Natalie Barney and Renée Vivien
Of all the lesbian couples who set up housekeeping, permanently or temporarily on Mount Desert Island, the passionately Sapphic writers Renée Vivien (1877-1909) and Natalie Barney (1876-1972) were possibly the most notorious. Both were part of the vibrant women’s community that thrived in Paris around the turn of the 20th century and included such well-known literary lesbians as Collette (1873-1954), Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), and Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943). Individually, Renée and Natalie were flamboyantly ardent in their art and their love for women. When they met, they were quickly drawn together as lovers, and their fiery relationship flamed out just as quickly. Their first passion lasted only a year, from 1900 to 1901, but it left a lasting mark on their lives.
Mount Desert Island was one of the landscapes of Natalie and Renée’s short but influential affair. The Barney family had a summer home in Bar Harbor, then known as Eden. Built in 1988 and nicknamed “Ban-y-Brin,” the house was a grand affair, four stories set on a high cliff overlooking Frenchman’s Bay, with 27 rooms, several large porches, and expansive servants’ quarters. Natalie’s parents were extremely wealthy—her mother, artist and playwright Alice Pike Barney (1857-1931) was the daughter of a Cincinnati millionaire, and her father, Albert Clifford Barney (1848-1902), was heir to a railroad fortune.
Renée also came from upper-class wealth. She was born Pauline Tarn in Paddington, England to a British father and an American mother. Her father, John Tarn (1846-1886), who came from a wealthy merchant family, died when she was only 9, leaving her alone with a cold and distant mother. Mary Bennett Tarn felt competitive with her daughter, especially as John, mistrustful of his wife, had left his fortune to young Pauline. Partly to rid herself of the encumbrance of motherhood and partly to gain control of Pauline’s inheritance, Mary had her daughter committed to a mental institution. Rather than succumbing, however, Pauline, fought back in a move highly unusual for a young girl in her position. She sued for her freedom and won. The court appointed a guardian to protect her inheritance, and, when she came of age, she also became independently wealthy. She moved to France where she took the name Renée Vivien.
Natalie had a deeply personal reason to cherish the peace and beauty of the Maine coast, as one of her first romantic relationships with a woman occurred there. When she was 17, she became infatuated with Eva Palmer (1874-1952), who was two years older. An actor and devoted classicist who promoted the art and ideals of ancient Greece, Eva had been born into a family of free-thinking writers and artists, and was headed down the same road when she and Natalie met. She must have presented an intoxicatingly exotic image, with wild red hair that almost reached the ground and a love of horseback riding and poetry to equal Natalie’s own. On the island, Eva and Natalie reenacted their favorite stories from the Greek classics, often running naked together in the secluded woods.
Many sources state that Eva was Natalie’s first woman lover, though it is hard to imagine, as Natalie had been aware of her attraction to women since the age of 12, and she showed few signs of shyness about initiating relationships. Even when their sexual relationship ended, Natalie and Eva remained close, except for a temporary rift when Eva married male Greek playwright Angelos Sikelianos (1884 - 1951). It was one of the first indications of Natalie’s very lesbian tendency to maintain friendships with her exes.
One can only imagine how hopeful and romantic Natalie might have felt, bringing her new love to a such a meaningful refuge, but their summer in Bar Harbor in 1900 would prove to be the death of Renée and Natalie’s relationship. The trip went poorly from the beginning, as Natalie was disturbed by Renée’s use of the addictive sedative chloral hydrate, and Renée was perpetually threatened by Natalie’s non-monogamous approach to relationships. Renée went so far as to leave all of her party clothes behind in France, in hopes, one supposes, of encouraging cozy nights at home rather than active socializing with Natalie’s friends, including Eva Palmer, whose old bond with Natalie must have aroused Renée’s jealousy. Natalie, discovering mid-Atlantic, what Renée had done, telegraphed for the trunk to be sent. Another nail in the coffin of Renée and Natalie’s relationship was the death from typhoid fever of Violet Shilleto (1877-1901), with whom Renée had a long and passionate platonic relationship. Renée wrote so many romantic poems about Violet that she became known as “The Muse of the Violets.” She was devastated by Violet’s death and wracked with guilt about having abandoned her for the lustful delights of her attraction to Natalie.
After their summer in Maine, Natalie and Renée returned to France together, but their relationship continued to be strained by Renée’s angst and Natalie’s free-spirited approach to sexuality. By the summer of 1901, when Natalie traveled again to the U.S., their relationship was essentially over.
A few years later, as many lesbians before and after them have done, Renée and Natalie became lovers again, dramatically moving together to the town of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos.” Their dream was to found a women’s arts colony near the home of the ancient poet Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BCE), whose legendary love of women led to the term “lesbian. This attempt at reconciliation was mostly instigated by Natalie, and it didn’t last very long. Renée soon fled back to her former lover, the wealthy French writer Hélène van Zuylen (1863-1947). She was never intimately involved with Natalie again, and she died only five years later of complications of alcoholism, abuse of chloral hydrate, and anorexia. Three days before she died, she converted to Catholicism so that she could join the devoutly Catholic Violet Shilleto in the afterlife.
Natalie continued her colorful life as a literary and social trendsetter and unrepentantly out lesbian. In addition to hosting an influential literary salon for decades, she published numerous works, among them Je Me Souviens (I Remember, 1910), a long poem she had written to Renée in 1904 to persuade her to give their relationship its last chance. She died in Paris of heart failure in 1972.
More Reading about Renée and Natalie:
Barney, Natalie. “Renée Vivien.” In A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney, edited by Anna Livia. Norwich, VT: New Victoria Publishers, 1992.
Barney, Natalie. Adventures of the Mind: Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney. New York: NYUP, 1992.
