Courtesans, cocottes, demi-mondaines, lionesses, grandes horizontales, demi-castors... there is no shortage of words to describe these flamboyant bedroom adventurers, true national stars of the Second Empire. Courtesans were seen as powerful and decadent figures, emblematic of the corruption and debauchery of the regime. They were also models of beauty: La Païva, Cora Pearl, Blanche d’Antigny, Miss Howard, Marguerite Bellanger, la Castiglione, Mogador, all launched new fashions and invented new ways to be beautiful. They are also central figures in the literature and art of the period, from Alexandre Dumas’ Le Demi-Monde and La Dame aux camélias, to Zola’s Nana and Manet’s Olympia.

Yet beneath their show of luxury and enjoyment, were these women as powerful and free as they claimed? Financially they were irremediably bound to men and without money they were nothing. Once their beauty faded, and their lovers were gone, all, or almost all, found themselves ruined, languishing in the memory of their past glory. Our lecture will trace their fascinating careers, their rise and fall.