Liane Pougy French dancer, writer and courtesan Date of Birth: 02.07.1869 Country: France

1. Biography of Liana de Pougy
2. Affairs and Success in Paris
3. Bisexuality and Relationships
4. Later Life and Legacy

Biography of Liana de Pougy

Liana de Pougy was a French dancer, writer, and courtesan, and one of the stars of the Belle Époque in Paris. She was born to a military officer and received a religious education in a convent in Morbihan. At the age of 16, she married a naval officer and gave birth to their son (who later became a pilot and died on the frontlines in 1914). After two years of marriage, she fled from her abusive husband to Paris and obtained a divorce.

Affairs and Success in Paris

In Paris, Liana de Pougy met the popular playwright and librettist Henri Meilhac, who fell in love with her and helped her secure a position at the Folies Bergère, where she adopted her stage name. She took lessons from Sarah Bernhardt and competed with Carolina Otero, along with Émilienne d'Alençon, forming the trio known as the "Three Graces of the Belle Époque." She successfully toured in the United Kingdom and had friendships with Jean Lorrain, Reynaldo Hahn, and Max Jacob. Famous artists wrote about her, and she was photographed by Nadar, while the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio was one of her admirers.

Bisexuality and Relationships

Liana de Pougy was known for her bisexuality and had famous romances, including a close relationship with the artist, writer, and actress Mathilde de Morny, Marquise de Belbeuf (Missy), and a brief affair with Natalie Clifford Barney, which Pougy described in her novel "Idylle Saphique" (Sapphic Idyll) in 1901. In 1910, she married Romanian Prince Georges Ghika, and after 16 years of a happy marriage, the prince left her for a younger woman (though they did not divorce).

Later Life and Legacy

In 1928, Liana de Pougy became friends with the abbess of the monastery of Sainte Agnès near Grenoble, and she made significant donations to the abbey and stipulated that she be buried there. With the onset of World War II, she moved to Lausanne. After her husband's death in 1945, she became a lay sister in the Dominican Order and cared for intellectually disabled children in an orphanage. She passed away on Christmas Eve, fulfilling her final wish.