Leontis, Artemis. Eva Palmer Sikelianos: A Life in Ruins
Gage, Carolyn. Souvenirs from Eden. In Starting from Zero: One Act Plays About Lesbians In Love. Gage Press, 2012.
Souhami, Diana. Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004.
Vicinus, Martha. Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2004.
Mount Desert Island was one of the landscapes of Natalie and Renée’s short but influential affair. The Barney family had a summer home in Bar Harbor, then known as Eden. Built in 1988 and nicknamed “Ban-y-Brin,” the house was a grand affair, four stories set on a high cliff overlooking Frenchman’s Bay, with 27 rooms, several large porches, and expansive servants’ quarters. Natalie’s parents were extremely wealthy—her mother, artist and playwright Alice Pike Barney (1857-1931) was the daughter of a Cincinnati millionaire, and her father, Albert Clifford Barney (1848-1902), was heir to a railroad fortune.
Renée also came from upper-class wealth. She was born Pauline Tarn in Paddington, England to a British father and an American mother. Her father, John Tarn (1846-1886), who came from a wealthy merchant family, died when she was only 9, leaving her alone with a cold and distant mother. Mary Bennett Tarn felt competitive with her daughter, especially as John, mistrustful of his wife, had left his fortune to young Pauline. Partly to rid herself of the encumbrance of motherhood and partly to gain control of Pauline’s inheritance, Mary had her daughter committed to a mental institution. Rather than succumbing, however, Pauline, fought back in a move highly unusual for a young girl in her position. She sued for her freedom and won. The court appointed a guardian to protect her inheritance, and, when she came of age, she also became independently wealthy. She moved to France where she took the name Renée Vivien.
Natalie had a deeply personal reason to cherish the peace and beauty of the Maine coast, as one of her first romantic relationships with a woman occurred there. When she was 17, she became infatuated with Eva Palmer (1874-1952), who was two years older. An actor and devoted classicist who promoted the art and ideals of ancient Greece, Eva had been born into a family of free-thinking writers and artists, and was headed down the same road when she and Natalie met. She must have presented an intoxicatingly exotic image, with wild red hair that almost reached the ground and a love of horseback riding and poetry to equal Natalie’s own. On the island, Eva and Natalie reenacted their favorite stories from the Greek classics, often running naked together in the secluded woods.
Many sources state that Eva was Natalie’s first woman lover, though it is hard to imagine, as Natalie had been aware of her attraction to women since the age of 12, and she showed few signs of shyness about initiating relationships. Even when their sexual relationship ended, Natalie and Eva remained close, except for a temporary rift when Eva married male Greek playwright Angelos Sikelianos (1884 - 1951). It was one of the first indications of Natalie’s very lesbian tendency to maintain friendships with her exes.
One can only imagine how hopeful and romantic Natalie might have felt, bringing her new love to a such a meaningful refuge, but their summer in Bar Harbor in 1900 would prove to be the death of Renée and Natalie’s relationship. The trip went poorly from the beginning, as Natalie was disturbed by Renée’s use of the addictive sedative chloral hydrate, and Renée was perpetually threatened by Natalie’s non-monogamous approach to relationships. Renée went so far as to leave all of her party clothes behind in France, in hopes, one supposes, of encouraging cozy nights at home rather than active socializing with Natalie’s friends, including Eva Palmer, whose old bond with Natalie must have aroused Renée’s jealousy. Natalie, discovering mid-Atlantic, what Renée had done, telegraphed for the trunk to be sent. Another nail in the coffin of Renée and Natalie’s relationship was the death from typhoid fever of Violet Shilleto (1877-1901), with whom Renée had a long and passionate platonic relationship. Renée wrote so many romantic poems about Violet that she became known as “The Muse of the Violets.” She was devastated by Violet’s death and wracked with guilt about having abandoned her for the lustful delights of her attraction to Natalie.
After their summer in Maine, Natalie and Renée returned to France together, but their relationship continued to be strained by Renée’s angst and Natalie’s free-spirited approach to sexuality. By the summer of 1901, when Natalie traveled again to the U.S., their relationship was essentially over.
A few years later, as many lesbians before and after them have done, Renée and Natalie became lovers again, dramatically moving together to the town of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos.” Their dream was to found a women’s arts colony near the home of the ancient poet Sappho (c. 630 – c. 570 BCE), whose legendary love of women led to the term “lesbian. This attempt at reconciliation was mostly instigated by Natalie, and it didn’t last very long. Renée soon fled back to her former lover, the wealthy French writer Hélène van Zuylen (1863-1947). She was never intimately involved with Natalie again, and she died only five years later of complications of alcoholism, abuse of chloral hydrate, and anorexia. Three days before she died, she converted to Catholicism so that she could join the devoutly Catholic Violet Shilleto in the afterlife.
Natalie continued her colorful life as a literary and social trendsetter and unrepentantly out lesbian. In addition to hosting an influential literary salon for decades, she published numerous works, among them Je Me Souviens (I Remember, 1910), a long poem she had written to Renée in 1904 to persuade her to give their relationship its last chance. She died in Paris of heart failure in 1972.
More Reading about Renée and Natalie:
Barney, Natalie. “Renée Vivien.” In A Perilous Advantage: The Best of Natalie Clifford Barney, edited by Anna Livia. Norwich, VT: New Victoria Publishers, 1992.
Barney, Natalie. Adventures of the Mind: Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney. New York: NYUP, 1992.
Leontis, Artemis. Eva Palmer Sikelianos: A Life in Ruins
Gage, Carolyn. Souvenirs from Eden. In Starting from Zero: One Act Plays About Lesbians In Love. Gage Press, 2012.
Souhami, Diana. Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2004.
Vicinus, Martha. Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778-1928. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2004.