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Suzanne Reichenberg

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Suzanne Reichenberg
Reichenberg's portrait by Nadar
Born
Suzanne Angélique Charlotte Reichenberg

7 September 1853
Paris, France
Died9 March 1924
Paris
Resting placeMontmartre Cemetery
Other namesSuzette (stage name)
Alma materConservatoire de Paris
OccupationActress
Years active1868-1898
EmployerComédie-Française
Known forIngénue character
Spouse(s)
Napoléon-Pierre-Mathieu, Baron de Bourgoing
​
​
(m. 1900; died 1916)​
Awards
Signature

Suzanne Reichenberg (stage name, Suzette; 7 September 1853 – 9 March 1924),[1] Baroness of Bourgoing, was a French actress. She joined the Comédie-Française on August 1, 1867, and started on December 14, 1868. She was appointed its 294th member[2][3] on 1 January 1872,[4] and became sociétaire number 309,[4] on 9 January 1872.[5] Reichenberg retired from the Comédie-Française on January 31, 1898.[4] She was awarded the distinction of Chevalier (Knight), Legion of Honour.[6]

Early life and education

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Suzanne Angélique Charlotte Reichenberg was born in the 17th arrondissement of Paris on September 7, 1853, to a Hungarian father, Charles Reichenberg, (1828–1859), a tailor-cutter, and a Picard mother, Aline-Joachim-Florence Bocquillon.[7] The family lived on Rue de Rivoli, opposite the Tuileries Palace.[8]

She was the goddaughter of Susanne Brohan,[9] whose mother later became Suzanne Reichenberg's lady-in-waiting. Brohan taught Suzanne La Fontaine's Fables and verses by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore.[8] When Charles Reichenberg was sick and dying, he asked Brohan to raise his daughter. After the father's death, Suzanne Reichenberg continued to live with her mother, now on Rue Lavoisier.[9]

At thirteen, Brohan presents Reichenberg to the Conservatoire de Paris where the teenager begins her studies; at fourteen, Reichenberg obtains a second prize in the Conservatoire's competition;[8] at fifteen years less two months, she wins the first prize at the Conservatoire.

Career

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Reichenberg made her acting debut in 1868 in the role of Agnès in The School for Wives at the Comédie-Française; Théophile Gautier wrote glowingly about Reichenberg the day after her debut.[7] Boni de Castellane referred to as being "As naive as she is fanciful". She was popular in the theatre between 1870 and 1900. In the 1890s, Georges Clemenceau was close to her.[10] Marcel Proust mentioned her in 1894 as "all graceful, dressed in pale pink and wearing a large white hat covered with large pink feathers".[11]

Reichenberg's photo, front page of Paris-Artiste, no. 20, 1884

In her day, she was considered to be the best ingénue character of the Comédie Française which required a character that required youth, grace, and sentiment.[12] But Reichenberg feared her rival, Émilie Dubois [fr]. Dubois, however, was lenient. Not only did she let Reichenberg play the classical pieces, but she gave up a Léopold Laluyé sketch for her, entitled Au printemps (In the spring); "I have passed thirty," Dubois told Reichenberg; "I am Summer; you are Spring; I yield my role to you, Miss Printemps."[8]

She earned general sympathy by the number and punctuality of her services. She was the model theatre member, punctual in all things, not letting herself be diverted from her duty by anyone in the theatre. She had a lot of order, method and regularity. She played 500 times, without a single failure, in L'Ami Fritz and 500 times, La sous-préfète du Monde où l'on s'ennuie. These did not prevent her from reprising, on birthday evenings, or even in matinees Mariane from L'Avare qui n'a que cent lignes and Lucinde from Le Médecin malgré lui. She gave these silhouettes a purity of lines, and a breadth of style.[8] The character of Suzel, in L'Ami Fritz, was Reichenberg's best impersonation, and she was also well received in L'Étrangère and Les Fourchambault.[12]

Before her retirement from the stage in 1898, she undertook performances in Europe. She received a very well-turned compliment from the Dowager Empress and honorable praise from the Sultan, in the form of pearls and diamonds.[8]

Personal life

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Édouard Manet's Femme en robe de soirée

There is speculation that Reichenberg was the model for the portrait painted by Edouard Manet, Woman in a striped dress, a paintingwhich represents a type of woman, the fashionable Parisian bourgeois, with a Japanese hand fan.[13]

The dish, Crêpes Suzette, may have been named in honour of Reichenberg,[14] who worked professionally under the name "Suzette". The recipe was created by Auguste Escoffier, who was the chef at the Hôtel Ritz Paris before heading the kitchens at the Savoy Hotel in London. It was there that he served the Prince of Wales, the future King of England Edward VII, crepes cooked with curaçao. The Prince suggested naming the dish after Suzanne Reichenberg, the young woman who accompanied him for dessert.[15][16]

In 1883, Reichenberg had a holiday home, Villa Reichenberg, built in Saint-Raphaël, Var, later named Villa Marie, by the architect Pierre Aublé.[17]

She married Napoléon-Pierre-Mathieu, Baron de Bourgoing (1857–1916) on 12 October 1900,[2] in the 17th arrondissement of Paris.[18]

Death and legacy

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Suzanne Reichenberg died in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, on March 9, 1924.[1] She is buried in the Montmartre Cemetery (9th division),[19] with her parents, her daughter, Fernande-Madeleine Reichenberg, wife of Pierre-Robert Pitet, and her grandson Jacques Pitet.

