Le Hon-Mosselman, Fanny

NOBLEMAN (BELGIUM)
BORN 28 May 1808, Paris - DIED 2 Mar 1880, Paris
BIRTH NAME Mosselman, Françoise Zoé Mathilde
GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Cimetière de Montmartre, 20 Avenue Rachel (division 30, ligne 03, numéro 37)

Fanny Mosselman was the daughter of the rich Belgian banker and industrialist François Dominique Mosselman (1754-1840). Her mother was Marie Louise, born Tacqué. When she was nineteen old she married the lawyer Charles Le Hon, who was 35 years old and had been involved in the establishment of the monarchy in Belgium. He represented King Leopld I in Paris. They had two children in 1828 and 1832.

Her husband left her free in her movements and she probably had several lovers before she met Charles de Morny in 1833, the natural son of General de Flahaut. He visited an reception at the Belgian Embassy and it was love at first sight. They started a love affair that would last for 25 years. In 1838 they had a daughter, Louise, who was registered as the child of Le Hon. In 1842 she legaly separated from her husband, who returned to Belgium without her.

Morny had affairs with other women, but he always returned to Fanny, until he suddenly married the Russian princess Sophie Troubetskoï in 1857. This put an end to the affair with Fanny, much to her distress. After this, her husband moved back from Belgium to France and lived with her until his death in 1868.

In 1861 Fanny witnessed the premiere of Wagner's "Tannhäuser" in Paris from her box at the Opera. She was in contact with the emperor and the empress, and Alexandre Dumas and Charles Gounod were friends. From 1873 she lived in an appartment opposite the Arc the Triomphe at 5 Rue de Tilsitt. She died in 1880 in Paris.

Related persons
• was a friend of Dumas, Alexandre (père)
• was a friend of Gounod, Charles
• was the lover of Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, Duc de
• was visited by Thiers, Adolphe

Events
13/3/1861Premiere of Richard Wagner's revised "Tannhäuser" at the Salle Le Pelletier in Paris. The performance was requested by Emperor Napoleon III after a suggestion by Pauline von Metternich. Urged by the members of the Jockey Club, Wagner had added a ballet to his opera. However, Wagner let the ballet start immediately after the ouverture, while it was known that the gentlemen were only present from the second act because they first finished their diners. The performance was disturbed by booing. Hector Berlioz, Jacques Offenbach, Charles Gounod and Fanny Le-Hon Mosselman were in the audience. After three performances "Tannhäuser" was discontinued. The opera was mocked in the press and resulted in a huge financial deficit. [Berlioz, Hector][Gounod, Charles][Napoleon III Bonaparte][Niemann, Albert][Offenbach, Jacques][Wagner, Richard]

Images

The mausoleum of Fanny Le Hon-Mosselman and Hippolyte Leopold Mosselman at the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris.
Picture by Androom (03 Nov 2022)

 

Sources
• Bierman, John, Napoleon III and his Carnival Empire, Sphere Books, London, 1990
• Gutman, Robert, Richard Wagner, Der Mensch, sein Werk, seine Zeit, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, München, 1989
Fanny Mosselman - Wikipédia (FR)


Le Seur, Rosa

Published: 20 Sep 2025
Last update: 13 Oct 2025