Residence · c. 1890-1916
Berthe de Courrière and Remy de Gourmont's home
Address · 71, rue des Saints-Pères, 75006 Paris
Metro · Saint-Germain-des-Prés (4) / Rue du Bac (12)
Today · Private, seen from the street. Residential building.
The story
Born Caroline Louise Victoire Courrière in Lille in 1852, Berthe de Courrière arrived in Paris around 1872. A model and demi-mondaine, she was the mistress and then the heir of the sculptor Auguste Clésinger, for whom she posed (the Marianne of the Senate, the Republic of the 1878 Exposition). In 1886 she met Remy de Gourmont, who became her lover and for whom she inspired Sixtine (1890) and Le Fantôme (1893).
In 1889 Gourmont introduced her to Huysmans, who turned her into Mme Chantelouve in Là-bas (1891). Passionate about occultism, linked to Abbé Boullan and to Canon Van Haecke of Bruges, she was rumored to have attended black masses; Rachilde claimed to have seen her throw consecrated hosts to stray dogs. In 1890 she was confined for a few weeks in Bruges, then again in Brussels in 1906. She died in Paris on 14 June 1916.
