1. Winnaretta Singer was an American-born heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune.
11 Facts About Winnaretta Singer
1. 2.
Winnaretta Singer used this to fund a wide range of causes, notably a musical salon where her proteges included Debussy and Ravel, and numerous public health projects in Paris, where she lived most of her life.
3.
Winnaretta Singer was styled as Princess Louis de Scey-Montbeliard during her first marriage and as Princess Edmond de Polignac following her second marriage in 1893.
4.
Winnaretta Singer was born in Yonkers, New York, the twentieth of the 24 children of Isaac Singer.
5.
Winnaretta Singer's mother was his Parisian-born second wife, Isabella Eugenie Boyer.
6.
Presumably, he abused Winnaretta Singer; rumors flew about the violence in their house.
7.
Winnaretta Singer had these affairs during her own marriages and afterwards, and often with other married women.
8.
Winnaretta Singer helped Diaghilev with his Ballets Russes on multiple occasions and financially supported the company.
9.
Winnaretta Singer was patron to many others, including Nadia Boulanger, Clara Haskil, Dinu Lipatti, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Armande de Polignac, Loie Fuller, Ethel Smyth, Le Corbusier, Adela Maddison, the Ballets Russes, l'Opera de Paris, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris.
10.
Winnaretta Singer-Polignac was an important leader in the development of public housing in Paris.
11.
Winnaretta Singer's 1911 building of a housing project for the working poor at Rue de la Colonie, in the 13th arrondissement, was considered to be a model for future projects.