#Hélène van Zuylen

[robinfrinjs]

Always There, Women in Motorsport: The fast women of la belle époque

Women's history in motorsport is rich, and that has always been the case. Most of these stories however aren’t well known and aren’t spoken about enough. Women have always been in motorsport and always will be.

Three French women, Hélène van Zuylen, Camille du Gast, and Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart are some of the fastest women from France’s La Belle Epoque (circa 1880-1914).

In 1898 Anne de Rochechouart de Mortemart (1847-1933) (also known as the Duchess of Uzes) became the first woman in France to obtain her driver’s license. While getting out of the car she announced with delight that woman had just overcome a new barrier. Not long after she also became the first to be caught speeding for which she had to pay a five franc fine.

in 1926 she founded the first female Automobile Club, L'Automobile Club féminin de France (ACFF)

The Duchess of Uzes in 1927

Hélène van Zuylen (pictured on the cover image) was a French author but also the first woman to compete in an international auto race. Baron Etienne van Zuylen, her husband, was the President of the Automobile Club de France

She entered the 1898 Paris–Amsterdam–Paris using the nickname Snail, while her husband used the nickname Escargot. She successfully competed the trail and entered the Paris-Berlin race in 1901 but was stopped by technical failure.

That year Hélène, a lesbian, would meet Renée Vivien with whom she would have an affair. Vivien's letters to a confidant revealed that she considered herself married to Hélène. Most of Vivien's work is dedicated to "H.L.C.B.," the initials of Zuylen's first names.

Just over a decade before she died, Hélène van Zuylen created the Renée Vivien Prize, Honoring the woman she loved and intending to give encouragement to female writers.

Hélène van Zuylen - Nouvelle Revue internationale illustrée, December 1908

Camille du Gast (1868-1942) finished 33rd (19th in class) out of 122 participants in the 1901 Paris-Berlin race. Du Gast, achieved the results despite driving her husband's 20CV Panhard-Levassor which was not designed for racing. She had to start the race in last because she was a woman. The race did mark 2 female competitors with du Gast and van Zuylen. She loved several extreme sports such as mountaineering, parachuting and frencing.

In 1902 she competed in the Paris-Vienna race and also wanted to compete in the New York-San Francisco but was refused entry because she was a woman.

In 1903 she would start the Paris-Madrid race. Which she would enter with a proper racing car, a works 5.7-litre de Dietrich car. It was a chaotic race with 207 competitors which unfortunately saw several deaths. Camille started in 29th and gained 9 positions in the first 120 km. She had climbed up to P8 before stopping to give medical aid to a fellow driver, Phil Stead (also driving a de Dietrich) involved in a near-fatal crash.

Camille du Gast in her 30 hp De Dietrich with starting number 29 during the 1903 Paris-Madrid Race

Later one of the leading drivers at that time, Charles Jarrot said that if Camille had not stopped Stead likely would have died. After an ambulance arrived she continued the race eventually finishing 44th or 45th in the shortened race.

The French government would stop the race at Bordeaux, as over half of the field (275 cars) had either crashed or retired and several drivers and spectators had died.

Open road racing was banned, so in 1904 Camille wanted to participate in the French elimination trial for the Gordon Bennett races, as the Benz factory team offered du Gast a race seat. But the Autosport Club France (ACF) banned women from racing. Du Gast published a letter in protest but the ban was defended as the ACF could not risk a woman getting injured or killed in a racing event.

Because of this she ventured to boat racing. One of those races was caught by a big storm which saw most competitors either abandon their ship or they sank. She was rescued and later declared the winner of that race.

