Olympe Pélissier
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Olympe Pélissier (May 9, 1799[1] – March 22, 1878) was a French artists' model, courtesan[2] and the second wife of the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. She sat for Vernet for his painting of Judith and Holofernes.
Biography
Olympe Pélissier was born in Paris on May 9, 1799 to a very poor family. She was sold by her mother at age fifteen to a young duke, who installed her in a small furnished house. The duke contracted a venereal disease and had to give her up. Pélissier was then sold her to a rich Anglo-American. She soon gained her independence and began to look for other lovers.[1]
Under the Bourbon Restoration, Pélissier had been a notable figure in Parisian society, admired by the Comte de Girardin, holding salons attended by Baron Schikler, and in 1830 had a liaison with the writer Eugène Sue, who introduced her to Honoré de Balzac.[3] Pélissier and Balzac were lovers for a year but the affair left him full of resentments. A few years later Balzac called Pélissier "an evil courtesan" The painter Horace Vernet and the musician Vincenzo Bellini were also amongst her lovers.
The affair with Sue was longer lasting, but the relationship consisted of a frequent swing between quarrels and strong passions. It ended when Pélissier met Gioacchino Rossini. She and Rossini first met in the 1830s in the aftermath of his separation from his first wife Isabella Colbran. The couple lived in his new house in the Passy suburb of Paris, until a cholera epidemic forced them to leave the city in favour of Italy. They moved to Bologna where Pélissier met Rossini's first wife, Isabella Colbran. Pélissier felt suffocated in Bologna and pressured his companion to move. For a time they lived in Milan where Pélissier was immediately the centre of unforgettable musical evenings. However she held the social position of the courtesan, companion, but not a future bride to the composer. Even Marie d'Agoult, who had abandoned her husband to follow the musician Liszt, was sceptical: "Rossini spent the winter in Milan with Mademoiselle Pélissier and tried to intoduce her into society, but no lady of class ever visited her" .
In 1845 Isabella, Rossini's first wife died. Eleven months later the two got married. They lived for a while in Florence where the Pélissier was fine but then, worried about her husband's health (who suffered from severe depression), they decided to return to Paris.
In art
She was the lover of the painter Horace Vernet (for whom he posed for Judith and Holofernes in which he appeared with naked bosom, portrayed shortly before with the decapitated sword Olofernes), of the writer Eugène Sue and Honoré de Balzac .
In fiction, she appears in the 1974 French television film Eugène Sue,[4] played by Claudine Coster.
References
- ^ a b "Olympe Louise Alexandrine Descuillers dite : OLYMPE PELISSIER". autourduperetanguy.blogspirit.com. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ Christians, Ian; Groves, Sir Charles (2016). Discovering Classical Music. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473887879.
- ^ "Biographie de Honoré de Balzac". De La Littérature. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ "Eugène Sue". Retrieved 1 December 2018 – via www.imdb.com.
Bibliography
- Christians, Ian; Groves, Sir Charles (2016). Discovering Classical Music. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781473887879.
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External links
- Rossini and his widow; Death of the latter, how she came to marry the great composer, New York Times, April 28, 1878
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