Background
Yvette Guilbert was born in Paris into a poor family.
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Yvette Guilbert was born in Paris into a poor family.
She served for two years until 1885 in the Magasin du Printemps, when, on the advice of the journalist, Edmond Stoullig, she trained for the stage under Landrol. She made her début at the Bouffes du Nord, then played at the Variétés, and in 1890 she received a regular engagement at the Eldorado to sing a couple of songs at the beginning of the performance. She also sang at the Ambassadeurs.
She soon won an immense vogue by her rendering of songs drawn from Parisian lower-class life, or from the humours of the Latin Quarter, “Quatre z’étudiants” and the “Hôtel du numéro trois” being among her early triumphs. Her adoption of an habitual yellow dress and long black gloves, her studied simplicity of diction, and her ingenuous delivery of songs charged with risqué meaning, made her famous.
She owed something to M. Xanrof, who for a long time composed songs especially for her, and perhaps still more to Aristide Bruant, who wrote many of her argot songs. She made successful tours in England, Germany and America, and was in great request as an entertainer in private houses. In later years she discarded something of her earlier manner, and sang songs of the “pompadour” and the “crinoline” period in costume. Yvette Guilbert died in 1944, aged 79, in Aix-en-Provence.
Yvette Guilbert was distinguished as the singer of songs drawn from Parisian lower-class life.
Guilbert turned to writing about the Belle Époque and published two of her novels "La Vedette" and "Les Demi-vieilles", both in 1902. She was a favorite subject of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who made many portraits and caricatures of Guilbert and dedicated his second album of sketches to her.
Guilbert became a respected authority on her country's medieval folklore and on 9 July 1932 was awarded the Legion of Honor as the Ambassadress of French Song.
In 1895 Guilbert married Dr M. Schiller.
