into a
sensual woman.
An original version of one of the popular Claudine series of novels that Willy published under his own name.
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After fleeing the abusive marriage
in her early 30’s Colette did not lose her taste for shocking the Bourgeoisie. By 1907 she was making her
living dancing nearly naked on the French stage. That year
she partnered with her lover, Mathilde
de Morny, the Marquise de Belbeuf who performed as Missy.
Their performance of a pantomime Rêve
d'Égypte at the Moulin Rouge included an on-stage kiss which set off a near riot and police raid.
Colette and Missy had to end their co-habitation
but continued as lovers for five years and as friends for the rest of their
lives.
Colette with her lover and stage partner Mathilde de Morny a/k/a Missy
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Not that Colette could be confined
by a monogamous relationship to a
woman or a man. The first of several relationships with women may have been
with the American expatriate and
proprietress of one of the leading literary salons Natalie Barney who
sheltered her when she first escaped her husband. Among her female lovers was
said to the African-American singer and dancer Josephine Baker.
Collet's 1907 bare breasted appearance in La Chair set tongues wagging.
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Colette also continued to have
relationships with men, both love affairs, as with the Italian writer Gabriele D’Annunzio and as a courtesan to wealthy men like Auguste
Herriot, the heir to an automobile
fortune.
Cleopatra at the Moulon Rouge Rêve d’Egypte in 1907 in which she shared a long, patinate kiss with Missy.
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With the outset of World War I, Colette turned her husband’s rural estate at St. Malo into a hospital for the wounded. Her gracious care
was long remembered and she was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor
in 1920 for her work. During the war she also found time to begin a long collaboration with composer Maurice Ravel which eventually led to the opera L’Enfant
et les sortilèges which was finally produced in 1924.
By that time her marriage was over
after a scandalous and well published affair with her 15 year old stepson, Bertrand
de Jouvenel. Her literary fame was growing. Her 1920 novel Chéri
chronicled a long affair between an aging courtesan and a young man. She traced
her two characters through two more wildly successful novels.
Colette carried on an affair with her 16 year-old step son, Bertrand de Jouvenel, acting out in real life the events in her 1920 novel Chéri.
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In the mid-twenties Colette became
part of the avant-garde set
revolving around Jean Cacteau, who would be her neighbor and confidant
for years. By late in the decade she was being acclaimed as the greatest French female writer. Her
flaunted affairs were denounced in
the conservative press and from the pulpit, even as her novels won rave reviews and huge readership.
In 1935 Colette married for the third and last time to Maurice ,
a Dutch Jew from a wealthy family of diamond dealers. Goudeket, content not to attempt to constrain his
still adventurous wife, proved to be her enduring partner. She even assumed his
name and became, legally, Sidonie
Goudeket, although she still published as Colette.
Colette with her third and final husband Maurice Goudeket, a Dutch Jew who she hid from the Nazis during World War II.
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But war prevented much celebration.
With the onset of World War II her international fame gave her some protection against the occupying Nazis,
but Colette had to hide her Jewish
husband in the attic of her home and
assisted many other French Jews either hide or escape. After this became known
after the war, she was once again hailed as a hero.
Despite the distraction of the war, Colette achieved the greatest success of
her remarkable career which included nearly 50 novels with the publication of
the novella Gigi in 1944. The charming story of a courtesan in
training made the aging Colette world
famous in the post-war years as
she found herself one of the most admired literary figures in France. Her
reputation grew as Gigi was published
around the world, causing new interest in translations of her earlier work in
the United States. She personally selected the young Dutch-born ballerina Audrey Hepburn
to play the title role in a 1951 Broadway
play based on the novel. She did not live to see the even more successful
musical film by Alan Jay Lerner and Fredrick Lowe starring Leslie
Caron as Gigi which went on to win the Academy Award for Best
Picture.
Colette personally picked young Audrey Hepburn, a frail Dutch ballerina, to star in the Broadway stage play Gigi in 1950 launching her storied career as an actress.
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When Colette died in Paris on August 3, 1954 at the age of 81, the Catholic
Church denied her last rites
because of her scandalous liaisons and divorces. But she was given the first French
state funeral for a woman. She is
buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris where her grave is still a
destination of pilgrimage.
Keira Knightly starred as Colette in the 2018 bio flick.
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In 2018 Colette a bio-flick directed by Wash Westmoreland
and starring Kyra Knightly opened to
strong international reviews but as an “art film” grossed a disappointing $5.1 million in the United States and Canada. Too bad.
It was a film well worth seeing.
Hey Patrick! Dominique here. What a great piece! One point of clarification though. I thought that Josephine Baker was the first woman to be given a French state funeral service. Is that not the case? I’ll do some googling and see. I loved this entire piece. The generation of American and British [mainly] expats who spent time in France in the 20’s-30’s has always enchanted me, and Colette seems to me to be, in many ways, mother of that generation. Thanks so much for taking the time to write about this fascinating person and unique historical presence!
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