The Elegant Toto By Laure Hayman 1911

Rare bronze from an elegant .Fonderie Siot Paris Laure Hayman (1851-1932) was a famous demimondaine of the Belle Epoque. English born in Chile, she was a descendant of the painter Francis Hayman, the master of Thomas Gainsborough. She would have counted among her lovers the Duke of Orléans, Charles de La Rochefoucauld Duke of Estrées, the King of Greece, Charles-Egon IV of Fürstenberg, Louis Weil – maternal great-uncle of Marcel Proust, Prince Alexis Karageorgevitch, pretender to the throne of Serbia, and Adrien Proust, Marcel's father. She lived off the generosity of financier Raphaël Bischoffsheim and was nicknamed the “denialist of the dukes”. Laure Hayman is the main model for the character of Odette de Crécy in Recherche, Swann's great love, and like her lives at 4, rue Lapérouse. She is also nicknamed “the lady in pink”. Her life as a demimondaine is retraced in the Swann exhibition through photos of her lovers, including four portraits of Prince Karageorgevitch – the only one, it is said, that she truly loved – letters and manuscripts. We also find copy no. 1 in Japan of the book by Paul Bourget Pastels. Ten portraits of women (1889) which include the short story about her and which she had offered to Marcel Proust,