Nelly de Vogüé
Countess Hélène Marie Henriette de Vogüé (née von Jaunez; 28 November 1908 – 17 June 2003), known as Nelly de Vogüé, was a French aristocrat, socialite, businesswoman, painter, and writer. She studied art at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris before succeeding her father as president of Haviland France, her family's ceramics company.
Nelly de Vogüé | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hélène Marie Henriette von Jaunez 28 November 1908 Paris, France |
| Died | 17 June 2003 (aged 94) Paris, France |
| Pen name | Pierre Chevrier |
| Occupation | writer, painter, socialite, businesswoman |
| Education | École des Beaux-Arts de Paris |
| Genre | biography |
| Spouse | Count Jean de Vogüé |
| Partner | Count Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |
| Children | 1 |
| Parents | Maximilian von Jaunez (father) Jeanne de Montagnac |
| Relatives | Édouard von Jaunez (grandfather) |
She was the long-time mistress of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and was referred to as Madame de B. in his biographies and as The Beautiful E in the memoirs of Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry. After Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's presumed death in 1944, de Vogüé became the executrix of his literary works and, under the nom de plume Pierre Chevrier, authored a biography on him.
Biography
De Vogüé was born on 28 November 1908 to Maximilian von Jaunez, a prominent French-German industrialist who was part of the Prussian nobility and owned a large ceramics factory in Eastern France, and Jeanne de Montagnac, a singer and a daughter of Louis Elizé de Montagnac, Baron de Montagnac.[1][2] She was of German ancestry on her father's side.[2] Her mother married a second time, in 1925, to Count Charles M César Ludovic de Polignac.[3]
She was considered a "ravishing beauty" and was renowned in Parisian society for her beauty and her intellect.[1] De Vogüé was a passionate painter and studied art at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris.[1] She was well-versed in literature and was fluent in several languages.[1] She inherited her father's ceramics factory, Haviland France, and took over as the company's president, becoming one of the first women businessleaders in France.[2]
In 1927, she married the French aristocrat Count Jean Alexandre Melchior de Vogüé, a grandson of Melchior de Vogüé.[1] They had one son, Patrice de Vogüé.
Relationship with Saint-Exupéry
De Vogüé was introduced to Count Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in 1929 at the home of their friend, Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin.[2] They met again afterwards attending Parisian salons.[2] By 1934, she was one of the lovers of de Saint-Exupéry, who was married to Consuelo Suncín de Sandoval.[4] Consuelo knew of the affair, which caused her much distress, and referred to de Vogüé as the beautiful E in her memoirs.[4]
She remained his mistress until his death.[5] She accompanied him on his travels, and was photographed with him returning from a trip to Moscow in 1938.[6]
In 1943, she joined de Saint-Exupéry in Algiers, arriving from Gibraltar in an American plane that was being watched by the Allied Intelligence Bureau due to their being a rising suspicion in her ability to move freely between Allied and Axis terriroty.[2] The Office of Strategic Services made over seventeen pages of reports detailing their suspicion that de Vogüé was an agent of Vichy France and a Nazi collaborator during the Second World War.[1] Throughout the war, she was able to move between Nazi-occupied France and allied territories including London and New York using a variety of aliases.[1] The Office of Strategic Services identified Saint-Exupéry as her lover, stating in one report that "Although a French patriot, subject has been equivocal in his attitude towards France."[1]
After she left Algiers, de Saint-Exupéry wrote her several letters mentioning his regrets for their arguments and his love and need for her.[2] De Saint-Exupéry's last letter to de Vogüé was written on 30 July 1944.[2] Upon de Saint-Exupéry's disappearance and presumed death in 1944, de Vogüé inherited his literary estate.[1] She promoted his work and sought to celebritize his literary reputation, helping writers with source materials and granting biographers permission to access and write about his work.[1] De Vogüé required the writers who she granted access to never disclose her relationship with Saint-Exupéry.[1] As such, biographers she worked with referred to her as Madame d B. to conceal her identity.[1] She deposited her collection of her lover's writings in the Archives Nationales, where they will be kept privately until 2053.[2]
In 1949, she published a book dedicated to de Saint-Exupéry, writing under the pseudonym Pierre Chevrier.[7][5] She also published the posthumous editions of de Saint-Exupéry's manuscripts for Écrits de guerre, Citadelle, and Carnets.[2]
References
- "Secret love of a Renaissance man". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- "Nelly de Vogüé (1908 – 2003)". 29 June 2023. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- "Family tree of Jeanne DE MONTAGNAC". Geneanet. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- "The man who fell to earth". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- "Par Avion". archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- "Image of Antoine De Saint Exupery Arriving In Paris Back From Moscow, Talking With Yvonne De Lestrange (friend Of His Mother) And Countess Helene Nelly De Vogue". Granger. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- Webster, Paul (24 June 2000). "Flying into a literary storm". Retrieved 8 July 2023 – via The Guardian.