Eventually she had to put a halt to her adventurous life when she survived an assassination attempt by her daughter. Nothing was ever the same for her after that. From that point she devoted herself to animals. She would serve as president of the 'French Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals'

NEXT UP > More female racing drivers from the early 1900s

[abwwia]

Hélène van Zuylen

Baroness Hélène van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar or Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, née de Rothschild (21 August 1863 – 17 October 1947) was a French author and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family. She collaborated on stories and poems with her lesbian partner Renée Vivien, sometimes under the pen name Paule Riversdale. An only child, the daughter of Salomon James de Rothschild, she was disinherited by her mother for marrying a Catholic, Baron Etienne van Zuylen of the old Dutch noble family Van Zuylen van Nievelt. via Wikipedia

[xavierbautistagarcia]

A castle with more than 600 years of Dutch history

The largest castle in the Netherlands, the Kasteel de Haar, first appears in history in 1391, when the De Haar family received the infeudation of the castle - by which time there must have already been some kind of military building - and the surrounding land from Hendrik van Woerden, lord of the town of the same name, close to the castle.

However, the fief passed to the Van Zuylens, another family from Utrecht, around 1440, when the succession of the male line of the De Haar family was lost. The Van Zuylens settled in Utrecht around the 13th century and their family built their own castle, which is still preserved under the name of Slot Zuylen.

De Haar castle burned down around 1482 and the Van Zuylens rebuilt it, but only the residential parts, leaving its military function on hold until the 16th century, when it was rebuilt to regain its defensive character.

Throughout the 16th century it was reinforced at various stages, but in the mid-17th century the Van Zuylens neglected it and it began to fall into a state of ruin. However, in 1672, in the year of the Disaster (Rampjaar in Dutch), it escaped destruction at the hands of the French army. This was the time of the Franco-Dutch and Anglo-Dutch wars.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the main branch of the Van Zuylen van Nijevelt family died out, but the family was still successful in keeping the castle in their hands. They were one of the last Dutch Catholic families.

In 1887, Baron Van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar married Baroness Hélène de Rothschild. Three years later she inherited De Haar Castle and in 1892 they both undertook the reconstruction work on the castle, which lasted nearly twenty years.

In 1912, the Kasteel de Haar acquired its present appearance, with its more than two hundred rooms and the omnipresence of the coats of arms of the De Haar and Van Zuylen families, as well as numerous Stars of David recalling the Rothschild religion.

[castellsipalaus]

Kasteel de Haar

El castell més gran dels Països Baixos, el Kasteel de Haar, apareix per primera vegada a la història l’any 1391, quan la família De Haar va rebre la infeudació del castell -llavors ja devia existir alguna mena d’edificació militar- i les terres circundants per part de Hendrik van Woerden, senyor de la ciutat homònima, propera al castell.

No obstant, el feu va passar als Van Zuylen, una altra família originària d’Utrecht, cap al 1440, quan es va perdre la successió de la línia masculina dels De Haar. Els Van Zuylen es van establir a Utrecht cap al segle XIII i la seva família va bastir el seu propi castell, que encara es conserva amb el nom d’Slot Zuylen.

El castell De Haar es va cremar cap al 1482 i els Van Zuylen van reconstruir-lo, però només les parts residencials, deixant la seva funció militar en suspens fins el segle XVI, en què va ser recontruït per recuperar el seu caràcter defensiu.

Al llarg del segle XVI va ser reforçat en diferents etapes, però a mitjans del segle XVII els Van Zuylen el van descuidar i va començar a estar en ruïnes. No obstant, el 1672, l’any del Desastre (Rampjaar, en neerlandés), va escapar a la destrucció a mans de l’exèrcit francès. Va ser l’e`poca de les guerres franco-holandeses i anglo-holandeses.

A principis del segle XIX, la branca principal dels Van Zuylen van Nijevelt va extingir-se, però la família encara va reeixir a mantenir el castell a les seves mans. Es tractava d’una de les darreres estirps catòliques holandeses.

El 1887, un baró Van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar va casar-se amb la baronesa Hélène de Rothschild. Tres anys més tard va heretar el castell De Haar i el 1892 tots dos van acometre la feina de reconstrucció del castell, que va durar prop de vint anys.

El 1912, el Kasteel de Haar va adquirir l’aspecte actual, amb els seus més de dos centenars d’estances i la omnipresència dels escuts d’armes dels De Haar y els Van Zuylen, així com nombroses estrelles de David que recorden la religió dels Rothschild.

