Husband Prince Edmond de Polignac
Queer Places:
Fondation Singer-Polignac, 43 Avenue Georges Mandel, 75116 Paris, Francia
32 Grosvenor Gardens, Belgravia, London SW1W 0DH, UK
Argyll Mansions, 303-323 King's Rd, Chelsea, London SW3 5EP, UK
55 Park Ln, Mayfair, London W1K 1PZ, UK
Oldway Mansion, Torquay Rd, Paignton TQ3 2TY, UKUK
Torquay Cemetary, Torquay TQ2, UK
Winnaretta
Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac (8 January 1865 – 26 November 1943),
was an American-born heir to the
Singer sewing machine fortune. She used this to fund a wide range of
causes, notably a musical salon where her protégés included
Debussy and
Ravel, and numerous public health projects in Paris, where she lived most
of her life. Singer entered into two marriages that were unconsummated, and
openly enjoyed many high-profile relationships with women. She is portrayed as
Vinaigrette in
Robert de
Montesquiou's collection Les Quarante Bergeres (1925).
Winnaretta Singer was the twentieth of the 24 children of
Isaac Singer. Her mother was his Parisian-born second wife,
Isabella Eugenie Boyer. Winnaretta was born in
Yonkers, New York. After the
American Civil War, the Singer family moved to Paris, where they remained
until the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The family then settled in England, first in
London, and then
Paignton,
Devon where they moved to
Oldway Mansion a 115-room palace built by her father.
Winnaretta's older brother,
Adam Mortimer Singer, became one of England's landed gentry. Her younger
sister, Isabelle-Blanche (1869-1896) married
Jean, duc Decazes. Their daughter,
Daisy Fellowes, was raised by Winnaretta after Isabelle-Blanche's death
and became a noted socialite, magazine editor, and fashion trendsetter.
Winnaretta's younger brother, Paris Singer, was one of the architects and
financiers of the resort of
Palm Beach,
Florida;
he had a child by
Isadora Duncan. Another brother,
Washington Singer, became a substantial donor to the University College of
the southwest of England, which later became the
University of Exeter; one of the university's buildings is named in his
honor.
After Isaac Singer's death in 1875, Isabelle and her children moved back to
Paris. Although known within private social circles to be a
lesbian,
Winnaretta married at the age of 22 to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard. The
marriage was
annulled in 1892 by the
Catholic church, five years after a
wedding night that reportedly included the bride's climbing atop an
armoire and threatening to kill the groom if he came near her.
by John Singer Sargent
.jpg)
From left to right, standing: Prince Edmond de Polignac, Princess of Brancovan (Rakoul
(Rachel) Musurus), Marcel Proust, Prince Constantin Brancoveanu (brother of Anna de Noailles), and Léon Delafosse. 2nd row: Madame de Montgenard, Princesse de Polignac, Countess Anna de Noailles, 1st row: Princess Helen Caraman-Chimay (sister of Anna de Noailles), Abel Hermant
In 1893, at the age of 29, she stepped companionably into an equally chaste
marriage with the 59-year-old
Prince Edmond de Polignac (1834-1901), a
gay amateur
composer. Although it was a
mariage blanc (unconsummated marriage), or indeed a
lavender marriage (a union between a gay man and a lesbian), it was based
on profound love, mutual respect, understanding, and artistic friendship,
expressed especially through their love of music. The same year Singer
exhibited her work at the
Palace of Fine Arts at the
World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.[1]
She had affairs with numerous women, never making attempts to conceal them,
and never going for any great length of time without a female lover.[2]
She had these affairs during her own marriages and afterwards, and often with
other married women. The affronted husband of one of her lovers once stood
outside the princess's Venetian palazzo, declaring, "If you are half the man I
think you are, you will come out here and fight me."
Polignac had a relationship with painter
Romaine Brooks, which had begun in 1905, and which effectively ended her
affair with
Olga de Meyer, who was married at the time and whose godfather (and
purported biological father) was
Edward
VII. Composer and conductor
Ethel
Smyth fell deeply in love with her during their affair. In the early 1920s
Polignac became involved with pianist
Renata Borgatti. From 1923 to 1933 her lover was the British socialite and
novelist
Violet Trefusis,[3]
with whom she had a loving but often turbulent relationship.
