Angélique-Marie Élisabeth Émilie de Matignon, née Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, married Countesse Goyon de Matignon and known in history as Madame de Matignon (14 March 1757 in Paris – 14 May 1833 in Paris), was a prominent fashion figure during the French Ancien Régime, known for her extravagant hairdressing expenses.
Life edit
Her father was Louis Charles Auguste Le Tonnellier, Baron de Breteuil, French diplomate and politician (1730 Azay-le-Ferron - 1807 Paris), and her mother was Philiberte Jerôme de Parat de Montgeron, daughter of a wealthy financier (October 1737 Paris - 13/14 March 1765/1786). They were married on 24 January 1752. Some Internet sources give her year of birth as 1740 and the year of the marriage as 1768, possibly due to a mix up to another person of a similar name.
Her mother Philiberte de Parat de Montgeron died on 13 or 14 March 1765 or 1786, the place and the time of death are uncertain. Some sources say she died in Stockholm, Sweden in 1765, possibly of childbirth, but her husband Baron de Breteuil was accredited as the French ambassador in Sweden four years later in 1769 at the earliest.[1]
Angélique-Marie Élisabeth Émilie de Matignon was married with Count Louis Charles Auguste Goyon de Matignon, Count de Gacé (22 April 1755 Paris - 18 December 1773 Naples) in 1772. He was the last male descendant of the maréchaux de Goyon de Matignon. She was widowed at the age of 16, when her husband died in Naples on 18 December 1773 at the age of 18. Their daughter Anne Louise Caroline was born in Naples the following year, on 3 May or 3 July 1774. In 1773 her father Baron de Breteuil was the French ambassador in Naples.[2] Anne Louise Caroline, née de Goyon de Matignon, Countesse de Gacé (3 May/July 1774 Naples – 23 March 1846 Paris) married 1788 Anne-Charles Francois, Duke de Montmorency (1768–1846).
After the French Revolution in 1789, Matignon fled with her father and her lover Bishop of Pamiers (1747–1824) to Switzerland and Hamburg, Germany. They returned to France in 1802.[3]
Fashion and extravagancy edit
Matignon was known for her sophisticated outfits ("Elle est d'une élégance achevée")[4] and was a client of the famous fashion designer Rose Bertin. However, when returning to Paris from Naples in 1777, she ignored totally the new fashion of padded false bottom supporting the skirts e.g. Cul de Paris also known as culs postiches which was à la mode from c. 1773 to the 1780s.[5][6] It is known that she paid her tailor 600 livres for one dress. The price for a very elaborate dress could be as high as 10,000 livres.[7]
She gave her hairdresser Le sieur Beaulard, a fashion merchant also given in some sources mistakenly as "Baulard",[8] 24 000 livres (e.g. pounds in silver) a year for styling her hair in a different way every day of the year.[9] [10] The value corresponds in 2014 euros some 1,2 million €.[11]
Considering the enormous amount of money paid, it is not known whether this applied for styling her own hair or her wigs or both. Also it is not known how many employees Beaulard had in his shop. It is known that besides Rose Bertin, Le sieur Beaulard was among the following three top fashion merchants alongside Madame Eloffe and Mademoiselle Alexandre in the 1770s. Beaulard was praised as "a modiste without parallel, the creator and the poet ... because of his myriad inventions and delicious names for fripperies". As the coiffures got very high during the 1770s, Beaulard invented the coiffure à la grand-mére, a mechanical coiffure which could be lowered as much as one foot (30 cm) by touching a spring.[12]
However, the King of the Parisian hairdressing was Léonard Autié, who was Queen Marie Antoinette's favourite coiffeur. The Queen also used the services of Beaulard, which caused rivalry with Queen's favourite fashion merchant Rose Bertin.[13]
