Mathilde de Morny
Mathilde de Morny (26 May 1863 – 29 June 1944) was a French aristocrat and artist. She was also known by the nickname "Missy" or by the artistic pseudonym "Yssim" (an anagram of Missy), or as "Max", "Uncle Max" (French: Oncle Max), or "Monsieur le Marquis". Active as a sculptor and painter, Morny studied under Comte Saint-Cène and the sculptor Édouard-Gustave-Louis Millet de Marcilly.
Early life
Morny was the fourth and final child of
Career
The adult Morny dressed in men's clothing, and used the name "Max". She was a socialite and painter.
Extravagant conduct made Morny a celebrity of the Belle Époque and despite her 1881 marriage to the well-known gay man Jacques Godart, 6th Marquis de Belbeuf (1850–1906)—whom she divorced in 1903—Morny was open about preferring women. Though love between those perceived as women was then fashionable, Morny was attacked for this, especially for having a very masculine dress and attitude. At this time a woman wearing trousers could still scandalize even if the person was legally authorized, as in the case of artist Rosa Bonheur (who sought police permission to wear trousers to make it easier for her to paint in the countryside). Morny wore a full three-piece suit (which, as with trousers, was forbidden in France for anyone but men),[2] had short hair, and smoked a cigar.
Morny became a lover of several women in Paris, including
On 21 June 1910, the couple bought the manor of "Rozven" at Saint-Coulomb in Brittany (its owner, Baron du Crest, refused the sale because Mathilde was not dressed as a woman and so Colette signed the deed instead)—on the same day the first chamber of the tribunal de grande instance for the Seine departement pronounced Colette's divorce from Henry Gauthier-Villars. When they separated a year later, Colette kept the house.[6]
Death
At the end of May 1944, Morny attempted to commit suicide by what Colette described as "something like harakiri".[7] She died by self-asphyxiation with a gas stove on 29 June 1944, aged 81.[8]
In popular culture
De Morny is a major character in the 2018 film Colette, played by Denise Gough.
References
- ^ "Things in Paris," Vanity Fair, 13 May 1882, page 275
- ISSN 1362-704X. (pdf p.16)
- ^ Flower, John (2013). Historical Dictionary of French Literature. Scarecrow Press, page 145
- ^ Rodriguez, Suzanne (2002). Wild Heart: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris. Harper Collins, p 131
- ^ Benstock, Shari (1986). Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940. University of Texas Press, pages 48-49
- ^ Frédéric Maget, president of the Société des Amis de Colette, « Colette en ses demeures », in La Marche de l'Histoire, 28 November 2011
- ISBN 9782080670311. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
- ISBN 9781883642761. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
Bibliography
- Fernande Gontier et Claude Francis, Mathilde de Morny. La Scandaleuse Marquise et son temps, Perrin, 2005.
- Fernande Gontier, Homme ou femme ? La confusion des sexes, chapter 8, Paris, Perrin, 2006.
- Colette, Lettres à Missy. Edited and annotated by Samia Bordji and Frédéric Maget, Paris, Flammarion, 2009.
- Olga Khoroshilova, Russian travesties: in history, culture and everyday life (in Russian), chapter 11 "Russian Uncle Max (Mathilde de Morny)", Moscow, MIF, 2021. - P. 235–255.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
