Editing Renée Vivien (section)

===Relationships===
Vivien harbored{{clarification needed|date=April 2023}} an unconsummated romantic relationship with her childhood friend and neighbor, Violet Shillito, who is thought to be referenced in Vivien’s poems with the words “violet” and “purple.”<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2 February 2018 |title=So Much Love of Death: A Crown of Violets by Renée Vivien |url=https://therumpus.net/2018/02/a-crown-of-violets-selected-poems-by-renee-vivien-translated-by-samantha-pious/ |access-date=28 September 2020 |website=The Rumpus.net |language=en}}</ref> After Shillito’s death to [[typhoid fever]], Vivien felt a sense of guilt for her relationship with American heiress [[Natalie Clifford Barney|Natalie Barney]], who Shillito had introduced her to the year before, because she felt that she had sidelined Shillito in favour of Barney.<ref name="Cyane 2006" /> Vivien’s feelings of guilt are thought to be a likely contributing factor—alongside Barney's infidelities—to the end of Vivien and Barney’s relationship in 1901.<ref name="LC 2017" /> 
[[File:Natalie Barney and Renee Vivien.jpg|thumb|Renée Vivien (left) and [[Natalie Clifford Barney]] posing for a portrait in [[1795–1820 in fashion|''Directoire''-era costume]]]]
[[File:Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer - Portrait de Renée Vivien.jpg|thumb|alt=Portrait of Renée Vivien by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, before 1909|[[Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer]] ([[wikt:before|b.]] 1909), ''Portrait of Renée Vivien'']]
In 1902, Vivien became romantically involved with the wealthy [[Baron]]ess [[Hélène van Zuylen]], one of the Paris [[Rothschilds]]. After her turbulent prior experience with Barney, Vivien found much-needed emotional support and stability in her relationship with Zuylen. In spite of Zuylen’s social position, which did not allow for a public relationship, the two continued a discreet affair for a number of years, often traveling together. In letters to her confidant, the French journalist and [[Classical scholar]] [[Jean Charles-Brun]], Vivien wrote that she considered herself married to the Baroness.<ref name=":2" />

While still with Zuylen, Vivien received a letter from {{ill|Kérimé Turkhan Pacha|fr||es}}, an admirer in [[Istanbul]] and the wife of a [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] diplomat. The two launched a passionate correspondence, followed by brief clandestine encounters. Kérimé, though French-educated and cultivated, lived according to [[Islamic]] tradition, which meant an isolated and veiled life in which she could neither travel freely nor leave her husband.<ref name=":2" /> Meanwhile, Vivien continued her relationship with the Baroness de Zuylen.

In 1907, Zuylen left Vivien for another woman, which left her shocked and humiliated. Another blow came in 1908 when Kérimé, upon moving with her husband to [[Saint Petersburg]], ended their affair.

Vivien, terribly affected by these losses, turned increasingly to alcohol and drugs. The French writer [[Colette]], who was Vivien's neighbour from 1906 to 1908, immortalised this period in ''[[The Pure and the Impure]]'', a collection of portraits showing the spectrum of homosexual behaviour.  Written in the 1920s and originally published in 1932, its factual accuracy is questionable; Natalie Barney reportedly did not concur with Colette's characterization of Vivien.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}