Styling and making huge and elaborate coiffures was labour-intensive and costly business. A chignon wig made to the opera singer Antoinette Saint-Huberty (Saint-Huberti) cost 232 livres.[14] A coiffure was usually put together with clients own hair as a base, including metal wire and padded cushion supports, false hair (postiches), wheat starch, pomade made of lard and ornaments like flowers, feathers, jewelry, ribbons, gauze, lace and sometimes even with little objects like miniature ships.[15][16] The number of wigs owned by Countess de Matignon is not known. One of her hairstyles is known to be called à la Jardinière (Gardener Style), adorned with an artichoke and broccoli sprouts.[17]
The information known for the price of a (gentleman's) wig or perruque, varied from 12 livres for the cheapest one, to 35 livres for the most expensive one. It has been estimated that in the 1200 wig making and hairdressing shops worked some 10 000 employees or journeymen (garçons), usually 15 hours a day. In the 1780s there were some 900 master wig makers in Paris.[18]
References edit
- ^ Les derniers maîtres des requêtes de l'Ancien Régime (1771–1789) By Sylvie Nicolas. Page 264. École nationale des chartes, 1998 [1]
- ^ Documents consulaires, Lettres reçues par le chargé d’affaires du Roi à Malte au XVIIIème siècle, Tome Trois. Alain Blondy [2]
- ^ The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the Baron de Breteuil. By Munro Price. Pan Macmillan, 2011. [3]
- ^ Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XVI et la société française: avant 1789, Volumes 1-2. Mémoires de la Baronne d'Oberkirch. By Henriette Louise von Waldner Oberkirch (baronne d') 1789, page 192. Meline, Cans et compagnie 1834.
- ^ Corsets and Crinolines. By Norah Waugh. First edition 1954, page 67. Routledge 2015 [4]
- ^ Mémoires inédits de madame la comtesse de Genlis: pour servir à l'histoire des dix-huitième et dix-neuvième siècles, Volume 5. By Stéphanie Félicité Genlis (comtesse de), page 158. Colburn 1825. [5]
- ^ The Woman of the Eighteenth Century: Her Life, from Birth to Death, Her Love and Her Philosophy in the Worlds of Salon, Shop and Street, by Edmond de Goncourt, Jules de Goncourt, page 221. First published in French 1862. Routledge, 2013 [6]
- ^ Weber, Caroline (2007-10-02). Queen of fashion: What Marie-Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, p. 111. Macmillan 2007. ISBN 9781429936477.
- ^ The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: From Feudalism to Enlightenment. By Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, page 58. Cambridge University Press 1985. [7]
- ^ Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XVI et la société française: avant 1789, Volumes 1-2. Mémoirs de la Baronne d'Oberkirch. By Henriette Louise von Waldner Oberkirch (baronne d') 1789, page 192. Meline, Cans et compagnie 1834. [8]
- ^ La Femme des Lumières. Une histoire de la femme au XVIIIe siècle. La vie quotidienne. Salaires et prix des denrées de base au XVIIIe siècle. Web blog [9]Archived 2015-06-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Woman of the Eighteenth Century: Her Life, from Birth to Death, Her Love and Her Philosophy in the Worlds of Salon, Shop and Street. By Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt. Page 238. FPublished first in French 1862. Routledge 2013 [10]
- ^ Queen of Fashion: What Marie-Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. By Caroline Weber. Macmillan 2007, pages 111-112 [11]
- ^ The Woman of the Eighteenth Century: Her Life, from Birth to Death, Her Love and Her Philosophy in the Worlds of Salon, Shop and Street, by Edmond de Goncourt, Jules de Goncourt, page 237. First published in French 1862. Routledge, 2013 [12]
- ^ The Woman of the Eighteenth Century: Her Life, from Birth to Death, Her Love and Her Philosophy in the Worlds of Salon, Shop and Street, by Edmond de Goncourt, Jules de Goncourt, page 235. First published in French 1862. Routledge, 2013 [13]
- ^ Hair History - The Origin of the Word Hairdresser
- ^ Coiffures Historique - le site du Manuel Histoires de Coiffures. Coiffures Femmes Louis XV 1715–1774 by Alain Ducher [14]
- ^ Coiffures Historique - le site du Manuel Histoires de Coiffures. Historique du métier de Barbier Perruquier & Le Métier du Perruquier. By Alain Ducher [15]