Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Demi-monde is a French 19th-century term referring to women on the fringes of respectable society, and specifically to courtesans supported by wealthy lovers. [1] The term is French for "half-world", and derives from an 1855 play called Le Demi-Monde, by Alexandre Dumas fils, [2] dealing with the way that prostitution at that time threatened the institution of marriage.
The Hôtel de Ville in Paris (city hall) displayed a statue of "Marianne" wearing a Phrygian cap in 1880, and was quickly followed by the other French cities. In Paris, where the Radicals had a strong presence, a contest was launched for the statue of Place de la République.
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), and raised in Oakland, California, [1] Stein moved to Paris in 1903, and made France her home for the remainder of her life.
Blanche Monnier (French pronunciation: [blɑ̃ʃ mɔnje]; 1 March 1849 – 13 October 1913), often known in France as la Séquestrée de Poitiers [a] (roughly, "The Confined Woman of Poitiers"), [1] was a woman from Poitiers, France, who was secretly kept locked in a small room by her aristocratic mother and brother for 25 years.
The sexual connotations which had long accompanied the word are made explicit in Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1976) which lists one of its meanings as a young woman who combines part-time prostitution with another occupation. Webster's quotes an example from Henry Seidel Canby's 1943 biography of Walt Whitman:
Sarah Bernhardt (French: [saʁa bɛʁnɑʁt]; [note 1] born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand.
' The Unknown Woman of the Seine ') was an unidentified young woman whose putative death mask became a popular fixture on the walls of artists' homes after 1900. Her visage inspired numerous literary works. [1] In the United States, the mask is also known as La Belle Italienne. [2]
Baker, c. 1908 Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri. [11] [14] [15] Baker's ancestry is unknown—her mother, Carrie, was adopted in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1886 by Richard and Elvira McDonald, both of whom were former slaves of African and Native American descent. [11]