May Belfort (c.1872–1929) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

singer, actress and comedian who was famous across Europe and America.

Biography

Born May Egan in Ireland in about 1872, she was a comedian and singer on the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

music halls and then 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 ...

where she performed her trademark nonsensical songs at the café ''des Décadents'' and the ''Petit Casino''. She commissioned the famous 1895

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the ...

poster showing her wearing the red dress with her ever present black cat. She became a favourite of the artist who painted her more than once. She performed in

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South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and the

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during her career. Belfort was friends with

Jane Avril Jane Avril (9 June 186817 January 1943) was a French can-can dancer made famous by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec through his paintings. Extremely thin, "given to jerky movements and sudden contortions", she was nicknamed ''La Mélinite'', after a ...

. May Milton was her lover as was Boer General

Ben Viljoen Benjamin Johannes "Ben" Viljoen (7 September 1869 – 14 January 1917) was an Afrikaner-American Consul, soldier, farmer, Maderista, and Boer general. Viljoen was born in a cave in the Wodehouse district of the Cape Colony to Susanna Magdalen ...

. In fact Belfort expected to marry Viljoen. When it turned out he was already married and unwilling to continue the relationship with her, she traveled to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and horsewhipped him in the street. Even after he achieved a divorce, he married another woman. Belfort retired from the stage due to ill health. Due to bad investments in mining, Belfort lost her money and ended working as a rug weaver and living in poverty. She died after a lingering illness in the United States in 1929.

Gallery

File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 054.jpg File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Miss May Belfort saluant Litho.jpg File:May Belfort MET DP252760.jpg File:Miss May Belfort (large plate) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1895, crayon and spatter lithograph on wove paper, State III-III, 2nd ed,Wittrock 114 - Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - Montreal, Canada - DSC08868.jpg File:Miss May Belfort (Medium Plate) MET DP835762.jpg File:Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, May Belfort Bowing (Miss May Belfort saluant), 1895, NGA 42116.jpg File:Clevelandart 1958.54.jpg, alt=Painting of woman with dark hair in long pink dress and white hat, standing in a room. , Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, May Belfort, 1895. Oil, Framed: 86 x 71.5 x 8.9 cm (33 7/8 x 28 1/8 x 3 1/2 in.); Unframed: 63 x 48 cm (24 13/16 x 18 7/8 in.). Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. 1958.54

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belfort, May Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) 20th-century Irish women singers Irish actresses Irish comedy musicians 1929 deaths Irish women comedians 1870s births