Claire Clairon

Hippolyte de la Tude Clairon, engraving by Jean-Baptiste Michel

Mademoiselle Clairon, dotted engraving around 1799

Mademoiselle Clairon at Voltaire in Ferney in July 1763

Clair (e) Josèphe Léris , self- ennobled Claire Josèphe Hippolyte Léris de La Tude , also briefly with the stage name Hippolyte Clairon (born January 25, 1723 near Condé-sur-l'Escaut , Département Nord ; † January 18, 1803 in Paris ) was the leading French tragedy of the 18th century and court maitress in Ansbach for more than thirteen years .

Life

As the daughter of Sergeant François Joseph Désiré Léris des Regiment de Mailly and the skipper Claire Scana-Piecq from a humble background, Die Clairon made her debut in Paris on January 8, 1736 at the age of 12 in a supporting role in Pierre de Marivaux 's: L'Île des esclaves, which was performed in the Théâtre-Italy . Several engagements followed in the province, for example four years in Rouen , Lille , Dunkirk and Ghent . In 1743 she managed to return to Paris and a job at the Grand Opera .

Despite considerable success, she switched from opera to Comédie-Française after only five months . She began her engagement on September 19, 1743 with the leading role in Racine's Phaedra, celebrated a brilliant triumph and soon became the outstanding rival of Marie Dumesnil . She played excellent character roles and set new standards as a tragedian. After a performance by Clairon, Voltaire said in one of his plays: Did I really do that? Voltaire praised The Clairon with the ambiguous words: In the tone of her voice she has what the Dumesnil in the heart . With her colleague and competitor Dumesnil she shared a twenty-year dislike and hostility, which she discussed in detail in her memoirs in 1798. In 1761 she commissioned the lawyer Huerne de la Motte with a pamphlet against the common practice of excommunication of actors. Scripture was condemned on April 22, 1761. Over time, Voltaire and Die Clairon developed a close friendship. The visit of Clairon in July 1763 in Ferney caused a sensation . In Voltaire's private theater, Clairon played the role of Zaire from Voltaire's tragedy of the same name from 1733. Jean Huber captured the welcoming scene in an etching.

In 1765 she sparked a theatrical scandal by refusing to appear with her unpopular colleague Dubois in the historical drama Le Siège de Calais , which resulted in her imprisonment in Fort-l'Evêque. The stay she celebrated, during which she received her followers of Paris society for supper , lasted only five days. She then recovered in Ferney. After she was released from prison, she did not return to public places. However, appearances in private or court theaters followed. Financially independent, she promoted younger actors.

At the invitation of Margrave Alexander, whom she had known for a long time, she went to his court in Ansbach in 1773 . As Maitresse of the sovereign, she also fulfilled official obligations and, to the discomfort of the ministers and the administration, influenced the decisions of the prince. The license deed of June 12, 1775, which strengthened the rights of Catholics, is attributed to the influence of the Clairon . As a child of her time, enthusiastic about the supernatural, she introduced the Count of St. Germain to the Ansbacher Hof. Although she only used a modest number of staff, she had a valet, a lackey, a maid and a cook, and she received only a modest salary from the State Office in Ansbach, she was accused of enormous waste. After Alexander, tired of the dramatic performances, turned to Lady Elizabeth Craven , she returned to Paris in 1791. A bon mot reported from Alexander: The Clairon cost him the money, the Craven the land.

The Clairon published her memoir in 1798, which prompted her former rival Marie Dusmenil to write her own. She died impoverished in Paris on January 18, 1803. First buried in the Saint Sulpice cemetery, her remains were reburied on August 29, 1837 in the 20th Division in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

Ansbacher clarification awakenings

The Ansbacher Klärungswecken, an egg milk wake, which in its form reminded the folklorist Ernst Ludwig Rochholz of the female genital, is said to derive its name from the Clairon . It was the preferred pastry for Clairon in Ansbach.

Roles (selection)

• Phaedra
• Zenobia ( Rhadamisthes and Zenobia by Prosper Jolyot Crébillon )
• Monomime
• Dido
• Medea ( Medea by Euripides )
• Zaire from Voltaire

Works (selection)

• François-Charles Huerne de Lamothe; Claire Josèphe Hippolyte Léris de La Tude Clairon: Libertés de la France contre le pouvoir arbitraire de l'excommunication, ouvrage dont on est spécialement redevable aux sentimens généraux .. de Mlle Clai ** , Amsterdam, in-12, 1761, (XXXVI) , 256 pp.
• Mémoires d'Hippolyte Clairon et réflexions sur la déclamation théâtrale , Paris 1798.

literature

• Pierre Alexandre Gaillard, dit Gaillard de la Bataille: Leevens-gevallen van mejufvr. Cronel, bygenaamt Fretillon, tonneelspeelster van 't schouwburg te Rouan , Nymwegen , 1765, fictional memoirs of Mlle Clairon.
• François Andrieux : Mémoires de Mlle Clairon, actrice du théatre français . Ponthieu, Paris 1847.
• Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 110.
• Maren Isabel Schmidt-von Essen: Mademoiselle Clairon. Transformations of an Actress , Frankfurt am Main, 1994.

Web links

Commons : Mademoiselle Clairon  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Keyword Graf von St. Germain, in Supplements to the Universal Lexicon or Encyclopedic Dictionary of Sciences, Arts and Crafts, Pierer, 1843, Volume 3, p. 286
2. ↑ Cf. Wolfgang Freiherr von Löhneysen: Tageskreise, Lebenslinien: People around 1770: from mosaic to panorama, Königshausen & Neumann, 2001, p. 37
3. ^ Website of the Association des Amis et Passionnés du Père-Lachaise [1]
4. ↑ See Ernst Ludwig Rochholz: Drei Gaugöttinnen Walburg, Vernea and Gertrud as German church saints, F. Fleischer, 1870, p. 85