Elisabeth de Riquet de Caraman

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Philip Alexius de Laszlo : Elisabeth Countess Greffulhe, 1905

Marie Joséphine Anatole Louise Élisabeth de Riquet de Caraman -Chimay, by marriage with Henri Greffullhe Comtesse Greffulhe (born July 11, 1860 in Paris , † August 21, 1952 in Lausanne ), was a Parisian lady of society, who because of her beauty and her Elegance was famous. In the Parisian high society one pronounced her name Greffeuille .

It was the center of a glamorous salon in the Faubourg Saint-Germain in Belle Époque Paris , where politicians and diplomats, scientists, musicians and artists as well as members of high finance and the European nobility met. She was a patron of art, music, theater and the Ballets Russes .

She became immortal as one of the role models for the Duchess of Guermantes in Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time .

Life

Elisabeth was one of seven children of Prince Joseph Marie Guy Henri Philippe Riquet (1836-1892) and Countess Marie Josephine Anatole de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1834-1884). Her mother had been taught by Clara Schumann and had given concerts with Franz Liszt . All of the children in the couple played an instrument. At the age of 18, Elisabeth was married to Henri Jules Charles Emanuel Greffulhe (1848–1932). Henri Greffulhe belonged to the Belgian branch of the family and inherited a huge financial and real estate empire in addition to a title of count. On March 19, 1882, Hélène Marie Josèphe Charlotte, called Élaine , was the only child of the couple. Élaine married Armand de Gramont, Duke de Guiche and 12th Duke of Gramont (1879–1962), who was friends with Marcel Proust . In 1887 they received as a gift from Greffulhe's father the Villa La Case in Dieppe , a little Anglo-Norman style castle, in which they spent the summer months and received selected guests.

Countess Greffulhe with her four-year-old daughter Élaine in 1886, photo Nadar

With an expensive and elegant wardrobe, which she obtained from renowned fashion houses such as Callot Sœurs , Doucet , Jeanne Lanvin , Fortuny , Caroline Reboux, Vitaldi Babani, Worth , as well as shoes from Hellstern & Sons or François Pinet, she impressively presented her beauty, as the many written statements of their guests have passed on.

The Comtesse Greffulhe was a cousin of Robert de Montesquiou , whom she was a close confidante all his life. In 1884 she introduced Montesquiou to the highly educated Prince de Polignac , who was 20 years older than her, and who admired her very much and with whom she became a close friend from then on. On a trip to England in 1887, she learned through the mediation Montesquiou Whistler know who, like Montesquiou led the lifestyle of a dandy. She gave Whistler access to Paris society and, like other Parisian artists of her time, supported him financially.

Also through Montesquiou she met Edmond de Goncourt , José-Maria de Heredia , Stéphane Mallarmé , Judith Gautier (1845-1917), Anatole France and the Abbé Mugnier ( Arthur Mugnier , 1853-1944), who kept a detailed diary about the protagonists and Events in Paris society from 1878 to 1939. She ran a salon at 10 rue d'Astorg, where she regularly received the cream of Paris society and important figures from politics, finance, science and the arts. The family's wealth allowed her to be generous in patronage that extended to art, literature, music, and science.

In terms of her origins and basic convictions, she was more monarchistic, but she also maintained contacts with representatives of the Third Republic such as Théophile Delcassé , Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau and General Gaston de Galliffet , who briefly held the post of Minister of War in the Waldeck-Rousseau cabinet. In the Dreyfus affair , she and Montesquiou were on the side of Waldeck-Rousseau, who contributed significantly to the rehabilitation of the accused. A letter intervention in favor of the wrongly accused of espionage for the German Reich , which she undertook with Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1899 , was badly criticized by the right-wing press.

