A lesbian royal, Winnaretta Singer (1864-1943) became a princess by entering a lavender marriage with a gay man. She spent her life supporting the arts and public health.
[Though primarily interested in music, Singer also painted, including this self-portrait c. 1885]
Singer was born in Yonkers, New York to the wealthy Singer family (of Singer sewing machines). As was true of many women from newly rich American families, she was married to an old and respectable but financially unstable European family. This was her first marriage, to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard. On her wedding night, she reportedly threatened to kill him if he touched her, and their marriage lasted 5 years before it was annulled, on the grounds that the marriage was never consummated.
The next year, Singer married Prince Edmond de Polignac. Though she was 28 and he was 59, it was a happy marriage, because they were both gay. Singer and her husband were great friends and fellow artists, and Signer was free to pursue women without fear (except, occasionally, of those women's husbands). Singer had a long list of confirmed partners, including American painter Virginia Woolf.
Singer funded a music salon that housed the first performances of such musicians as Chabrier, d'Indy, Debussy, Fauré, and Ravel. Her salon, indeed, was one of the best-observed salons and many of our ideas about salon culture were drawn from the Singer-Poignac salon. She also funded Stravinsky, Milhaud, and multiple ballets.
Singer was a leader in the development of Parisian public housing in the early 20th century, helped convert private limousines into mobile radiology units for World War I (working with Maria Skłodowska-Curie), and helped with the construction of Foch Hospital.