[yourdailyqueer]

Hélène van Zuylen (deceased)

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 21 August 1863  

RIP: 17 October 1947

Ethnicity: White - French

Occupation: Racing driver, poet, writer

Note: She entered the 1898 Paris–Amsterdam–Paris Trail, thus becoming the first woman to compete in an international motor race.

[returntomytilene]

« Une angoisse plus terrible que toutes les angoisses humaines m’étreignit à ce moment. Mes prunelles s’attachèrent sur les prunelles d’Éva, lointaines et grises et comme vues à travers des fumées d’encens.

Je répétai les paroles d’hier :

“Ne crains-tu rien, Éva ?

— Je ne crains rien,” dit-elle.

Ce fut un murmure d’orgue au fond des chapelles crépusculaires…

“Seras-tu plus forte que mon mal ?” implorai-je.

“Je serai plus forte que tous les maux humains, puisque je suis la pitié.”

Il se fit autour de nous un silence religieux. Je n’osai point lui sangloter : Je t’aime ! »

— Renée Vivien, Une Femme m’apparut, 1905 (Nouvelle édition)

[vroomvroomvettel]

Hélène van Zuylen

First female racing driver who competed in an international sports motorsport event

oh and she was gay🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏁

[charleswaterloo]

I'm back bestie with a sorta snact

The first woman to compete in international car racing went by the pseudonym of snail! Her name was Hélène van Zuylen, a 19th-century French socialite and writer, and she completed the 1898 Paris–Amsterdam–Paris trail.

She also had a lesbian partner by the name of Renée Vivien, who she collaborated writing poems with.

-🐌

Omg! What an icon!! The power of the snails coming through to make a lesbian legend! ahhhh that's so cool

And hi! Thank you as always for the snacts they make my day every day thank you so so much <3

[rivieiraa]

Si elle adoptait, c’était à vie; si elle condamnait c’était à mort.

Guy de Rothschild sur Marie-Hélène van Zuylen

[fairlyhistorical]

1.) Renée Vivien (left) with her lover, Natalie Clifford Barney (right)

2.) Renée Vivien

3.) (refer to number 1)

4.) (refer to number 2)

5.) Natalie Clifford Barney

6.) Baroness Hélène van Zuylen

[365daysoflesbians]

JUNE 11: Renée Vivien (1877-1909)

The British poet, noted Sappho fangirl, and one of the most high-profile lesbians of Paris’s Belle Époque days, Renée Vivien, was born on this day in 1877.

Pioneer of depressed moon lesbian culture, Renée Vivien poses with two black cats on her shoulders (x). 

Born in London on June 11, 1877, Renée’s wealthy British father and American mother originally gave her the name Pauline Mary Tarn, which she would drop later on in life. She was sent to Paris for school, but was forced to return to London when her father died in 1886. Renée made no secret of the fact that she loved Paris and hated her family, so the move was devastating to her. In a twist of events worthy of an American soap-opera, Renée’s mother attempted to get her declared legally insane so that Renée would be passed over for her father’s inheritance and all the money would go to her, but the plot failed and Renée was taken away from her mother and kept a ward of the court for the rest of her adolescence. When she turned 21, she finally inherited her father’s fortune and moved back to her beloved city of Paris where took on the name Renée Vivien. . 

In Paris, Renée became a notorious figure in Bohemian society; she wore lavish men’s suits and lived openly as a lesbian. She wrote two novels and fourteen collections of poetry throughout her lifetime and her writing was filled with allusions to Sappho, lavender, and her many relationships with women. She even refused to write in any language other than French because she found it to be the more romantic language. A woman named Violet Shillito was Renée’s childhood best friend and her first love; when she died of typhoid fever, Renée was inconsolable and many scholars interpret the frequent use of violets in Renée’s poetry to be a symbol for Violet herself. Renée also had a relationship with Natalie Clifford Barney, the American heiress and novelist. The relationship was passionate and often rocky due to both women’s jealous nature. However, there was a time when Renée and Natalie traveled to the island of Lesbos in Greece in an attempt to connect with their Sapphic roots and start a women’s artist colony.

