Partner Augustine Bulteau

Queer Places:
Ca' Dario, Campiello Barbaro, 352, 30123 Venezia VE
Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, Paris, Département de Paris, Île-de-France, France

Marie Isabelle Victorine-Ghislaine Crombez (October 30, 1858 - February 7, 1911) was born on October 30, 1858, in Brussels, Belgium, into a family of substantial means and political prominence. Her mother was Élise Verheyden, and her father, François Crombez, served as a deputy in the Belgian parliament. On June 19, 1878, she married the French diplomat Charles Paul Séraphin Gontran de La Baume-Pluvinel, taking the title of Countess de La Baume-Pluvinel. The marriage was short-lived and childless, ending with her husband's early death in 1883. Left a wealthy widow at the age of twenty-four, Isabelle navigated European high society with financial independence, dividing her time between Paris, Venice, and Bürgenstock, and eventually carving out a distinct intellectual identity.

Around 1900, Isabelle embarked on a serious literary career, adopting the masculine pseudonym Laurent Évrard. Under this pen name, she authored poetry, novellas, and novels, publishing primarily through the prestigious Mercure de France publishing house. Her notable works included the poetry and song collection Fables et chansons (1900), the narrative volume Le Danger. Le Soupçon. Un rendez-vous (1906), and the novel Une leçon de vie (1909). Through her association with literary circles, she forged a close friendship with fellow writer and critic Remy de Gourmont. Her final collection of five short stories, La Nuit, was published posthumously in 1912 and featured a prefatory note signed with the initials "A.B."

Following her husband's passing, Isabelle formed a lifelong personal and professional partnership with the writer, journalist, and salonnière Augustine Bulteau, who wrote under pseudonyms such as Fœmina, Cleg, and Jacque Vontade. The two women likely met during cultural gatherings at the Bayreuth Festival and quickly established a profound domestic and creative union that would span decades. Bulteau, an established intellectual who had divorced prior to their major property investments, brought a sharp journalistic perspective and formidable networking skills that complemented Isabelle's refined literary pursuits.

Together, the couple became fixtures of European artistic life and made their most famous real estate acquisition in 1898 when they jointly purchased the historic Palazzo Dario, known as Ca' Dario, situated along the Grand Canal at Campiello Barbaro 353 in Venice. The Renaissance palace was in a state of neglect when they acquired it, and the two women personally oversaw extensive restoration efforts to revive its architectural grandeur. Bolstered by Bulteau's talents as a hostess, Ca' Dario was transformed into a glittering literary and artistic salon. During the winter and spring seasons, the palazzo welcomed an elite circle of European creators, poets, and painters. Among the most prominent guests and visitors drawn to their Venetian residence was the impressionist painter Claude Monet, who stayed in the area in 1908 and immortalized the palace in his famous series of paintings.

Isabelle Crombez passed away in Paris on February 7, 1911, at the age of fifty-two. Her death was deeply felt within French and Belgian literary communities, prompting formal tributes and elegies by notable figures such as André Beaunier in Le Figaro and Henri de Régnier in Paris-Journal. She was interred in Division 86 of the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Through her literary output under the name Laurent Évrard, her enduring partnership with Augustine Bulteau, and her preservation and stewardship of Ca' Dario, Isabelle Crombez secured a lasting legacy as an independent woman of letters and a notable patron of fin-de-siècle European culture.

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