Léontine Lippmann, better known as Madame de Caillavet, was a prominent French salonnière and cultural figure during the Third Republic. Born into a wealthy Jewish banking family, she married Albert Arman in 1868, who adopted his mother’s surname in the form “Arman de Caillavet.” The couple had one son, the playwright Gaston Arman de Caillavet. Léontine was intelligent, highly educated, and multilingual. She was renowned for her beauty and sharp wit. From the 1880s onwards, she maintained a long-standing liaison with the writer Anatole France, serving as his muse and influencing works such as Thaïs and Le Lys rouge.
Madame de Caillavet established her own salon in Paris at 12, avenue Hoche, near the Place de l’Étoile. Her gatherings were famed for their literary and political discourse, attracting many of the leading cultural figures of the era. Sunday assemblies drew guests including Marcel Proust, Anatole France, Pierre Loti, Sarah Bernhardt, Georges Clemenceau, Marie and Pierre Curie, and Jean Jaurès. On Wednesdays, discussion-focused dinners were held, attended by the likes of Alexandre Dumas fils and Ernest Renan. Léontine de Caillavet was an active supporter of Dreyfus and encouraged Anatole France’s involvement in the legal campaign for justice. Her salon also functioned as a networking space for young writers and artists.
Marcel Proust came to know Madame de Caillavet through her salon. Admiring Anatole France, he sought access to his circle, and Madame de Caillavet welcomed the young Proust, allowing him the opportunity to converse with some of the era’s most significant writers and thinkers. Proust’s friendship with her son, Gaston de Caillavet, also deepened within these circles.
Madame de Caillavet served as a source of inspiration for the character of Madame Verdurin in À la Recherche du temps perdu – a salonnière who gathered artists and intellectuals around her while exercising a firm and occasionally manipulative control over her circle. Léontine de Caillavet died on 12 January 1910. Her funeral was held in a Catholic church, yet she was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Montmartre alongside her parents. Anatole France, who had not been present during her final moments, mourned her passing.
Sources:
Rolle, Elisa, « Marcel Proust & Reynaldo Hahn ». August 9th, 2015. Live Journal. https://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/2472641.html
Gamble, Cynthia, “From Belle Èpoque to First World War”. In Bales, Richard (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Marcel Proust. New York: The Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp.9-10.
Tadié 2000, pp.93,248.
Trécourt, Fabien, “Proust’s political and literary activities are indissociable”. CNRS News 23.11.2021. https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/prousts-political-and-literary-activities-are-indissociable