Olympe Pélissier

Olympe Pélissier (9 May 1799 – 22 March 1878) was a French artists' model and courtesan and the second wife of the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini. She sat for Vernet for his painting of Judith and Holofernes. Honoré de Balzac described her as "the most beautiful courtesan in Paris".

Biography Olympe Pélissier was born in Paris on 9 May 1799, the illegitimate daughter of an unmarried woman who later married Joseph Pélissier. She was sold by her mother at age fifteen to a young duke, who installed her in a small furnished house. The duke contracted a venereal disease and had to give her up. Pélissier was then sold to a rich Anglo-American. She soon gained her independence and began to look for other lovers. Pélissier and Balzac were lovers for a year, starting in 1830. The couple had a new villa constructed in the Passy suburb of Paris in 1859. Rossini died a rich man in 1868, allowing Pélissier to live a comfortable life after his death, although on her death, the estate was to pass to the Municipality of Pesaro to establish the Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Gioachino Rossini".

Olympe Pélissier died on 22 March 1878. played by Claudine Coster.

The 1991 Mario Monicelli film Rossini! Rossini! about the life of Rossini features Sabine Azéma as Pélissier.