Marguerite-Joséphine Georges

Portrait between 1800 and 1805

Portrait 1817

Mademoiselle Georges (born Marguerite-Joséphine Weimer on February 23, 1787 in Bayeux ; died on January 11, 1867 in Passy ) was counted among the most important French actresses of her time.

Life

She was the child of Georges Weimer and Marie Verteuil and was in close contact with the stage through her family. At the age of five she appeared in Amiens , where her parents were also employed, in the play Les Deux Petits Savoyards . Her father refused to entrust her child to the care of the singer Madame Dugazon , who became aware of Marguerite-Joséphine. In 1801, however, the tragedy actress Mademoiselle Raucourt persuaded her parents to bring the child to Paris under the strict supervision of the mother.

At the age of fifteen she made her debut in November 1802 in the play Clytemnestre at the Comédie-Française under the stage name Mademoiselle Georges, which was an allusion to the paternal first name. She competed on stage with Mademoiselle Duchesnois . The artistic competition divided the Parisian theater audience into two camps. Both women were among the lovers of Napoleon Bonaparte , who granted both state funding and urged them to collaborate artistically. The affair lasted until 1804 - Georges told Alexandre Dumas that Napoleon had left them to become emperor.

In 1808 she followed the dancer Duport to Vienna ; there are speculations that assume their affair with Napoleon was the motive for the move. She moved on to Saint Petersburg , where she was patronized by Tsar Alexander I. In the service of Alexander she made a well-received appearance in Erfurt in the presence of the Saxon king. Initially held at the outbreak of war with France, Alexander finally let them go. She was received at the Stockholm court by King Charles XIV , then in the Kingdom of Westphalia by Jérôme Bonaparte , and again at the royal court in Dresden .

The enthusiastic supporter of Napoleon (when he was exiled, she allegedly offered to accompany him to his exile in Saint Helena), however, are also said to have amours with his opponent Wellington . From 1816 to 1821 she toured all French cities; at the Comédie-Française and in the Odéon from 1822 she seamlessly continued her earlier successes. Performances have taken her to London and Amsterdam. She later moved to the Porte St-Martin theater .

Their brilliant game is said to have been the reason that Victor Hugo or Alexandre Dumas were so successful. When her star faded, she withdrew into a modest retirement, although she still appeared occasionally on the Parisian stages and was enthusiastically received there.

Web links

Commons : Mademoiselle George  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 184.