Chloe the bar room queen
- Chloe
Chloe was brought to life in Paris in 1875 by the artist Jules Lefebvre, one of the most respected and leading academic masters of the painted nude figure in the late 1800s. At Chloe’s debut at the Paris Salon Lefebvre won the Gold Medal of Honour, the greatest official award to be bestowed on a French artist and the first of three gold medals Chloe was to win. In 1879 she starred at the Sydney International Exhibition and in 1880 at the Melbourne International Exhibition Chloe won both the highest awards.
Chloe was purchased by Dr Thomas Fitzgerald of Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, for 850 guineas. In 1883 Dr Fitzgerald offered Chloe to the National Gallery of Victoria while he visited Ireland for three years.
However, while those who appreciated art hailed Chloe with the highest acclaim Melbourne society was not ready for a naked woman at the Gallery. Meetings were held, letters were written, the Sunday Observance League and the Presbyterian Assembly had to be heard. The Argus newspaper was so inundated with letters of both complaint and passion that they dedicated a column solely to the issue of ‘Chloe in the Gallery’. Chloe only lasted three weeks in the Gallery before being withdrawn from exhibition and shipped to Adelaide where she was more warmly received.
On his return to Melbourne Dr Fitzgerald proudly displayed Chloe in his front salon but this caused more scandal because passers-by could see her. Heaven forbid! Fitzgerald was forced to move her, this time to the back of his house. She stayed with Dr Fitzgerald until his death in 1908 after which she was bought at Sir Thomas’ estate auction for £800 by Mr Henry Figsby Young, the ex-gold digger, art collector, Irishman and entrepreneur who owned Young and Jackson’s Hotel. She then graced the public bar of the Young and Jackson Hotel where she was much appreciated by the patrons.
During the World Wars diggers came to drink with Chloe before being shipped out. Letters were written to her from the trenches of Turkey, France, and Papua New Guinea, swearing their true love and promising to return.
During World War II a crewman aboard a German luxury liner was accused in the US of being a spy. As an alibi he recalled that at the time of the offence he was in Melbourne at a hotel opposite a railway station drinking with a nude in the public bar. The case was dismissed!
American GIs were so in love with her during World War II that they planned to abduct her. Luckily these plans were unsuccessful. One particular GI, who was returning to the US, was so besotted with Chloe that he threw a glass of beer at her exclaiming that ‘he would give her something to remember him by’.
Chloe is still at Young and Jackon’s hotel.She now has her own bar upstairs and she is loved and admired by all, men and women, who visit her.
Marie, a young Parisian woman, modelled for Lefebvre’s Chloe when she was around the age of 19. Of Marie there are many tales, but the most probable is that told by Lefebvre’s contemporary and student, George Moore. Moore noted that she was a model who posed for several artists and, after throwing a party for her friends, spent her last money on poisonous matches, boiled these up, drank the concoction and died. Moore alludes that the reason for her suicide was love. It is believed that when Marie died she was about 21 years of age.
Information provided by Young and Jackson’s Hotel.
Chloe 