Agustina del Carmen Otero Iglesias (4 November 1868 – 10 April 1965), better known as Carolina Otero or La Belle Otero, was a Spanish actress, dancer and

courtesan Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress (lover), mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the Royal cour ...

. She had a reputation for great beauty and was famous for her numerous lovers.

Biography

Early years

Agustina del Carmen Otero Iglesias was born in Valga (

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a Spanish city in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. It is the capital of both the ''Comarca'' (County) and Province of Pontevedra, and of the Rías Baixas in Galicia. It is also the capital of its own municipality whi ...

), Galicia,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, daughter of a Spanish single mother, Carmen Otero Iglesias (1844–1903), and a Greek army officer, named Carasson.''Les Souvenirs et la Vie Intime de la Belle Otero''
Place des Libraires Her family was impoverished, and as a child she moved to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of St ...

working as a maid. At ten she was raped, and at fourteen she left home with her boyfriend and dancing partner, Paco, and began working as a singer/dancer in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Career as artiste and courtesan

In 1888 Otero found a sponsor named Ernest Jurgens in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

who moved with her to

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

in order to promote her dancing career in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. She soon left him and created the character of La Belle Otero, portraying herself as an Andalusian gypsy.Caroline "La Belle" Otero by Lockkeeper
Lockkeeper.com. Retrieved on 16 November 2010. She was pretty, confident, intelligent, with an attractive figure. It was once said of her that her extraordinarily dark black eyes were so captivating that they were "of such intensity that it was impossible not to be detained before them". She wound up as the star of Folies Bèrgere productions in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. One of her most famous costumes featured her voluptuous bosom partially covered with glued-on precious gems, and the twin

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

s of the Carlton Hotel built in 1912 in Cannes are popularly said to have been modeled upon her breasts. Au Bois De Boulogne Vanity Fair 1897-06-03

Within a short number of years, Otero was said to be the most sought-after woman in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. She was serving, by this time, as a courtesan to wealthy and powerful men of the day, and she chose her lovers carefully. She associated herself with

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and List of monarchs of Prussia, King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication on 9 ...

, Prince

Albert I of Monaco Albert I (Albert Honoré Charles Grimaldi; 13 November 1848 – 26 June 1922) was Prince of Monaco from 10 September 1889 until his death. He devoted much of his life to oceanography, exploration and science. Alongside his expeditions, Albert I ...

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

, Kings of Serbia, and

Kings of Spain This is a list of Spanish monarchs, that is, rulers of the country of Spain. The forerunners of the monarchs of the Spanish throne were the following: *Kings of the Visigoths * Kings of Asturias * Kings of Navarre *Kings of León *Kings of Gal ...

as well as

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Grand Dukes

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

and

Nicholas Nicholas is a male given name and a surname. The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglicanism, Anglican Churches celebrate Saint Nicholas every year on December 6, which is the name day for "Nicholas". In Greece, the n ...

, the

Duke of Westminster Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...

and writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. Her love affairs made her notorious, and the envy of many other notable female personalities of the day. Six men reportedly committed suicide after their love affairs with Otero ended, although this has never been substantiated beyond a doubt. It is a fact, however, that two men did fight a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

over her.

Early film

In August 1898, in St-Petersburg, the French film operator

Félix Mesguich Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

(an employee of the Lumière company) shot a one-minute reel of Otero performing the famous "Valse Brillante." The screening of the film at the ''Aquarium'' music-hall provoked such a scandal (because an officer of the Tsar's army appeared in this frivolous scene) that Mesguich was expelled from Russia.

Later life

Otero retired after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, purchasing a mansion and property at a cost of the equivalent of . She had accumulated a massive fortune over the years, about , but she gambled much of it away over the remainder of her lifetime, enjoying a lavish lifestyle, and visiting the casinos of

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

often. She lived out her life in a more and more pronounced state of poverty until she died of a heart attack in 1965 in her one-room apartment at the Hotel Novelty in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

. Of her heyday and career, Otero once said, "Women have one mission in life: to be beautiful. When one gets old, one must learn how to break mirrors. I am very gently expecting to die."World: Suivez-Moi, Jeune Homme
''Time'' (23 April 1965). Retrieved on 16 November 2010.

Notable published works

* ''Les Souvenirs et la Vie Intime de la Belle Otero'' (1926).

In film and literature

*In 1954 film ''La Belle Otero'' starring Mexican actress

María Félix María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña (; 8 April 1914 – 8 April 2002) was a Mexican actress and singer. Along with Pedro Armendáriz and Dolores del Río, she was one of the most successful figures of Latin American cinema in the 1940s an ...

. * There is a portrait of "Madame Otero" in

Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...

's ''My Apprenticeships''.

Gallery

Belle-otero-2-f.jpg, La Belle Otero circa 1890 La Belle Otero 1894.jpg, La Belle Otero, at Folies-Bergère, 1894 La Belle Otero - Folies Bergere.jpg, An 1894 Folies Bergère poster La Belle Otero - 1905 Postcard.jpg, A 1905 postcard of La Belle Otero La Belle Otero.jpg, La Belle Otero, by

Léopold-Émile Reutlinger Léopold-Émile Reutlinger (17 March 1863 – 16 March 1937) was a French photographer who came from a successful German-Jewish family of photographers. His uncle Charles Reutlinger founded the family's photography business, and his father was t ...

La Belle Otero (BPL, Hale Collection).jpg, La Belle Otero, by

OTERO, Carolina. 'La bella Otero' SIP. 129-20. Photo Reutlinger.jpg, La Belle Otero, by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger La Belle Otero, par Jean Reutlinger, 1.jpg, La Belle Otero, by

Jean Reutlinger Jean Reutlinger (born John Léo Reutlinger, 19 March 1891 – 22 August 1914) was a French photographer. Biography Jean Reutlinger was born John Léo Reutlinger on 19 March 1891 in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, the first child to photogra ...

La Belle Otero, par Jean Reutlinger, 2.jpg, La Belle Otero, by Jean Reutlinger CarolinaOtero1912.tif, La Otero, from a 1912 publication Carolina “La Belle” Otéro.jpg, Vintage postcard of La Belle Otero. Hand tinted postcard of La Belle Otero.jpg, Vintage postcard of La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger. Hand tinted postcard of La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger.jpg, Hand tinted postcard of La Belle Otero by Léopold-Émile Reutlinger

References

External links

La Belle – the Beautiful''La Belle Otèro'' in the history of the Hotel Carlton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otero, La Belle 1868 births 1965 deaths French vedettes People from Caldas (comarca) Mistresses of Edward VII Spanish female dancers Spanish stage actresses Spanish vedettes Actresses from Galicia (Spain) Spanish courtesans 19th-century Spanish actresses 20th-century Spanish actresses Spanish people of Greek descent