Berthe de Courrière, born in 1852, was the model and companion of the sculptor Auguste Clésinger, whose Woman Bitten by a Snake had scandalised the Salon of 1847. At his death, in 1883, he left her his studio and his works: there she was, the owner of an artist's estate, something hardly ever seen for a woman of that world. She became a figure of the Symbolist and occultist circles of Paris.
The story
Born in 1852, Berthe de Courrière was the model and companion of Auguste Clésinger, the sculptor of the Woman Bitten by a Serpent that had scandalised the Salon of 1847. It was her face he gave to the Republic from which he drew the Marianne of the Senate: thousands of people have looked at her without knowing who she was. Clésinger died in 1883 and left her his studio and his works — at thirty-one she found herself at the head of an artist's estate, which no woman in that world was then.
She became a figure of the symbolist and occultist circles of the 1880s and 1890s, that Paris where literature, magic and mystical Catholicism mixed without clearly separating. She was an inspiration to Joséphin Péladan, founder of the Rose-Croix esthétique, and her features were recognised in the heroine of a novel by Huysmans about black masses — the sulphurous reputation around her owes as much to the novels as to the facts.
Her lasting attachment was to Rémy de Gourmont, co-founder of the Mercure de France and one of the most listened-to critics of the end of the century. Disfigured by lupus, a disease that ate away at his face, Gourmont no longer went out. She was his companion for thirty years and the one who let the world in to him: the visitors of the Mercure, the manuscripts, the news of literary life all passed through her. She died on 14 June 1916, nine months after him.
Her grave brings together Clésinger (1814-1883), the sculptor whose model she was, and Rémy de Gourmont (1858-1915), the writer whose companion she was — two men who never knew each other, gathered by her under the same stone on the chemin Denon, in Division 10. Neither would be there without her, and hers is the one name of the three the stone does not carry.
On site, do not miss
One tomb for three destinies: Clésinger the sculptor, Rémy de Gourmont the writer — and she, who was the link between two men who never met.
Visitors' questions
Where is Berthe de Courrière's grave?
In Division 10 of Père-Lachaise. It is the same grave as Rémy de Gourmont and Clésinger — the sculptor, the writer, and Berthe de Courrière, who was the model of one and the companion of the other.
Remy de GourmontWhat was her connection with Auguste Clésinger?
She was his model and his companion. On his death in 1883, the sculptor of Woman Bitten by a Snake left her his studio and his works — she became the keeper of an artistic estate, a position rarely held by a woman in that world.
Louis-Sébastien LebrunWhy is she a figure of Symbolism?
Because she moves through the whole of that Paris of the 1880s and 1890s where literature, magic and mystical Catholicism kept company: she was an inspiration to Joséphin Péladan, founder of the aesthetic Rosicrucian order, and readers have seen her behind characters in Huysmans.
Gustave CharpentierWhy is she the pivot of this grave?
Because the other two would not be here without her: Clésinger, whose model she was, and Remy de Gourmont, whose companion she was for thirty years, never knew one another. She is what brings them together under the same stone.
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