A Belle Epoque courtesan of the first magnitude, Marthe de Florian (1864-1939) has been well forgotten since her “sentimental retirement”. But the reopening of her apartment, seven decades after her death, recalled her to our good memory by the brilliance of her treasures.
Monsieur Olivier Choppin Janvry is not close to forgetting the spring day of 2010 when he was mandated by a provincial notary to open a Parisian apartment which had remained hermetically sealed since the beginning of WW2. This real estate of fifteen hundred square feet located in the Pigalle neighborhood was a sanctuary frozen in time. Under a thin layer of dust, a whole world of high gallantry revived through the correspondence carefully classified and color-coded with silk ribbon ties according to the sender.
France during WW2
The owner of the place died in Trouville-sur-Mer on August 29, 1939, bequeathing the apartment to her granddaughter Solange Beaugiron, then aged 20. During the German occupation, Solange left Paris to join the Free Zone in the south of France and settled in the Ardèche. She never returned to the capital but, for the next seventy years, she scrupulously paid the quarterly dues on this Parisian apartment.
When she died in May 2010, aged 91, the apartment revealed its Art Nouveau treasures, and especially a superb life-size portrait of its former owner clad in a evening gown of pale pink satin.
An expert identified the author of the portrait: Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931). Painted in 1898, this masterpiece remained an unknown in the work of the famous portrait painter and later sold for more than two million euros. It was common knowledge that the artist did not deign to honor a portrait commission below one million francs – except for a privileged relationship with the model. The wealthy Italian buyer of the painting was offered as a bonus a package of correspondence enlightening the personality of the said model and the gallant history of the Third Republic.
Who was Marthe de Florian? From a midinette to a high-end courtesan, read her story here.
Update: Some details in this article are disputed here.
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Victorian Paris 