Yvette Guilbert

Yvette Guilbert (French pronunciation: [ivɛt gilbɛʁ]; born Emma Laure Esther Guilbert; 20 January 1865 – 3 February 1944) was a French cabaret singer and actress of the Belle Époque.

Biography

Emma Laure Esther Guilbert was born in Paris on 20 January 1865 to a modestly wealthy family. Her mother, Adeline, had a millinery business and her father was a shopkeeper. However, her father left when her mother's business failed, leaving her in very difficult financial circumstances. She began singing as a child, but at age 16 worked as a model at the Printemps department store in Paris. She was discovered by a journalist. She took acting and diction lessons, which enabled her in 1886 to appear on stage at several smaller venues. Guilbert debuted at the Varieté Theatre in 1888. She eventually sang at the popular Eldorado club, then at the Jardin de Paris before headlining in Montmartre at the Moulin Rouge in 1890. The English painter William Rothenstein described this performance in his first volume of memoirs:

One evening Lautrec came up to the rue Ravignan to tell us about a new singer, a friend of Xanrof, who was to appear at the Moulin Rouge for the first time... We went; a young girl appeared, of virginal aspect, slender, pale, without rouge. Her songs were not virginal – on the contrary; but the frequenters of the Moulin were not easily frightened; they stared bewildered at this novel association of innocence with Xanrof's horrific double entendre; stared, stayed and broke into delighted applause.