the pension Belhomme. Mlle Lange returned to prison, but her friends in high places helped her to evade the guillotine. She was freed after 9th Thermidor and rejoined her fellow actors at the Théâtre Feydeau. She continued to live the high life under the Directory, having a liaison with the rascally arriviste N. Lieuthraud, the self-proclaimed "marquis de Beauregard", who had made a fortune as supplier to the armies of the republic, but eventually disappeared, pursued by creditors. He housed her at the Hôtel de Salm, one of the houses he had acquired, and maintained her there on an allowance said to be 10,000 livres a day. She was also the mistress of a rich banker from Hamburg, Hoppé, bearing him a daughter, Anne-Élisabeth Palmyre, who was recognized by her father in 1795. It is improbable, however, that she had an affair with Paul Barras as is claimed in the libretto of the famous operetta by Charles Lecocq, La Fille de madame Angot, in which Mlle Lange appears in a secondary role. Her final lover was Michel-Jean Simons, a Belgian supplier to the French army, with whom she had a son in December 1797. In 1798, Simons' father married her friend Julie Candeille. Simons recognized their son and married Mlle Lange, making her Madame Simons and putting an end to her theatrical career; she reappeared only for a few performances in 1807. Ruined, Simons died in 1810 in his château de Bossey in Switzerland. Widowed, she assumed a solitary life in obscurity and far from her admirers until her death. Portraits Mlle. Lange sat for a number of artists, including two French artists of the Paris Salon. Sylvie by Jean-François Gilles Colson was featured at the Salon of 1793. A contemporary of the artist, Girodet-Trioson created Le Sommeil d'Endymion for the same event. A few years later, Girodet would depict Mlle. Lange as Venus at the Salon of 1799. The sitter expressed her disapproval of the work in a written letter. The artist would then replace the Venus with Portrait of Mlle. Lange as Danae in what became a major scandal in art. Robert Lefèvre did a portrait of her as Mme Simons, née Lange, as well as a portrait of her husband, Michel-Jean Simons. See also Troupe of the Comédie-Française in 1790 References Sources J. Vincent, La belle Mademoiselle Lange (Elisabeth Simons-Lange, 1772c. 1825). Paris: Hachette, 1932 1772 births