During the 19th century, a good number of Europe’s noble families found themselves in financial trouble, the result of revolutions, failed investments and enormous sums squandered by family members. To survive, many aristocrats had to marry the wealthy heiresses of American millionaires, who in exchange for a generous dowry received a noble title.
This is how the so-called “dollar princesses” came to be, and by the late 19th and early 20th centuries they had become an inseparable part of European nobility. One of the most famous “dollar princesses” was Winnaretta Singer (1865-1943), daughter of the millionaire Isaac Singer. Her story is fascinating not only because of her highly unusual personality and her sexual orientation (she was an openly lesbian woman at a time when this was far from accepted), but also because of her remarkable marriage to a gay prince, and the artistic legacy they built together.
Touch me and I’ll kill you
Anyone who has ever sewn probably knows the Singer sewing machine. The famous machine was invented by Isaac Singer (1811-1875), and it earned him a fortune of about $13 million (a sum that today would be worth hundreds of millions). His married life was far less successful: after an ugly divorce from his first wife, Catherine Maria Haley, he married a second time, to an actress who left him after he cheated on her and even accused him of bigamy, when it turned out he had secretly married yet another woman.
Finally, in 1863, Isaac Singer married the French model Isabella Eugénie Boyer (1841-1904), and this marriage produced 6 children, who joined the 16 children he already had from other women. One of those children was Winnaretta Singer, born in 1865.
When Isaac died in 1875, Winnaretta inherited about $900,000 (more than $18 million in today’s terms) and became one of the most sought-after American heiresses in Europe. Still, her first marriage, to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard, did not go well, to put it mildly.
Family legend has it that on their wedding night, the prince found her standing on top of a wardrobe in their bedroom, armed with an umbrella and shouting: “Touch me and I’ll kill you!” It’s no surprise the couple separated after 21 months and officially divorced in 1891. It was even less surprising once it turned out that Winnaretta simply preferred women.
The only real benefit the “dollar princess” got out of this marriage was her new social standing, which helped her when she decided to create an avant-garde salon, where the most important writers, philosophers and musicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would meet.
At a typical dinner at her salon, you could find the musicians Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), along with the writers Marcel Proust (1871-1922), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). After her divorce, Winnaretta decided to marry again in 1893, another prince this time, to preserve her social standing. Her choice fell on Edmond de Polignac (1834-1901), who was 31 years older than her (she was 28, he was 59). Against all expectations, this marriage turned out to be a great success.
The couple met at an art auction, where both of them were bidding on a Monet painting. Winnaretta won and bought the painting. Prince de Polignac was furious at first with the woman who had “stolen” the painting from him, but later approached her out of curiosity, and the connection that followed ended in marriage. Robert de Montesquiou, one of the famous figures of wit and society at the time, was not invited to the wedding, and he sharply described the union as “a marriage between a dollar bill and a five-sou coin, between the harp and the sewing machine.”
The most important musical salon in Paris
What made this marriage so successful?
- Both of them had an urgent need to marry: Winnaretta needed a noble husband to keep her salon going, while Edmond de Polignac urgently needed money after a string of failed investments.
- Her husband was known as a composer and musician, which created an instant bond with Winnaretta, herself a passionate music lover.
- Her husband’s love of literary salons, art and philosophy meant the two of them never ran out of things to talk about.
- The most important reason of all: Edmond de Polignac was gay, and since Winnaretta was an openly lesbian woman, there was no sexual tension between them, and they could simply be good friends, each keeping their own sexual independence.
This “white marriage” (the term for a marriage that was never sexually consummated) allowed Winnaretta to pursue a string of romantic conquests and to help build an underground lesbian culture that became known as “Paris-Lesbos.” Her lovers included the writer Colette, the poet Renée Vivien and the Marquise de Morny.
This unusual couple made their home at 43 Avenue Georges Mandel (then known as Rue Henri Martin), in the 16th arrondissement. There they hosted the cream of the era’s bohemian circles and high society.
The Hôtel de Polignac, which still stands today, is a grand mansion that houses a music room with wonderful acoustics. That room, which with its mirrors evokes the Palace of Versailles, still faces the street today, and you can see it from the outside if you walk through the neighborhood.
One of the most famous guests at the Princesse de Polignac’s salon was the composer Erik Satie (1866-1925). He would walk there every week from Arcueil (a southern suburb of Paris, about 11 kilometers away), never without his pince-nez and his umbrella.
Winnaretta Singer didn’t just host Erik Satie, she even helped him financially when he got into legal trouble. It all began in 1917, when Satie’s ballet “Parade” premiered in Paris. One critic, Jean Poueigh, wrote that the ballet was especially bad and completely lacking in talent or skill. In response, Satie sent him a telegram that read: “Sir, you are an ass, and an unmusical one.”
Poueigh sued Satie for defamation (the telegram had not been sent in a sealed envelope, so anyone could read its contents), and he won in the lower court, which sentenced Satie to a fine of a thousand francs and a week in jail. Winnaretta didn’t hesitate to pay the fine herself on behalf of her impoverished friend, and she continued to support him through the appeal, which Satie won.
Erik Satie wasn’t the only musician who performed at her salon. Over the years, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) and Igor Stravinsky also played there. Stravinsky despised the composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), and only the Princesse de Polignac was able to get the two of them to sit down together at the piano in her home.
The musical legacy of Polignac and Singer lives on after their deaths
Edmond died in 1901, after about eight harmonious years of marriage, while Winnaretta went on being a patron of the arts, supporting many talented composers and establishing the Prix de Polignac in honor of her late husband. Her salon continued until 1939, and it became one of the last literary salons to exist in Paris. Winnaretta’s work went beyond the arts: she was also deeply involved in public welfare, and from 1911 on she was responsible for creating shelters in Paris, some of which were built during the 1920s and 1930s by the famous architect Le Corbusier.
When World War II broke out, Winnaretta left France for England, where she died on November 25, 1943. But her legacy lives on today through the Fondation Singer-Polignac, which continues to support gifted musicians.
Enjoyed this article?
If the art world of the late 19th and early 20th centuries interests you, I recommend reading Dr. Orna Lieberman’s series of articles about Misia Sert, one of the great patrons of the arts in Paris and a contemporary of Winnaretta Singer.
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