Arsène Alexandre was her biographer with Suzanne Reichenberg: les ingénues au théâtre (1898).[20]

Theatre

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Career with Comédie-Française

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Other

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References

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  1. ^ a b Acte de décès, avec date et lieu de naissance, à Paris 17e, n° 730, vue 16/31 [Death certificate, with date and place of birth, in Paris 17th, no. 730, view 16/31]. Visionneuse - Archives de Paris. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Suzanne Reichenberg". The British Museum. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  3. ^ La Comédie-Française : 1680-1980 : [exposition, Paris, 23 avril-27 juillet] 1980, Bibliothèque nationale / préf. de Georges Le Rider et Jacques Toja [The Comédie-Française: 1680-1980: [exhibition, Paris, April 23-July 27] 1980, National Library / pref. by Georges Le Rider and Jacques Toja] (in French). Paris: La Comédie-Française. 1980. p. 362. Retrieved 22 September 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ a b c Monval, Georges (1900). Comédie-française (1658-1900): Liste alphabétique des sociétaires depuis Molière jusqu'à nos jours [Comédie-française (1658-1900): Alphabetical list of members from Molière to the present day] (in French). Aux Bureaux de l'Amateur d'autographes. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  5. ^ Heylli, Georges d' (1879). Journal intime de la Comédie française : 1852-1871 [Diary of the Comédie Française: 1852-1871] (in French). Georges d'Heylli. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  6. ^ "N° de Notice : L2287054" [Notice number L2287054]. www.leonore.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr. Recherche - Base de données Léonore. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  7. ^ a b Heylli, Georges d' (1879). Dentu, Édouard (ed.). "Lettre" [Letter]. Journal intime de la Comédie-Française (in French). Paris: 508–10. OCLC 1953097.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Brisson, Adolphe (1899). "MADEMOISELLE SUZANNE REICHENBERG". Portraits intimes [Intimate portraits] (in French). A. Colin et cie. pp. 159–67. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  9. ^ a b Revue des deux mondes [Review of the two worlds] (in French). Au Bureau de la Revue des deux mondes. 1925. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  10. ^ Winock, Michel, Clemenceau, Paris, Perrin "Tempus", 2011, chap. VII, p. 137
  11. ^ "Essais et articles" (Essays and articles), Folio essais, no. 236. Éditions Gallimard, p. 362-63
  12. ^ a b Berg, Albert Ellery (1884). The Drama, Painting, Poetry, and Song: Embracing a Complete History of the Stage; an Exhaustive Treatise on Pictorial Art; a Choice Collection of Favorite Poems, and Popular Songs of All Nations. P.F. Collier. p. 235. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  13. ^ "Édouard Manet - Woman in Striped Dress". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  14. ^ Claiborne, Craig (1994). Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia. Wings Books. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-517-11906-8. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  15. ^ "L'ingrédient principal de la crêpe Suzette" [The main ingredient of Crepe Suzette]. leparisien.fr (in French). 19 March 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  16. ^ Bretagne, Jean-Marie (17 January 2023). "Qui a inventé la crêpe Suzette ?" [Who invented the crepe Suzette?]. Ça m'intéresse (in French). Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  17. ^ "Maison de villégiature -villa- dite Villa Reichenberg, puis Villa Marie" [Holiday home -villa- called Villa Reichenberg, then Villa Marie]. culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  18. ^ "Acte de mariage no. 1740" [Marriage act no. 1740] (in French). Archives de Paris. 12 October 1900. pp. 25, 31. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  19. ^ "SÉPULTURES DES SOCIÉTAIRES DE LA COMÉDIE FRANÇAISE - Tombes Sépultures dans les cimetières et autres lieux" [Burials of members of the Comedie Francaise - Tombs Burials in cemeteries and other places]. www.tombes-sepultures.com (in French). Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  20. ^ Alexandre, Arsène (1898). Suzanne Reichenberg: les ingénues au théâtre [Suzanne Reichenberg: the ingenues in the theater] (in French). F. Juven. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  21. ^ "Le Cœur de Paris" [The Heart of Paris]. Les Archives du Spectacle (in French). 23 May 1887. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
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