Arthur-Léon Imbert de Saint-Amand

Who he was

Baron Arthur-Léon Imbert de Saint-Amand (Paris, 22 November 1834 -- Paris, 22 June 1900) was a diplomat of the French Foreign Ministry and a popular historian of the women of the French courts. He was the son of General Baron Bernard-Marthe Imbert de Saint-Amand (1788-1864) and of Flore Domon, and entered the Quai d'Orsay in 1855; he was made second-class minister plenipotentiary in 1877 and first-class in 1882 (fr.wikipedia: Arthur-Léon Imbert de Saint-Amand; fr.wikipedia: Bernard-Marthe Imbert de Saint-Amand). He became widely read through two long series, Les Femmes de Versailles (1875-1879) and Les Femmes des Tuileries (1880-1887), and was an unsuccessful candidate for the Académie française in 1898 (fr.wikipedia; BnF data).

In the diary he is never given a first name: Marie writes "Saint Amand" (from 1883 usually "Saint-Amand"), once "le baron de Saint-Amand" (the caption of her spiral letter, 089.0616). The identification with the historian rests on four things the diary says: his title of baron; his post among the Foreign Ministry's people (he expects to succeed "M. de Courcel envoyé à Berlin", 094.0075, and Marie and he joke that she will make him foreign minister, 090.0310); the books he gives her with a dedication, among them Les Dernières Années de Marie-Antoinette (091.0179), a subject of his Marie-Antoinette volumes; and Marie's own coupling "Saint-Amand-Récamier-Girardin" (101.0212), the names of two of the women he wrote about (Madame de Girardin, 1874). The identification is probable, not documented by a source that names Marie.

Marie and Saint-Amand

The performer and the promoter (1880-1881). He first appears in carnet 087, in February 1880, in the Gavinis' circle at the Opéra (087.0539). He had been the most faithful admirer of Adelina Patti and was hearing her in Paris for the first time since her break with her husband (087.0560). Marie finds him "un peu toqué" and feels she has known him for ten years (087.0561). He recites Hugo and Musset for her (La Nuit d'octobre, 088.0028; 087.0893), sings all of Rigoletto at the piano (090.0003) and calls her "mon enfant" or "sa fille" (087.0571, 087.0879). In May 1880 he has a few lines printed about her picture in Le Voltaire (088.0257).

His real service is publicity. In early 1881 he takes charge of launching her in the society press: a notice in Le Sport on Patti's first night in which she is cited (091.0285), the plan of a "carnet d'un mondain" (091.0321), and the notes he writes up about her costume ball (091.0412). The Figaro column signed "Etincelle" is, in Marie's understanding, fed by him ("c'est lui qui renseigne Etincelle", 094.0252); and on 13 April 1881 she notes that he "se borne à inspirer les articles" (091.0464). In October 1881 she sends him her own "chronique de Biarritz" for the paper (093.0107, 093.0192). She also calls him a "lanceur", and he introduces the idea of an elite circle around her (089.0618).

The Gavini circle. He is at all the Gavinis' dinners, boxes and Sunday afternoons, with Gabriel Géry, and Gabriel jokes that she may risk herself "chez vos trois pères, le père Gavini, le père Saint Amand et le père Géry" (089.0623). He sings that Gabriel and she would make "un couple superbe" and tells her she must marry Gabriel (090.0127-0128); on 5 December 1880 they joke that he will marry her to "Léon" while she makes him foreign minister (090.0310).

The newspaper blunder (1882). In April 1882 the Voltaire names Marie among the spectators at a court hearing, and she blames him: "cet idiot de Saint Amand ... m'a fait citer parmi les célébrités mondaines plusieurs fois" (094.0465). The Gavinis were furious. In 1882 she also calls him an "idiot" for his over-excited behaviour in front of the model Alice Brisbane (095.0072) and records the rumour that his father had been mad (the general died in 1864; the diary's claim is Marie's own).

The marriage of convenience (1883-1884). From May 1883 Marie considers marrying him: he talks of it, half joking, half serious (099.0558). Through the summer of 1883 the diary turns this over page after page: "Avec Saint-Amand ce serait la liberté la plus complète" (100.0505); she cannot decide between him and her other candidate Bojidar (100.0538); she hates him "depuis que je vois qu'il veut m'épouser" (101.0190); she worries about what people will say, since "on sait que Saint-Amand n'est pas complet" (100.0337). The same months bring a repellent dinner conversation in which he repeats gossip about women who love women (101.0215-0220). In 1883-1884 she keeps returning to it as the only option, "Il n'y a que Saint-Amand" (103.0209), and in January 1884 as a way of having "un salon intéressant" (103.0109); nothing came of it. On 14 September 1883 he brings a young actress to her at the Salon varnishing day, then swears on his honour he had not (101.0349).

To the end. He is a regular at dinner through 1884 (105.0527, 106.0080: "Saint-Amand à dîner", 17 September 1884).

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