15 Facts About Marguerite Bellanger

Marguerite Bellanger was a French stage actress and courtesan.

Marguerite Bellanger was a celebrity of Second Empire France and known for her relationship with Napoleon III of France.

Marguerite Bellanger was often caricatured in contemporary press and is considered to be the model for Emile Zola's Nana.

Marguerite Bellanger was reputedly the most universally loathed of Napoleon III's mistresses, though perhaps his favorite.

Marguerite Bellanger outlived Napoleon's deposal in 1870 and died in 1886 aged 48.

Marguerite Bellanger became one of the most sought-after courtesans of all Paris.

Author and playwright, Ludovic Halevy, is reputed to have said that Bellanger had the "daintiest feet in Paris".

Marguerite Bellanger was photographed in man's suit: to do this, she had asked permission from the police department.

Marguerite Bellanger was a favourite model of the sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, who represented her as an allegory of spring in an elegant terracotta bust in which is today in the Musee Carnavalet in Paris.

In June 1863, while on a carriage ride in Saint-Cloud Park, Emperor Napoleon III spotted Marguerite Bellanger sheltering from the rain beneath a tree.

In February 1864, Marguerite Bellanger gave birth to a son; whom she named Charles Jules Auguste Francois Marie Leboeuf.

Always seductive, Marguerite Bellanger still attracted men when she settled in Villeneuve-sous-Dammartin at the end of 1864.

The presence of the couple William Kulbach and Marguerite Bellanger is recorded in Monchy-Saint-Eloi, France in the census of 1872.

Marguerite Bellanger died at the age of 48 on 23 November 1886 after contracting a cold during a walk in the park of the castle at Villeneuve-sous-Dammartin.

Marguerite Bellanger's character appears in Christian-Jaque's film Nana, in which her character is performed by Nicole Riche.