#mademoiselle marie

[browsethestacks]

Mademoiselle Marie

Art by Steve Rude

[not-another-robin]

Thinking about Julia.......

[comicsart3]

Mademoiselle Marie has had many incarnations. She first appeared in DC’s Star Spangled War Stories #84 (August 1959), the creation of writer Robert Kanigher and illustrator Jerry Grandenetti. Marie, whose real name was Anais Guillot, was a female French Resistance agent and fighter during World War Two. The character was based on a number of real women members of the Maquis, particularly Simone Segouin. Marie has the distinction of probably being the only major comic book fighting war heroine, and certainly the only one with her own lead story, albeit under the auspices of Star Spangled War Stories. Marie began life as an ordinary Parisian girl, but was driven to join the Resistance at the age of 17, by the depredations of the occupying Nazi German forces, but principally after her Resistance leader father was killed by German troops, dying in Anais’ arms. Anais took the nom de guerre, Marie, and developed into a capable markswoman, spy, saboteur, kidnapper and assassin, and assisted Sergeant Rock in various escapades after D-Day, eventually becoming Rock’s love interest. Distinguished by her knee length skirt, tight yellow sweater and red beret, Marie became a focus of particular hatred on the part of the Germans, who could not abide the thought of being outwitted or outfought by a mere woman.

Anais/Marie eventually falls into the hands of the Germans and is executed. The title Mademoiselle Marie, then becomes an overarching title for a number of female Resistance operatives, thus keeping the legend of Marie alive and frustrating the bemused Nazis. This “collective” of Maries feature in the Checkmate title in the late 1980s - with the Maries apparently existing as far as back as the French Revolution as well as in modern day France as secret service agents.

The original Mademoiselle Marie was perhaps the most straightforward - a rare example of a brave female soldier when women did not fight on the front line. Marie was undoubtedly titillating, but in some respects, given her appearance ahead of the “Second Wave” of feminism, she was genuinely iconic. The complication of her character, as with so many DC heroes following the Infinite Crises, removed the intriguing, if camp, nature of Marie’s first incarnation and her successors were altogether more dark, which is a shame.

The cover featured is from a retro Star Spangled War Stories one-off (#1), featuring Marie, published in November 2010. The story, entitled Vive Libre Ou Mourir!, is by Billy Tucci and illustrated by Justiniano, Tom Derenick and Andrew Magnum.

Sources: Mademoiselle Wikipedia page and Comics Vine website.

[onlylonelylatino]

"200th Anniversary Pin-Up Bonus" from Our Army at War

[chronivore]

Captain Carter and Mademoiselle Marie

[weirdlookindog]

“La Mort de Mademoiselle de Sombreuil”

from Victor Hugo's 'Odes et ballades', 1885

engraved by Henri Émile Lefort (1852–1937)

[fucciwilliams]

[chic-a-gigot]

L'Art et la mode, no. 8, vol. 13, 20 février 1892, Paris. Toilette portée par Mlle Lafontaine. Théâtre de la Renaissance (La jolie Parfumeuse). Bibliothèque nationale de France

Corsage et jupe en peau de soie jaune; garniture de roses relevant des baldaquins de dentelle blanche. Manteau Watteau en peau de soie verte.

Bodice and skirt in yellow silk skin; trim of roses highlighting the white lace canopies. Watteau coat in green silk skin.

[filmjunky-99]

d e l i c a t e s s e n, 1991 🎬 dir. jean-pierre jeunet, marc caro

[roehenstart]

Portrait of Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans (1676-1744), formerly identified as her niece Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans (1695-1719). By Nicolas de Largillière.

[digitalfashionmuseum]

Oil Painting, 1794, French.

By Marie Thérèse Vincent de Montpetit.

Portraying Mademoiselle Lange, an actress, in a blue silk dress and red ribbon.

Robert Simon.

[dreamconsumer]

Marie-Louise-Élisabeth d'Orléans (1695-1719), Duchesse de Berry.

