Hôtel de la Païva

I had the opportunity to visit the Hôtel (town house, mansion) de la Païva on the Champs Elysées, constructed by a famous courtesan, Esther Lachmann, later Pauline Thérèse Lachmann, later Madame Villoing, later Mme la Marquise de Païva, later Countess Henckel von Donnersmarck, but always referred to as “La Païva”.

Born in Moscow in 1819 in miserable conditions, she fled her first early marriage and arrived in the slums of Paris, became mistress of a famous pianist, met influent people, married in 1851 to a Portuguese marquis and got her name (her first husband had died in the meantime). The day following the Portuguese marriage she is said to have stated "You wanted to sleep with me, and you have done so, by making me your wife. You have given me your name, I acquitted myself last night. I have behaved like an honest woman. I wanted a position, and I've got it, but all you have is a prostitute for a wife. You can't take me anywhere, and you can't introduce me to anyone. We must therefore separate. You go back to Portugal. I shall stay here with your name, and remain a whore.“  ... and he left, but they officially divorced only 20 years later, when she got married to an enormously rich Prussian count, Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, eleven years her junior. He offered her a castle, the famous Donnersmarck diamonds and, already before the marriage, allowed her to build this mansion, considered to be the most elegant in Paris.

She was much loved by her last husband, who worshipped her all his life, although he remarried after Païva's death in 1884 - at the age of 64. They had then left Paris, forced by the difficult French / Prussian relations in the 1870's and settled down in the husband's Prussian castle (today in Poland). Finally, she could enjoy her nice mansion only a few years, but had the time to give some very extravagant parties, with basically only men invited, including a large part of those days' Paris intelligentsia. 

What did she look like? She obviously never wanted to be photographed full face. This is all I have found on Internet, including a picture of the Donnersmarck diamonds, last time sold by Sotheby's in 2007 for some 8 million dollars. However, she obviously served as a model on some of the remaining ceiling paintings, statues...

A bit everywhere, you find her initials, P for Païva and B for "Blanche", a new first name that she invented for herself.

But, this was especially to be about the building, since 1903 occupied by Travellers' Club. (An independent restaurant in front was added much later.) The original furniture has all be replaced, but you can still find a lot of the original decoration... walls, ceilings... Only the best material was used, the bests architects, the best artists and artisans... were employed.

Some views from the first reception floor….

… from the winter garden…

… and on the way up to the private second floor, what perhaps is the most remarkable: the stairs. The material used is the extremely expensive onyx and all is fabulously decorated.

One striking  (maybe hardly surprising?) thing is that her large bedroom occupies the central part of the second floor. Today, it’s a dining room for Traveller’s Club, and the bed has disappeared. On Internet I found an illustration of what it may have looked like.

The bathroom, photographed via a mirror, has an onyx bathtub, with the interior in silver coated copper. Three taps – one for cold, one for warm water and a third one for champagne (?).

Before moving in here, she already had a quite decent place to live. I mentioned it in a previous post.