Marie Lion

Marie Lion (2 May 1855 – 3 May 1922) was a French–Australian novelist, artist, and teacher. For forty years she lived in Australia with her sister Berthe Mouchette, an accomplished artist and art teacher. Lion was Australia's first French novelist, and the first French teacher for the Alliance française in Australia.

Early life

She was born in Marseillan, Herault. As a student, her particular interests were languages, literature, and art, and she received a Degré Supérieur from l’Académie de Paris in French language and literature. After hearing a lecture on Australia by the Australian novelist Jessie Couvreur ('Tasma') at the Société de Géographie, Lion and her sister decided to emigrate.

Career

Marie Lion and Berthe Mouchette arrived in Melbourne in the second half of 1881 and began to offer art lessons and French language classes. After the death of her husband, Émile Mouchette, Berthe bought Oberwyl, a girls' school in St Kilda. Marie Lion was director of French studies, literature, and conversation. In 1890, Mouchette was responsible for founding the Melbourne branch of the Alliance française. Meetings were held at Oberwyl, where Lion taught the Alliance française's first French language classes in Australia. In December that year Table Talk reported that 'a large and fashionable' group of parents and friends attended Oberwyl's annual Soirée Musicale et Dramatique, where the 'feature of the evening' was a French play about the discovery of Australia, written by Marie Lion for the occasion and presented by students. In the depression that followed the Melbourne land boom of the 1880s, Berthe Mouchette was forced to sell the school and her assets.