Dolly's marriage

Debussy's arrival home from Budapest on 7 December was marked not only by the requirement to collaborate with Gabriele d’Annunzio, but also the announcement that very day in Le Figaro of the engagement of ‘M. Gaston de Tinan to Mlle Bardac, daughter of M. Sigismond Bardac, the great collector. The fiancé is the brother and brother-in-law of Commandant de Tinan and of Mme de Tinan, née Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay.’ It was clearly Sigismond who had this published, for no mention was made of Emma. Nor had there been any comment on this impending event whilst Debussy was abroad – certainly not in his side of the correspondence. Surely Emma must have been pleased that her daughter was to marry into a distinguished and wealthy family.

Nowhere in the tome of collected Correspondance of Debussy is there a letter concerning the engagement or marriage of his step-daughter, Dolly, and any mention by Emma has yet to be discovered. There does exist, however, a photograph of Emma standing next to Sigismond Bardac, her arm through his, he looking sternly away as if wanting nothing to do with Emma, who is looking somewhat downcast, and Dolly standing next to Gaston, her engagement ring visible on her left hand. Leaves on the ground indicate that the photograph was taken in the autumn. Another photograph shows Dolly and Emma standing alone outside a hotel. On the back Dolly has written ‘Dieppe’ and the date 1910. Again, one can just see the ring on Dolly's left hand. This indicates that she and her mother had travelled to a hotel there at some stage of the engagement. There had been no family holiday in 1910.

Significantly, prior to the marriage Dolly had to renounce officially her Jewish heritage and convert to Catholicism. A copy of her Baptismal certificate shows that on 23 December 1910 Hélène Regine Bardac was baptised in the Catholic church. Her address was given not as the avenue du Bois de Boulogne, but 6 rue de la Baume, one of Sigismond's addresses since at least 1908. Her godparents were her uncle Georges Noël d’Arnoux and aunt Paule (Pauline) Bardac. On the same certificate is a note that the marriage took place on 25 January 1911 at the Roman Catholic church, Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot, in the Avenue Marceau.