Happily Ever After – A Special Love Story Between a Lesbian Heiress and a Gay Prince

During the 19th century, many of the European noble houses found themselves in dire financial straits due to revolutions, failed investments, and excessive spending by their families. In order to survive financially, the nobles were forced to marry wealthy heiresses of American millionaires, who in return for generous dowries were given titles of nobility.

Thus were born the “Dollar Princesses” and became an integral part of the European aristocracy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the most famous “Dollar Princesses” was Winnaretta Singer, the daughter of millionaire Isaac Singer. Her story is interesting not only because of her very special personality and sexual orientation (she was an outspoken lesbian at a time when this was very unacceptable), but also because of her unique marriage to a homosexual prince, and their joint work in the field of art.

If you touch me, I will kill you.

Anyone who has ever sewn is probably familiar with the Singer sewing machine. The famous machine was invented by Isaac Singer (1811-1875) and thanks to it he earned a huge fortune of about 13 million dollars (today such a fortune is estimated in the hundreds of millions). He was less successful in his married life, and after an ugly divorce from his first wife Catherine Maria Haley, he married a second time to an actress, who dumped him after he cheated on her and even accused him of polygamy when it was discovered that he had secretly married another woman.

Finally, in 1863, Isaac Singer married the French model Isabella Eugénie Boyer (1841-1904) and from this marriage he had 6 children, joining the 16 children he had with other women. One of those children was Winaretta Singer, who was born in 1865.

When Isaac died in 1875, Winerta inherited about $900,000 (more than $18 million in today's values) and became one of the most sought-after American heiresses in Europe. However, her first marriage to Prince Louis Wilfred de Scey-Montbeliard was not a happy one, to say the least.

Family legend has it that on the wedding night, the prince found her on a wardrobe in their bedroom, armed with an umbrella and shouting “If you touch me, I’ll kill you!” It’s no surprise that the couple separated after 21 months and were officially divorced in 1891. It was even less surprising when it turned out that Vinerta simply preferred women…

The only advantage that the "Dollar Princess" enjoyed as a result of this marriage was her new social status, 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 met.

At a typical dinner party, one could find musicians Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, and Gabriel Faure, and writers Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde. After her divorce, Winaretta decided to marry another prince in 1893, in order to maintain her social status. This time the choice fell on Jules Edmond de Polignac, who was 31 years her senior (she was 28 and he was 59). Despite this, to everyone's surprise, it was a very successful marriage.

The couple met at a painting auction, when they both fought over a Monet painting. Winerta won and was able to buy the painting. The Prince de Polignac was initially very angry with the woman who “stole” the painting from him, but later approached her out of curiosity, and thus a relationship was formed that ended in marriage. Robert de Montesquieu, one of the famous socialites and intellectuals of the period, who was not invited to the wedding, venomously called this marriage “a marriage between a dollar bill and a sou coin, between the harp and the sewing machine.”

The most important musical salon in Paris

What made the marriage so successful?

• Both had an immediate need to marry because Vinarte needed a noble husband to continue her salon while Edmond de Polignac urgently needed money after a series of failed investments.
• Her husband became famous as a composer and musician, which created an immediate connection between them, as she was a music lover.
• Her husband's love of literary salons, art, and philosophy meant that they never lacked topics of conversation.
• The most important reason: Edmond de Polignac was homosexual and since Vinarte was an outspoken lesbian, there was no sexual tension between them and they could simply be good friends, each maintaining their sexual independence.

Thus, the “white marriage” (a term for a marriage that was never consummated sexually) allowed Winaretta to break through a chain of sexual conquests and create an underground lesbian culture, which was called “Paris-Lesbos. Among her lovers were the writer Colette, the poet René Vivien, and the Marquise de Mornay.

This special couple settled at 43 Avenue Georges Mandel (then the street was called Henri Martin) in16th DistrictThere, the couple entertained the fat and slime of bohemia and high society of their time.

The Hôtel de Polignac, which fortunately still exists today, is a magnificent building, containing a music room with wonderful acoustics. This room, which is somewhat reminiscent of a palace VersaillesThanks to its mirrors, it still overlooks the street today and you can see it from the outside if you walk around the area.

One of the most famous guests in the Princesse de Polignac's salon was the composer Eric Satie (1866-1925). He would arrive every week on foot from Arceuil (a southern suburb of Paris about 11 kilometers away), always wearing pince-nez glasses and always carrying an umbrella.

Vinerta Singer not only entertained Erik Satie, but also helped him financially when the latter got into legal trouble. It all began in 1917, when the ballet “The Parade,” composed by Satie, was performed in Paris. One of the critics, Jean Pouiegh, wrote that the ballet was particularly bad and devoid of any talent or ability. In response, Satie wrote him a telegram stating: “My lord is an ass without any music.”

Foy sued Satie for defamation (the telegram was not in an envelope, so anyone could read its contents) and won in the first instance, so Satie was sentenced to a fine of one thousand francs and a week in prison. Winerta did not hesitate to pay the fine herself in place of her poor friend, and she even continued to support him on appeal, which Satie won.

Erik Satie was not the only musician who played at her house, and over the years Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky also played there. The latter detested the composer Prokofiev, and only the Princess de Polignac was able to seat both of them at the piano in her house.

The musical legacy of Polignac and Singer continues even after their deaths

Edmond died in 1901, after about eight years of harmonious marriage, while Winarte continued to be a patron of the arts, helping many talented composers and creating the Polignac Prize, named after her late husband. Her salon continued to exist until 1939, and was one of the last literary salons to be held in Paris. Winarte was not only engaged in art but also in extensive public activity, and from 1911 she was responsible for the creation of shelters in Paris, some of which were built during the 20s and 30s by the famous architect Le Corbusier.

With the outbreak of World War II,Malta Vinerta left France for England, where she died on November 25, 1943. However, her legacy continues to this day through the Polignac-Singer Foundation, which supports gifted musicians.

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If the art of the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century interests you, I recommend that you read Dr. Orna Lieberman's series of articles on Missia movie, one of the great patrons of the arts in Paris and a contemporary of Winaretta Singer.