Queer Places:
93 rue de Courcelles, Paris, France
107 rue de
la Pompe, Paris, France
27 Quai d'Orsay, Paris, France
Cimetière du Père Lachaise
Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France
Georgie Raoul-Duval (born Jeannie Urquhart, also known as George Duval or George Daring), was a French writer of American and English-speaking descent, born on July 3, 1866 in Paris and died on November 3, 1913 in Paris. She is best known for her erotic relationship with Colette and her husband Willy. Colette's first lesbian lover, Georgie Raoul-Duval, would later be the model for the mother in Jean Cocteau’s novel Les Parents terribles.
Daughter and heiress of David Urquhart and Augusta Slocomb, from two wealthy American merchant families in New Orleans, Jennie Urquhart was born in the 16th arrondissement of Paris during one of their many stays in Paris. She was educated in France. She married René Raoul-Duval on September 23, 1891 in Paris. Son of Fernand Raoul-Duval, he was not only a polytechnician and mining engineer but also heir to a great industrial and mining fortune. She then changed her first name to Georgie Raoul-Duval. Georgie, free and cultivated, held salon in Paris in her house where her husband was often absent, held back by business trips. She met Colette at the beginning of March 1901 at the home of Jeanne Muhlfeld (the wife of Lucien Muhlfeld) and the idyll begins immediately. This was Colette's first known homosexual affair, which has just published Claudine in Paris, the second episode of Claudine's adventures. At the same time, or a little later, Georgie also began an affair with Willy (Henry Gauthier-Villars), Colette's husband, without the couple initially being aware of the situation. When Colette discovered her husband's affair, she was at first furious before accepting this threesome. A police report of May 1, 1901 describes with judicial precision the relationship of the trio: "We learn that the novelist Gauthier-Villars (Henry) says "Willy", author of Claudine in Paris, 93 rue de Courcelles has been living on 93 rue de Courcelles for five years, and has chosen for the afternoon of 29 April a small apartment on the fourth floor of a discreet house on Pasquier Street, with the aim of meeting two lesbians, his legitimate wife and a lady aged about thirty, remaining 107 rue de la Pompe [address of the Raoul-Duval]. The meeting of the novelist and the two ladies in question took place from three to six o'clock in the evening. Arriving first, the two ladies were left alone for an hour but Mr. Gauthier-Villars had come to join them, so they continued with him the game." In the summer of 1901, the trio left for Bayreuth by car but the agreement broke down when they returned to Paris when Colette and Willy realize that Georgie sometimes summoned them in isolation an hour apart. Their revenge will be literary: the third episode of the Claudine series (Claudine in a Household) features a young Austrian girl named Rézi who does not hide Georgie's identity. The latter, terrified by the potential scandal, tried in vain to have the publication annulled and would sever all relations with the couple. In 1907, Colette settled her accounts with Georgie again by crunching her fiercely as Suzy in The Sentimental Retreat. Georgie would then have a new romantic relationship with another writer, the very free Marie de Heredia, wife of Henri de Régnier and mistress of Pierre Louÿs. She had also relationships with Josep Maria Sert and Catherine Pozzi. Later, Georgie began her own literary career. She wrote a play, The Golden Light, (under the name George Daring) that her sister, the socialist-turned-actress Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter, produced in 1905 but which will have no success. She then wrote a few novels: Shadows of old Paris, a story of Paris told to the Americans, Written in the sand inspired by a trip to the Sahara. Her last book, Little Miss, was published posthumously in 1914 and featured a young heroine from Louisiana. Georgie died on November 3, 1913 at the age of 47, at 6:30 a.m. at her home on 27 Quai d'Orsay.
Her life inspired Édouard Bourdet, who beed madame d'Aiguines in his play La Prisonernière in 1926. In 2018, her character was played by actress Eleanor Tomlinson in the film Colette by Wash Westmoreland.
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