La société des grands auditions

In 1890 she founded the Société des Grands Auditions and became its president, a unique position for a woman at this time. This society, privately financed through subscriptions , initially aimed to present works by French composers in Paris that had already been performed abroad or were seldom performed in France. In the same year the opera Béatrice et Bénédict by Hector Berlioz , which had already been performed in Baden-Baden, Weimar, Karlsruhe and Vienna, was performed at the Théatre Odéon . Berlioz's opera Les Troyens à Carthage followed in 1892 . Comtesse Greffulhe was the music of Richard Wagner met in 1891 during a visit with Montesquiou in Bayreuth and sat down for the performance of Lohengrin one at the Paris Opera in the same year. A performance of Tristan was planned for 1893 . But since 20,000 francs were missing for the budget of 75,000 francs, the premiere came about three years later. After the success of the opera performances, the company expanded its program to include orchestral concerts. Works by Bach , Handel , Beethoven and Edward Elgar were performed . In 1884 there was a concert with works from the musical avant-garde, from Claude Debussy , Gabriel Fauré , Albéric Magnard , Vincent d'Indy , Charles Bordes , Ernest Chausson to Paul Dukas . Salome von Richard Strauss, conducted by Strauss himself in 1907, had several performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet . Gabriel Fauré dedicated his “Pavane avec chœur” to her in 1890.

Countess Greffulhe in 1886, photo Nadar

Reception in art and literature

The Greffulhe couple inspired Marcel Proust to write the characters of the Duke and Duchess of Guermantes in his novel In Search of Lost Time .

The Comtesse Greffulhe has been portrayed by many painters and photographers. Otto Wegener (1849–1924) and Nadar , with whom she took photography lessons herself, photographed her several times.

painting
Exhibitions
  • Madeleine Delpierre, Henriette Vannier (eds.): Élegantes personnes au temps de Marcel Proust. 1890-1916. Musee du Costume de la Ville de Paris. December 1968 - April 1969. Catalog. Paris: Les presses artistiques 1968.
  • Olivier Saillard, Claude Arnaud, Laurent Cotta (eds.): La Mode retrouvée. The robes trésors de la Comtesse Greffulhe. November 2015 - March 2016. Palais Galliera , Paris 2015. ISBN 978-2-75960305-3
Exhibition catalog of the robes, portraits and photo portraits of the Comtesse Greffulhe.
  • Proust's Muse, The Countess Greffulhe. The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City. September 2016 - January 2017.

literature

  • Anne de Cosse Brissac: La comtesse Greffulhe . Paris: Perrin 1991. ISBN 2-262-00820-5
  • Marie Cornaz: Les princes de Chimay et la musique. Paris: La Renaissance du Livre. 2002. ISBN 2-8046-0704-6
  • Jann Pasler: Writing through Music. Essays on Music, Culture, and Politics . Oxford 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-532489-1
  • Annegret Fauser, Mark Evereit (eds.): Music, Theater and Cultural Transfer. Paris 1830-1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2009. ISBN 978-0-226-23928-6
  • Laure Hillerin: La comtesse Greffulhe. L'ombre des Guermantes . Paris: Flammarion 2014. ISBN 978-2-08129054-9

Web links

Individual evidence

Commons : Élisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  1. ↑ George D. Painter : Marcel Proust. P. 202.
  2. ↑ Figure. In: Le styleet la matière. Chez la Comtesse Greffulhe. January 8, 2010.
  3. ↑ Alexandra Bosc: "Elle n'a pas suivi les modes, elle était faite pour les créer", in: La Mode retrouvée, Les robes trésors de la comtesse Greffulhe. Paris 2015. pp. 76-96.
  4. ↑ Greffulhe. The Correspondence of James MacNeill Whistler. Univ. of Glasgow.
  5. ^ Wiliam C. Carter: Marcel Proust. Yale Univ. Press 2000, p. 254.
  6. ^ Music, Theater and Cultural Transfer. 2009, p. 146.
  7. ^ Theater review in: Musica . July 1907
  8. ↑ 'La Mode retrouvée' exhibition at Palais Galliera , Vogue, éd. Paris, 2015, accessed March 9, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Riquet de Caraman, Elisabeth de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Greffulhe, Elisabeth Comtesse; Greffeuille, Elisabeth Comtesse
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Parisian lady of society
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1952
Place of death Lausanne