Valtesse de La Bigne

One of six siblings, Émilie-Louise was the daughter of an alcoholic father and Émilie Delabigne, a laundry maid from Normandy who was also involved in sex work. Her parents' employment was unreliable. Delabigne quickly became a lorette or mistress, a role that was above the lower-class streetwalker but below the status of the courtesan.). Fossey's father refused to condone a marriage between Fossey and Delabigne and in order to break them up he sent Fossey to Algeria, where Fossey eventually married another woman. == Career as actress and courtesan ==

The breakup with Fossey catapulted Delabigne back into a life of sex work with new ambitions to conquer Paris. Willing to do whatever it took to become successful, she promised herself to never marry but instead gain money and social position by other means. To forge a stronger reputation and name for herself, she took the pseudonym "Valtesse" due to its similarity to "Votre Altesse" (your highness)— she later advised her friend (and possible lover) Anne-Marie Chassaigne (now known as Liane de Pougy) to employ a pseudonym as well. She aspired to join the ranks of the "archidrôlesses," or elite courtesans., currently exhibited in the Valtesse de La Bigne room at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. "Courtisane du Tout-Paris" Valtesse's beauty caught the eye of composer Jacques Offenbach and he promoted her through his operas. Offenbach brought Valtesse to public attention with a small role as Hébé in Orphée aux Enfers at the Bouffes-Parisiens. One critic deemed her "as red and timid as a virgin by Titian." She nicknamed herself, "rayon d'or," or golden ray, and immersed herself in art and literature. She bought a sumptuous house at Ville-d'Avray, which she decorated with paintings commissioned from Édouard Detaille showing fictional members of her invented "la Bigne" family.— and called the character of Nana "a vulgar whore, stupid, rude!" She also inspired the heroine of La Nichina, a novel by Hugues Rebell, and the character Altesse in her friend and lover Liane de Pougy's novel Idylle saphique. De la Bigne had looked to the memoirs of the courtesan Céleste de Chabrillan (published under the pseudonym Mogador) for inspiration. == Friendship with artists ==

Since her early days in the studio of Corot, Valtesse always had felt a connection to art, which she maintained as her social position changed, and her wealth grew. She began to collect art and both host and attend salons popular with artists. Along with Manet, Valtesse had friendly relationships with many other artists, including Henri Gervex, Édouard Detaille, Gustave Courbet, Eugène Boudin, and Alphonse de Neuville, many of whom painted her. These relationships earned her the nickname "Union des Peintres." She left her massive bronze bed (created in 1877 by Édouard Lièvre) to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, where it is still on display. == Personal life ==

Valtesse de La Bigne had a difficult relationship with her family. She entrusted her two children from her relationship with Fossey to her mother's care, who later took them to live in the countryside. When her younger daughter died while in her mother's care, Valtesse won back custody of her remaining daughter and placed her into a Catholic boarding school. Her mother, bitter at her loss of regular income for providing childcare, assaulted de La Bigne's housekeeper, Camille Meldola. Valtesse's daughter, Julia Pâquerette, went on to marry Paul Jules August Godard and had three children: Paul, Margot, and Andrée. Liane de Pougy served as Margot's godmother. Like her grandmother, Andrée got her start in the theatre. She started acting in New York in the early 1920s, going by the name Andrée Lafayette. ==References==