Renée (left) and her partner Natalie Clifford Barney (right) photographed in 1900 (x). 

Renée ended the relationship with Natalie in 1901 and she would go on to have many more relationships with women such as the Baroness Hélène van Zuylen and Kérimé Turkhan Pasha, but as affair after affair ended, Renée sunk deep into depression and began to indulge even more in her party lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, and wild sex. Her close friend Colette (who we have also covered on the blog!) was known to base her fictional characters on real life people and she immortalized Renée’s character and self-destructive behavior in her 1932 novel The Pure and the Impure. As Renée’s mental illness worsened, she eventually died in 1909 from alcoholism and anorexia.

-LC

[returntomytilene]

« Peu à peu, l’ombre s’illuminait d’un équivoque sourire… C’était Lorély, la fleur de Séléné, l’éternelle tentation féminine. Une cruauté ambiguë aiguisait les lueurs d’acier de ses regards. Je crus que ces deux femmes étaient les deux archanges du destin : Lorély, l’archange pervers, Éva, l’archange rédempteur… Lorély, parfumée de poisons, parée d’aconit et de belladone, Éva, portant au front une rouge auréole de martyre, effeuillant sous ses pas les lys expiatoires…

Je prononçai tout haut, en invoquant je ne sais quelles invisibles présences :

“Choisir…

— Ne choisis jamais, » interrompit une voix androgyne qui répondait à mon hésitation. “On regrette toujours ce qu’on n’a pas choisi.

— Mon doux San Giovanni, que me conseillez-vous en cette heure indécise ?”

L’Annonciatrice sourit bizarrement : ainsi le soir sourit à son image reflétée dans l’eau.

“Il faut préférer la violence �� la tendresse et la passion à l’amour,” dit-elle. “Il est lâche d’estimer le bonheur plus haut que la radieuse souffrance.” »

— Renée Vivien, Une Femme m’apparut, 1905 (Nouvelle édition)

[returntomytilene]

« Il me sembla que je renaissais dans la flamme qui, jadis, avait consumé ma chair douloureuse. Je regrettais les amertumes passées plus encore que les joies aiguës et brèves.

“Lorély,” balbutiai-je, “Lorély…”

L’éblouissement disparut, et mes yeux rencontrèrent de nouveau les yeux mystiquement embrumés d’Éva. Ils avaient la tristesse qui dort aux prunelles des saintes impuissantes à soulager les douleurs agenouillées devant elles.

“Le mirage s’est dissipé, Éva.”

Elle se leva, diaphane, à travers les demi-ténèbres.

“Je te laisse à tes deux anciens conseillers, au silence et à la solitude.

— N’es-tu pas mon silence, Éva ? N’es-tu pas ma solitude ?”

Lentement, et avec une douceur infinie, elle dégagea ses mains de mes mains acharnées à les retenir, et disparut au fond du crépuscule, qui l’enveloppa comme un voile… »

— Renée Vivien, Une Femme m’apparut, 1905 (Nouvelle édition)

[returntomytilene]

« Éva s’arrêta, les paupières divinement songeuses, avant de murmurer :

“Lorély est revenue…”

Elle attendit. Je compris l’immense signification de ces quelques mots très simples. Lorély avait chassé de sa présence l’homme qu’elle n’avait jamais aimé. Elle s’était lassée de la comédie infâme. Elle était redevenue elle-même, l’inviolable prêtresse des autels délaissés…

Je pouvais aller vers Lorély en la suppliant de me pardonner tout le mal qu’elle m’avait fait et que je m’étais fait à moi-même pour elle. Je pouvais revivre les souffrances exquises dont je gardais inguérissablement l’empreinte… »

— Renée Vivien, Une Femme m’apparut, 1905 (Nouvelle édition)

[returntomytilene]

Fragment de lettre de Renée Vivien à Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha (été 1904) dans Album secret

[returntomytilene]

Fragments de lettres de Renée Vivien à Kérimé Turkhan-Pacha (été 1904) dans Album secret