Apollonie Sabatier

Portrait of Apollonie Sabatier by Vincent Vidal.

Apollonie Sabatier (born Aglaé Joséphine Savatier; 1822–1890) was a French courtesan, artists' muse and bohémienne in 1850s Paris. She hosted a salon in Paris on Rue Frochot, where she met nearly all of the French artists of her time, such as Gérard de Nerval, Nina de Villard, Arsène Houssaye, Edmond Richard, Gustave Flaubert, Louis Bouilhet, Maxime du Camp, Gustave Ricard, Judith Gautier, daughter of Théophile; Ernest Feydeau, father of Georges Feydeau, Hector Berlioz, Paul de Saint-Victor, Alfred de Musset, Henry Monnier, Victor Hugo, Ernest Meissonnier, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Charles Jalabert, Ernesta Grisi, Gustave Doré, the musician Ernest Reyer, James Pradier, Auguste Préault, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Auguste Clésinger and Édouard Manet.

Apollonie Sabatier, sculpted by Auguste Clésinger as Woman, bitten by a snake in 1847, today in Musée d'Orsay

Gustave Flaubert, Théophile Gautier and some others have written articles about her and she was one of four women (Caroline, Jeanne Duval, herself and Marie Daubrun) who inspired Charles Baudelaire's famous work Les Fleurs du Mal. Edmond de Goncourt was the first to nickname her "La Présidente".

In Gustave Courbet's painting L'Atelier du peintre she is said to be shown together with her longtime lover, the Belgian tycoon Alfred Mosselman (1810-1867). After his death she was the longtime mistress to art collector and donor to the Wallace fountains, Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet.

She also entered works for the Paris Salon, and was among the artists rejected from the 1863 exhibition who chose to show their works in the Salon des Refusés (Miniatures, Nos. 503-505).

Gallery

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  Charles Baudelaire

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  Auguste Clésinger

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  Alfred Mosselman

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  Sir Richard Wallace

External links

• Woman Bitten by a Snake by Auguste Clésinger
• An enumeration of the guests of her salon by André Bouchard