Marthe de Florian

Madame Marthe de Florian (Paris, France; 9 September 1864 – Trouville-sur-Mer, France; 29 August 1939) born as Mathilde Héloïse Beaugiron was a little known French demimondaine (courtesan) during the Belle Époque. She was known for having famous lovers including Georges Clemenceau (before he became the 72nd Prime Minister of France), Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau (the 68th Prime Minister of France), Paul Deschanel (11th President of France), Gaston Doumergue (13th President of France), and the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. Her story resurfaced when in 2010 her belongings were discovered in her Parisian apartment, located at 2 square La Bruyère (in the 9th arrondissement), untouched for decades, like in a time capsule.

Marthe de Florian was born in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, eldest daughter of Jean Beaugiron (1837–1875) and Henriette Eloïse Bara (1844–1891), who had married in 1864. She had two brothers who did not reach childhood – Jules Louis Beaugiron (1866–1866) and Jules Beaugiron (1870–1871)- and a sister, Henriette Joséphine Beaugiron (1868–unknown).

On 12 October 1882, at the age of 18, she gave birth to her first son, Henri Beaugiron (1882–1883), whose paternity was unknown and who was born at 69 Rue Condorcet in the 9th arrondissement. Marthe de Florian stated on the birth certificate that her profession was embroiderer. Henri died at the age of only 3 months.

At the age of 19, on 7 April 1884, de Florian gave birth to a second son also called Henri Beaugiron (1884–1966), who was born at 100 Rue Saint-Lazare. He spent his life in Paris and died on 12 May 1966, while living at 2 Rue La Bruyère. While his paternity was also stated as "unknown", it is speculatively possible that his father was the married banker Auguste Albert Gaston Florian Mollard, a lover of Marthe, from whom she presumably took the name "de Florian"

Marthe de Florian's last (and most famous) apartment is located at 2, Square La Bruyère in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, not far from Sainte-Trinité. She died in the apartment in 1939. Her son, Henri Beaugiron, who witnessed and signed his mothers death record, was also living in the apartment at time of her death. The apartment was eventually inherited by Solange Beaugiron (1919–2010), Henri's daughter, who was an aspiring playwright as a teenager. Using the pseudonym, "Solange Beldo," she wrote her first serious manuscript, Miss Mary, at the age of 17. According to some unproven sources, Solange Beaugiron could have been the writer Solange Bellegarde.

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