[postcard-from-the-past]

Female aviator and sportswoman Mademoiselle Marie Marvingt on a Deperdussin monoplane

French vintage postcard

[histoireettralala]

Louise Bourgeois (Louise Boursier), 1563-1636

Midwife to Queen Marie de Médicis, renowned author of medical textbooks translated into many languages

Born in Paris, Louise Bourgeois in 1584 married the king’s surgeon Martin Boursier, with whom she had five children. She led a very happy life. But during the Religious Wars, the Boursier family was forced to leave Paris and find refuge in Tours, where they suffered a life of financial difficulties. Returning to Paris, Louise Boursier became a midwife to provide financial assistance to her family. In spite of opposition from within the profession, she practiced for five years among the poor and became a registered midwife in 1598. This period of her life is recounted at the beginning of her Recit veritable de la naissance de messeigneurs etdames les enfans de France (True Account of the Birth of the Sons and Daughters of France).

In 1601, a wonderful opportunity was offered to Louise Boursier: Queen Marie de Médicis was looking for a midwife. Demonstrating a strong sense of authority and loyalty, Louise Boursier was chosen by the queen to deliver her six children between 1601 and 1610 (the year King Henry IV was assassinated). Louise Boursier was well respected and became the most popular midwife at the court.In 1627, however, Marie de Bourbon Montpensier gave birth to her daughter, Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans (La Grande Mademoiselle),and died suddenly of a puerperal fever. Her midwife, Louise Boursier, was accused of negligence by the physicians who did the autopsy. Her popularity began to decline, and she spent the rest of her life writing and publishing very successful books about her art until her death in 1636. Her famous works were read all over Europe. First published in 1609, her Observations diverses, sur la stérilité, perte de fruict, foecondité, accouchements, et maladies des femmes, et enfants nouveaux naiz (Various Observations on Sterility, Miscarriage, Ability to Conceive, Childbirth, Female Illnesses,and Infants) provides scientific remarks on obstetrics and numerous guidelines for the care of the pregnant woman as well as her infant. Becoming the manual of reference, this book was augmented and published again and again (in 1617, 1626, 1634, 1642, and 1652). It was also translated into Latin, German, Dutch, and English, underscoring the importance of her European reputation at that time. Some parts of her works are of particular interest: Recueil des Secrets, de Louyse Bourgeois dite Boursier (Book of Secrets of Louise Bourgeois Boursier), published just before she died (1635), is a compilation of recipes for women for the treatment of ailments such as skin eruptions, painful periods, and the like.The most interesting writings of Louise Boursier are the Récit véritable (True Account) and the Instruction à ma fille (Advice to my Daughter), both published in 1617, where she presents her short autobiography as well as the spiritual testament of an exemplary midwife.

In her own time, the well-educated and highly competent Louise Boursier was something of an anomaly, first among her male coworkers, who came to resent her as she became a self-confident practitioner, and also among other sworn midwives who saw her as a formidable challenger to their own preeminence in the field because of her marriage to a surgeon and her unusual training (Louise had studied Ambroise Paré’s book on obstetrics). Furthermore, important changes were taking place in the medical and surgical professions. For centuries, women, having gained their skills from experience, monopolized midwifery. With the upsurge of medical science in the sixteenth century, physicians became more interested in the art of delivery, and, as organized instruction and licensing became prevalent, these requirements extended also to women engaged in midwifery.

In a time of growing suspicion over women’s capacities to handle child delivery, Louise Boursier understood the need for formal training and collaboration with male physicians and surgeons. She saw herself as the founder of a new generation of midwives, more knowledgeable and better trained. In her effort to educate those who would follow her, she published Instruction à ma fille, the first treatise in French on the art of midwifery. She recorded her theories on maternity care and her experiences in Parisian society in her Récit veritable. This important work provides a unique source of information about midwifery practices in the early modern period as well as insights into the challenges women faced as they entered the professional world.

Colette H. Winn, in Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance

[mypepemateossus]

[a-whole-tempest-in-a-teacup]

(it is enough. it is more than enough.)

Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery | Mademoiselle Gachet in her garden at Auvers-sur-Oise, Vincent van Gogh (1890) | 'Toad' - Mary Oliver | About Time (2013) | 'No Choir' - Florence + the Machine | Comic by eOndine | The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman | Superstore 'All Sales Final' (2021) | 'The View Between Villages' - Noah Kahan | Meadow with Poplars, Claude Monet (1875) | 'The Orange' - Wendy Cope