Alvilde Chaplin, the future wife of the author
James Lees-Milne, was involved with Singer from 1938 to 1943; the two
women were living together in London at the time of Winnaretta's death.
In 1894 the Prince and Princesse de Polignac established a
salon in Paris in the music room of their mansion on Avenue Henri-Martin
(today, Avenue Georges-Mandel). The Polignac salon came to be known as a haven
for
avant-garde music. First performances of
Chabrier,
d'Indy,
Debussy,
Fauré, and
Ravel took place in the Polignac salon. The young Ravel dedicated his
piano work,
Pavane pour une infante défunte, to the Princesse de Polignac. Many of
Marcel Proust's evocations of salon culture were born during his
attendance at concerts in the Polignac drawing room.
After her husband's death, Winnaretta Singer-Polignac used her fortune to
benefit the arts, sciences, and letters. She decided to honor his memory by
commissioning several works of the young composers of her time, amongst others
Igor Stravinsky's
Renard,
Erik
Satie's
Socrate
[4]
(by her intercession Satie was kept out of jail when he was composing this
work),
Darius Milhaud's Les Malheurs d'Orphée,
Francis Poulenc's
Concerto for Two Pianos and
Organ Concerto,
Jean Françaix's
Le Diable boîteux and
Sérénade pour douze instruments,
Kurt
Weill's Second Symphony, and
Germaine Tailleferre's First Piano Concerto.
Manuel de Falla's
El retablo de maese Pedro was premiered there, with the
harpsichord part performed by
Wanda Landowska.[5]
In addition to Proust and
Antonio de La Gándara, the Princesse de Polignac's salon was frequented by
Isadora Duncan,
Jean
Cocteau,
Claude Monet,
Sergei Diaghilev, and
Colette.
She was also
patron to many others, including
Nadia Boulanger,
Clara Haskil,
Dinu
Lipatti,
Arthur Rubinstein,
Vladimir Horowitz,
Armande de Polignac,
Ethel
Smyth,
Le
Corbusier,
Adela Maddison, the
Ballets Russes,
l'Opéra de Paris, and the
Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. In addition to performing as pianist and
organist in her own salon, she was an accomplished painter who exhibited in
the
Académie des Beaux-Arts. One canvas eventually appeared in the showcase of
an art gallery, advertised as being a
Manet.
Winnaretta Singer-Polignac was also an important leader in the development
of
public housing in Paris. Her 1911 building of a housing project for the
working poor at Rue de la Colonie, in the 13th arrondissement, was considered
to be a model for future projects. In the 1920s and 1930s, Singer commissioned
the architect
Le
Corbusier to rebuild or construct several public shelters for Paris's
Salvation Army. The plans of Le Corbusier's Salvation Army hostel in Paris
show a private apartment at the top floor for "Miss Singer".
During World War I, working with
Marie
Curie, Singer-Polignac helped convert private limousines into mobile
radiology units to help wounded soldiers at the front.
During the inter-war period, Singer-Polignac worked with
Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan and assisted in the construction of a 360-bed
hospital destined to provide medical care to middle-class workers. The result
of this effort is the Foch Hospital, located in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris,
France. The hospital also includes a school of nursing and is one of the
top-ranked hospitals in France, especially for renal transplants. It has
remained true to its origins and stayed a private not-for-profit institution
that still serves the Paris community. It is managed by the Fondation médicale
Franco-américaine du Mont-Valérien, commonly called Fondation Foch.[6]
After Singer-Polignac's death, her legacy of enlightened generosity was
carried on through the work of the
Fondation Singer-Polignac. Created in 1928, the goals of the foundation
are the promotion, through gifts and bourses, of science, literature, the
arts, culture, and French philanthropy. The Foundation continued to present
concerts and recitals in the Polignac mansion's music room. The performances
were first organized by
Nadia Boulanger, who presented programs that juxtaposed early music and
modern compositions. After Boulanger's death in 1979, the composer
Jean Françaix took over the organization of the concert series.
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnaretta_Singer
- Woods, Gregory. Homintern . Yale University Press. Edizione del
Kindle.