Dorval, Marie |
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BORN 6 Jan 1798, Lorient, Morbihan - DIED 20 May 1849, Paris BIRTH NAME Delaunay, Marie Thomase Amélie GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière du Montparnasse, 3 Boulevard Edgar Quinet (division 06) |
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Mary Dorval was born when her mother Marie Bourdais was sixteen years old. Her father, the actor Joseph-Charles Delaunay, abandoned the family and died of yellow fever on 15 July 1802. Young Marie was on already on the stage in Lille when she was eight years old, under the name of Bourdais because her uncle was a well known actor. She married the ballet master Louis Étienne Allan Dorval (b.1777) on 12 February 1814 in Lorient. They had two daughters before he left her in 1818. Her mother died in 1818 and her husband died as well in St. Petersburg in 1820. She kept his name. From 1818 she was in a relationship with the composer Alexandre Piccini (1779-1850) and she bore him three daughters. Two of them died young. She continued her acting in Strasbourg and after Charles G. Poitier saw her he hired her at the Porte-Saint-Martin theater in Paris. In 1827 was finally successful in "Trente ans, ou la vie d’un joueur" by Victor Ducange and Prosper Goubaux. On 27 October 1829 she married the journalist Jean-Toussaint Merle (1785-1852). They agreed on an open marriage with room for affairs. In 1832 she became the mistress of Alfred de Vigny. In 1833 she met George Sand after Sand who had written her an admiring letter after attending a performance. They became close friends and rhere were rumours of a lesbian relationship. Dorval was warned De Vigny to stay away from Sand, calling her a 'damned lesbian'. But Dorval and Sand remained friends until her death. In 1840 she played in Sand's play "Cosima" at the Comédie français. In 1835 she played with Mademoiselle Mars in Victor Hugo's "Angelo, tyran de Padoue". She had several more successes at the Odéon Theatre (1843-1845) before she lost the favour of the public. During her last years she travelled in the country with a group of actors. Her last success was in "Marie-Jeanne, ou la femme du peuple" by Adolphe d'Ennery. Her health declined and the death of one of her grandchildren was a heavy blow to her. After her own death in 1849 in Paris, George Sand supported her grandchildren financially. Family • Husband: Merle, Jean-Toussaint (1829-1849) Related persons • had a relationship with Dumas, Alexandre (père) • was the lover of Vigny, Alfred Victor, Comte de |
| Images |
 The grave of Marie Dorval at Montparnasse Cimetière, Paris. Picture by Androom (18 May 2005) |
Sources • Le Clère, Marcel, Cimetières & Sepultures de Paris, Hachette, Paris, 1978 • Claude Augé (ed.), Larousse Universel en 2 volumes, Librarie Larousse, 1922 • Marie Dorval - Wikipedia (EN) • Marie Dorval - Wikipédia (FR) |
