Detourbay, Marie-Anne, Comtesse de Loynes

SALONIÈRE (FRANCE)
BORN 18 Jan 1837, Reims, Marne: Rue Gambetta - DIED 21 Jan 1908, Paris
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière de Montmartre, 20 Avenue Rachel (division 30)

Marie-Anne Detourbay was an illegitimate daughter born into a poor family in Reims. She went to Paris where soon became a well known courtesan. An early lover around 1855 was Marc Fournier, théâtre de la Porte-Saint-Martin. The next was Prince Napoléon, who kept her in an appartment at the rue de l'Arcade near the avenue des Champs-Élysées. Her friend Josephine Clemence d'Ennery, an actress known as Gisette, introduced her to Gustave Flaubert and Khalil-Bey. Khalil-Bey fell in love with her and wrote her love letters from Tunis.

Her portrait was painted by Amaury Duval in 1862 and is now at the Musée d'Orsay. In 1862 she also met Ernest Baroche, the son of the minister of justice, Pierre Jules Baroche. He fell in love with her as well, but their engagement ended when he was killed in action at the Battle of Le Bourget in 1870. In 1872 she married Count Victor Edgar de Loynes, giving her access to high society. But they separated soon afterwards and he left for America. She kept his money and his name and as Countess de Loynes she received her visitors at her salon that was especially successful after she moved it to the Champs-Élysées. She didn't like it when the celebrities of the Second Empire were replaced by those of the Third Republic, but she continued it until her death.

Between 1880 and 1885 she met the critic Jules Lemaître, who became the most important person in her life. Helped by him, in 1899 she founded the Ligue de la patrie française and she became its first president. She supported the old aristocracy and was opposed to the pro-Dreyfusards and to Zola. She died in 1908 in Paris and she was buried in the grave of her parents at Montmartre cemetery.

Related persons
• was painted by Amaury-Duval, Eugène-Emmanuel

Images

The grave of Marie-Anne Detourbay at the Montmartre Cimetière, Paris.
Picture by Androom (05 Nov 2017)

 

The grave of Marie-Anne Detourbay at the Montmartre Cimetière, Paris.
Picture by Androom (05 Nov 2017)

 

Sources
Comtesse de Loynes — Wikipédia


Deutsch de la Meurthe, Émile

Published: 27 Jan 2019
Last update: 19 Dec 2021