Liane de Pougy
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Liane de Pougy [link] (2 July 1869 - 26 December 1950), was a Folies Bergères dancer renowned as one of Paris's most beautiful and notorious courtesans.
Early Life and Marriage
Born Anne Marie Chassaigne at La Flèche, Sarthe, France, the daughter of Pierre Blaise Eugène Chassaigne and his wife Aimée Lopez, she was raised in a nunnery. She entered into an arranged marriage to a ship's officer, Armand Pourpe, which was abusive and ended in divorce. By this marriage she had her only child, Marco Pourpe. After this marriage failed, she began dabbling in acting and the art of courtesans.
After Paris
After moving to Paris, from her position at the Folies she became a noted demimondaine, rival of "La Belle Otero". She took her last name from one of her paramours, a Comte or Vicomte de Pougy. Actress Sarah Bernhardt, faced with the task of teaching Liane to act, advised her that when she was on stage, it would be best to keep her "pretty mouth shut". Her lesbian affair with writer Natalie Clifford Barney is recorded in the novel Idylle Sapphique, published around 1901, and the two were said to have had deep feelings for one another.
Second Marriage
Upon her marriage to Prince Georges Ghika in 1920 she became Princess Ghika; this marriage ended in separation, though not divorce. Her son's death as an aviator in World War I turned her towards religion and she became a tertiary of the Order of Saint Dominic as Sister Anne-Mary . She became involved in the Asylum of Saint Agnes, devoted to the care of children with birth defects. She died at Lausanne, Switzerland.
References
- My Blue Notebooks (Mes cahiers bleu, her memoires), published in English in 1979. ISBN 1585421561
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