THE
LORETTES OF MONTMARTRE
Montmartre by Hippolyte Bayard Molinos, c. 1842
By
the late 1700s, Montmartre, located just outside the city limits of Paris and
separated from the city by the Wall of the Fermiers-Généraux, was in effect a
town unto itself, located on and around a high butte, the landscape dotted with
small farms, vineyards, windmills, and ramshackled homes, a fact made official
in 1790 when the National Constituent Assembly designated it as the Commune of
Montmartre with its own town hall, Georges Clemenceau[1] as
its mayor, and its own
industries: wine making, stone quarries and gypsum mines. Under the
Haussmanization[2]
(urban renewal) of Paris at the behest of Emperor Napoleon III, the wall was
torn down and January 1, 1860, it
was annexed to the city along with other communities (faubourgs)
surrounding Paris, and became part of the 18th
arrondissement of Paris.[3] There was Montmartre extra muros or High Montmartre, high up and on top of the butte,
and then there was Montmartre intra muros
or “Low Montmartre), as one might expect on the lower slope and at the bottom.
Now, the population
at the time, in High Montmartre was what one might consider rather rustic and
generally friendly, made up of millers, vine-growers, laborers and men who
worked the quarries. Montmartre intra
muros however was far different — a tempestuous conglomeration of taverns
and cabarets and their proprietors, various and assorted ruffians, and the
denizens of dance halls and guinguettes;
that is; taverns with gardens where one could dance and drink to their heart’s
content (a tradition that extended as far back as 1640). Guinguettes also
served as restaurants. The origin of the term comes from guinguet,
meaning a nasty sour white light local wine that was served in such
establishments in the old days. The 1750 Dictionnaire de la langue français,
defined guinguette as a “small
cabaret in the suburbs and the surrounds of Paris, where craftsmen drink in the
summer and on Sundays and on Festival days”; however, this definition would
seem to have been concocted by the local chambre
du commerce. Once the wall was down, the journey up the butte to High
Montmartre became an easier trek for the Low Montmartrois. The rogues and
harlots headed uphill and with that also began the migration of the lorettes.
Terrace of a Cafe on Montmartre (La Guinguette) by Van Gogh (1886)
Luncheon of a Boating Party, Dejeuner de Canotiers by Renoir (1880 - 1881)
“Lorettes”
sounds like it could have been a Motown singing group from the late 1950s or
1960s but really what “lorettes” meant,
was “kept women;” “respectable mistresses,” who to some occupied a theoretical
“middle ground” of prostitution between the grande
dame of commercial sex, the courtesan, and the far more “gritty” street
prostitute, who occupied Low Montmartre. Actually they came from the
Notre-Dame-de-Lorette neighborhood (thus the name); originally a band of noisy,
vulgar women whose antics often made the bourgeoisie blush, giving Montmartre
what can only be regarded as a thoroughly scandalous reputation, beyond what it
had already achieved. Later the lorettes
would assume at least some of the trappings of refinement if not the culture
itself.
They might have been described as neither wives
nor spinsters, and according to them, neither were they prostitutes. Probably
the daughters of tradesmen and Artisans in Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, they were
most often not more than girls, or at least young women, who had struck out on
their own to live among the artists and bohemians of Montmartre and they were
not, it seems, totally unwelcome; for, the owners of newly constructed
apartments or hotels often let the girls live there free until such time as the
rooms could be rented. As things progressed, they were most often elegantly attired
and “entertained” their men (frequently upper class bourgeoisie or lower-level
aristocrats — business men, professionals or even wealthy students), often in
well decorated apartments, or at least accompanied them out, —. In this way,
they dwelled on the very edge between respectability and social stigma. In the
course of events, they lived with their men, deserted them (or were themselves
deserted) — then moved on to the next. And when the great adventure was over,
they frequently went back to their families (thus the “migration”) or drifted
downward to wretchedness and despair; often ending up in the hospital as
victims of venereal diseases, or worse, floating in the Seine.
Van Gogh knew them, Lautrec knew them, Degas knew
them, Balzac wrote about them in Grandeurs
et miséres des courtisanes, and Gavarni,[4] Guys,[5] and
others painted them.
Les Lorettes, from a series (c. 1841)
Lorettes by Gavarni (no date available)
Two Lorettes at the Theater by Constantine Guys, (no date available)
Loge by Constantin Guys (no date available)
[1] Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (September 28, 1841 – November 24, 1929) was a French statesman who led the nation in the
First World War. A leader of the Radical Party, he played a central role in
politics during the Third Republic. Clemenceau served as the Prime Minister of
France from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. In favor of a total
victory over the German Empire, he militated for the restitution of
Alsace-Lorraine to France. He was one of the principal architects of the Treaty
of Versailles at the France Peace Conference of 1919. Nicknamed “Père la
Victoire” (Father Victory) or “Le Tigre” (The Tiger), he took a harsh position
against defeated Germany, though not quite as much as the President Raymond
Poincaré, and won agreement on Germany's payment of large sums for reparations.
[2] Haussmann’s renovation of Paris was a vast public
works program commissioned by Emperor Napoléon III and directed by his prefect
of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the
demolition of crowded and unhealthy medieval neighborhoods, the building of
wide avenues, parks and squares, the annexation of the suburbs surrounding
Paris, and the construction of new sewers, fountains and aqueducts. Haussmann's
work met with fierce opposition, and he was finally dismissed by Napoleon III
in 1870; but work on his projects continued until 1927. The street plan and
distinctive appearance of the center of Paris today is largely the result of
Haussmann's renovation.
[3] The city of Paris is divided
into twenty arrondissements municipaux, administrative districts, more
simply referred to as arrondissements. These are not to be confused with
departmental arrondissements, which subdivide the 101 French départements. The
word "arrondissement", when applied to Paris, refers almost always to
the municipal arrondissements.
[4] Paul Gavarni was the nom de plume of
Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier (January 13, 1804, Paris – November 24 1866), a
French illustrator, born in Paris.
[5] Constantin Guys,
Ernest-Adolphe-Hyacinthe-Constantin, (December 3, 1802 – December 13, 1892) was
a Dutch-born Crimean War correspondent, water color painter and illustrator for
British and French newspapers.
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