Mlle. Raucourt D'après le Portrait peint par Mr. Gros en 1796... Gravée par Ruotte

  • Paris , 1796
By [THEATRE]. Raucourt, [Françoise Marie Antoinette Saucerotte] 1756-1814
Paris, 1796. 390 x 290 mm.

Some foxing and minor wear. Hall III p. 385 (2).

Raucourt, a popular and controversial French actress, made her debut at the Comédie Française in 1772 as Dido, going on to play all the classical tragédienne roles. "Her beauty and talent had made her famous, but her not so secret love affairs with other women made her notorious ... Raucourt led the Sect of Anadrynes, a society of lesbians in Paris ... At the outbreak of the Revolution she was imprisoned for six months with other royalist members of the Comédie Française, and she did not reappear upon that stage until the close of 1793, and then only for a short time. She deserted, with a dozen of the best actors in the company, to found a rival colony, but a summons from the Directory brought her back in 1797 ... Her funeral was the occasion of a riot. The clergy of her parish having refused to receive the body, the crowd broke in the church doors, and were only restrained from further violence by the arrival of an almoner sent posthaste by Louis XVIII." Wikipedia.

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