Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux

Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux was born Lucie Frederica Marguerite Jourdain on 9 May 1850 in Louviers, into a prominent family of drapers. Her father was Frédéric-Joseph Jourdain. She was the half-sister of the painter Roger Joseph Jourdain. De Saint-Marceaux received an extensive musical education from Antoine François Marmontel and Romain Bussine, among others. == Marriages ==

As a young woman, de Saint-Marceaux was courted by the composer Camille Saint-Saëns, who asked for her hand in marriage, but her family demanded she refuse him due to his rather Bohemian situation. She was introduced to the visual arts scene in the 1860s by her half-brother and, in 1870, she married the painter Eugène Baugnies. Her husband's grandfather, Augustin de Saint-Marceaux, served as mayor of Reims. Her husband adopted her three sons, who then took on the surname "Baugnies de Paul de Saint-Marceaux". == Salons and artistic patronages ==

De Saint-Marceaux became a celebrated salonnière in the 1880s up until the outbreak of World War I, hosting musical and artistic salons at her Malesherbes mansion, where she invited painters, writers, and musicians to mingle with aristocrats and other members of the Parisian upper class. Her salons, considered very informal and Bohemian, were on Friday evenings and full evening dress was prohibited. Her salons were described in the correspondence and writings of various attendees including Fauré, Ravel, Schmitt, Koechlin, Messager, Hahn, Cortot, Proust, Colette, and Gauthier-Villars. came together, often served as a whimsical curfew bell. It was in that sonorous place — sensitive to reverence, jealous of its prerogatives but capable of gentleness — that I first met Maurice Ravel." De Saint-Marceaux was also fond of writers, particularly playwrights, and invited many to her salons. Frequently in attendance were Édouard Bourdet, Robert de Flers, Abel Hermant, Paul Hervieu, Henri Lavedan, Jules Lemaître, and Victorien Sardou. She also hosted journalists and critics including André Beaunier, Gaston Calmette, Louis Gillet, Arthur Meyer, and Pierre Lalo. She introduced Fauré to his future wife, Marie Frémiet, the daughter of sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet, at one of her salons. On 21 June 1891, he premiered Mandoline from Cinq mélodies "de Venise" at her salon. Alfred Cortot, who introduced de Saint-Marceaux to the music of Richard Wagner, hired her to sing in the choir for Parsifal in 1903. In 1900, she hired the violinist Jacques Thibaud, a new graduate from the Conservatoire de Paris, to play at one of her salons. She noted the experience in her diary, writing: "Thibaud with his quartet plays at my house the 2nd quartet of Fauré and that of Saint-Saëns, and also the piano and violin sonata [by Fauré]. Exquisite evening. It costs me 200 francs, it is worth 1000." Artistic patronages Having been introduced to the world of visual arts by her half-brother, de Saint-Marceaux remained a patroness of painters and sculptors alike after the death of her first husband, and visual artists frequented her salon. She was known to financially support artists and attended their exhibitions. These artists included Jacques-Émile Blanche, Giovanni Boldini, Carolus-Duran, Georges Clairin, Édouard Detaille, Guillaume Dubufe, Henri Gervex, Paul Landowski, Paul Mathey, Madeleine Lemaire, Antonin Mercié, and François Pompon. Through her artistic connections, she was introduced to Claude Monet, who received her at his home in Giverny. == Later life and death ==

De Saint-Marceaux kept a diary, until 1927, where she documented her experiences in Parisian society. She died on 23 February 1930, aged 79, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. == References ==