Vignon, Claude

SCULPTOR, FEMINIST, AUTHOR (FRANCE)
BORN 12 Dec 1828, Paris - DIED 10 Apr 1888, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Alpes-Maritimes
BIRTH NAME Cadiot, Marie-Noémie
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 46, ligne 01, O, 13)

Marie-Noémie Cardiot was the daughter of the civil servant Louis-Florian Cadiot. She started a relationship with Alphonse Louis Constant around 1843. At the same time he was in a relationship with one of her school teachers, Eugénie Chenevier. Marie-Noémie ran away from her parents to live with Constant in 1846. He father forced Constant to marry her, threatening to charge him with statutory rape. They married on 13 July 1846. They had a daughter, who died in 1854, aged seven.

In 1848 she was actively involved in the feminist movement. She joined the circle around Eugénie Niboyet and wrote about it in the satirical weekly "Le Tintamarre". For her writings she used the pseudonym Claude Vignon that she took from a novel by Balzac. She took sculpting lessons with James Pradier and worked on bas-reliefs of the fountain Saint-Michel in Paris.

In 1853 she left her husband for the Marquis de Montferrier. In 1862 Napoleon III granted her a pension of 6,000 francs. After she married the young lawyer Maurice Rouvier she also wrote under the name of H. Morel. After her death in 1888 she was buried at Père Lachaise. The monument on her grave was designed by herself.

Images

The grave of Claude Vignon at Père Lachaise, Paris.
Picture by Androom (02 Nov 2018)

 

Sources
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909
Claude Vignon (sculptrice) — Wikipédia


Vigny, Alfred Victor, Comte de

Published: 20 Sep 2019
Last update: 20 Sep 2019