Françoise Marie Antoinette Saucerotte, called Mademoiselle Raucourt (1756–1815) [subject]; Aaron Martinet (1762–1841) [artist].
[The crowd demands that the funeral of Mademoiselle Raucourt, a lesbian actress, be held at Saint-Roch Church in Paris, 17 January 1815].
Paris, ca. 1815-1841.
Drawing in pen and brown wash, with white gouache on paper, 8 × 12 cm.
The immensely popular Parisian actress Mademoiselle Raucourt was widely known during her lifetime for her relationships with women. Contemporary pamphlets associated her with the supposed Secte des Anandrynes, a reputed circle of Parisian lesbians, and her name became closely linked with female same-sex desire in public discourse.
When she died in January 1815, an great crowd accompanied her coffin to the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris. The parish priest initially refused to admit the body, judging her life immoral and unworthy of a religious funeral. Outraged, the crowd compelled the authorities to allow the funeral ceremony to proceed.
In this drawing, Aaron Martinet depicts the confrontation outside Saint-Roch. It is the preparatory study for an illustration published posthumously in Jacques-Antoine Dulaure’s Histoire des cent-jours de la Restauration et de la Révolution de 1830 (Paris: Poirée, 1845).
The episode has subsequently been interpreted as an early and remarkable public defense of a woman whose relationships with other women were widely known.
Condition: slight foxing, one spot in the top right corner. An oval cut on verso that does not penetrate the sheet. Otherwise in very good condition.
Further reading:
Haggerty, Sarah. “Mademoiselle Raucourt, Priestess of Lesbos.” Historical Homos, 20 Sept. 2020, Historical Homos article. Accessed 2 June 2026.
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