Iris Origo
Encyclopedia
Dame Iris Margaret Origo, Marchesa of Val d'Orcia, DBE
(15 August 1902 — 28 June 1988), née Cutting, was an Anglo-Irish writer, who devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce
, near Montepulciano
, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s.
, the diplomat eldest son of a rich and philanthropic New York family and Lady Sybil Cuffe, the daughter of Lord Desart
, an Irish peer
. Her parents travelled widely after their marriage, particularly in Italy, when her father was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
Following her father's death in 1910, Iris and her mother settled in Italy, buying the Villa Medici in Fiesole
, one of Florence's most spectacular villas. There they formed a close friendship with Bernhard Berenson, who lived not far away at I Tatti. Iris was briefly enrolled at school in London, but was largely educated at home, by Professor Solone Monti as well as a series of French and German governesses.
In 1918, Lady Sybil Cutting married the architectural historian Geoffrey Scott, who later embarked on a relationship with Vita Sackville-West
. The marriage was to last until 1926; following their divorce, she got married for a third time, to the essayist Percy Lubbock
; she died in 1943. Her second marriage reportedly failed because she was emotionally needy and had married a man who suffered from neurasthenia
.
, a young Scottish businessman working in Milan
; a romantic, epistolary affair was followed by a lifelong friendship. On 4 March 1924, Iris married Antonio Origo, the illegitimate son of Marchese Clemente Origo. They moved together to their new estate at La Foce, near Chianciano Terme
in the Province of Siena
. It was in a state of bad disrepair but, by much hard work, care and attention, they succeeded in transforming it. They had a son, Gian Clemente Bayard (aka "Gianni") (24 June 1925 — 30 April 1933), who died of meningitis, aged seven years old, and two daughters, Benedetta (born 1 August 1940) and Donata (born 9 June 1943). It was following the death of Gianni that Iris Origo embarked on her writing career, with a well-received biography of Giacomo Leopardi
, published in 1935. The Observer
said: "Her book is a monument to scholarship — the literary and historical background is painted with consummate skill, and a pattern of good taste."
, was the first of her books to be a popular, as well as a critical, success.
on the Gulf of Spezia.
(DBE) in the Overseas and Diplomatic List.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(15 August 1902 — 28 June 1988), née Cutting, was an Anglo-Irish writer, who devoted much of her life to the improvement of the Tuscan estate at La Foce
La Foce
La Foce is a large estate that lies close to the towns of Montepulciano, Chiusi, and Chianciano Terme in the Southern Tuscan region of Val d'Orcia. Centered around a 15th Century villa, the estate was restored by Iris Origo and Antonio Origo in the 1920s. The gardens are designed by the English...
, near Montepulciano
Montepulciano
Montepulciano is a medieval and Renaissance hill town and comune in the province of Siena in southern Tuscany, in Italy. Montepulciano, with an elevation of 605 m, sits on a high limestone ridge. By car it is 13 km E of Pienza; 70 km SE of Siena, 124 km SE of Florence, and...
, which she purchased with her husband in the 1920s.
Origins and upbringing
Origo was the daughter of William Bayard CuttingWilliam Bayard Cutting
William Bayard Cutting, Esq. , a member of New York's merchant aristocracy, was an attorney, financier, real estate developer, sugar beet refiner and philanthropist. He was born to Fulton Cutting and Elise Justine Bayard...
, the diplomat eldest son of a rich and philanthropic New York family and Lady Sybil Cuffe, the daughter of Lord Desart
Earl of Desart
Earl of Desart was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1793 for Otway Cuffe, 1st Viscount Desart. He had already succeeded his elder brother as third Baron Desart in 1767 and been created Viscount Desart, in the County of Kilkenny, in the Peerage of Ireland in 1781...
, an Irish peer
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
. Her parents travelled widely after their marriage, particularly in Italy, when her father was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
Following her father's death in 1910, Iris and her mother settled in Italy, buying the Villa Medici in Fiesole
Villa Medici in Fiesole
The Villa Medici is a patrician villa in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy, the fourth oldest of the villas built by the Medici family. It was built between 1451 and 1457.-External links:*...
, one of Florence's most spectacular villas. There they formed a close friendship with Bernhard Berenson, who lived not far away at I Tatti. Iris was briefly enrolled at school in London, but was largely educated at home, by Professor Solone Monti as well as a series of French and German governesses.
In 1918, Lady Sybil Cutting married the architectural historian Geoffrey Scott, who later embarked on a relationship with Vita Sackville-West
Vita Sackville-West
The Hon Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson, CH , best known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author, poet and gardener. She won the Hawthornden Prize in 1927 and 1933...
. The marriage was to last until 1926; following their divorce, she got married for a third time, to the essayist Percy Lubbock
Percy Lubbock
Percy Lubbock, CBE was an English man of letters, known as an essayist, critic and biographer.-Life:Percy Lubbock was the son of the merchant banker Frederic Lubbock and his wife Catherine, daughter of John Gurney of Earlham Hall, Norfolk...
; she died in 1943. Her second marriage reportedly failed because she was emotionally needy and had married a man who suffered from neurasthenia
Neurasthenia
Neurasthenia is a psycho-pathological term first used by George Miller Beard in 1869 to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, neuralgia and depressed mood...
.
[Lady Sybil] had a brief affair with Bernard Berenson and then astonished everyone by marrying Mary Berenson's protege, Geoffrey Scott, the fragile and neurasthenic author of The Architecture of Humanism. The marriage was not happy. No one could outdo Sybil where neuroses were concerned, and she spent more and more time in bed on one pretext or another.
Personal life
Iris Cutting travelled to England and the United States in order to be launched in the society of both countries. In 1922, she first met Colin MackenzieColin Hercules Mackenzie
Colin Hercules Mackenzie, CMG , scholar, soldier, industrialist and aesthete, was a Special Operations Executive spymaster who led Force 136 throughout the period of its existence during the Second World War.-Origins:...
, a young Scottish businessman working in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
; a romantic, epistolary affair was followed by a lifelong friendship. On 4 March 1924, Iris married Antonio Origo, the illegitimate son of Marchese Clemente Origo. They moved together to their new estate at La Foce, near Chianciano Terme
Chianciano Terme
Chianciano Terme is a comune in the Province of Siena in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 90 km southeast of Florence and about 50 km southeast of Siena...
in the Province of Siena
Province of Siena
The Province of Siena is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena.It has an area of 3,821 km² , and a total population of 252,288 . There are 36 comuni in the province...
. It was in a state of bad disrepair but, by much hard work, care and attention, they succeeded in transforming it. They had a son, Gian Clemente Bayard (aka "Gianni") (24 June 1925 — 30 April 1933), who died of meningitis, aged seven years old, and two daughters, Benedetta (born 1 August 1940) and Donata (born 9 June 1943). It was following the death of Gianni that Iris Origo embarked on her writing career, with a well-received biography of Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Leopardi
Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist...
, published in 1935. The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
said: "Her book is a monument to scholarship — the literary and historical background is painted with consummate skill, and a pattern of good taste."
War years
During the Second World War, the Origos remained at La Foce and looked after refugee children, who were housed there. Following the surrender of Italy, Iris Origo also sheltered or assisted many escaped Allied prisoners of war, who were seeking to make their way through the German lines, or simply to survive. Her account of this time, War in the Val D'OrciaWar in the Val D'Orcia
War in Val D'Orcia is a book by Iris Origo, the Irish-American-Italian writer who owned and lived in the Tuscan estate of La Foce. Set in Italy during the Second World War, the book describes the experiences of the author and her family as they sheltered children seeking refuge from the war and the...
, was the first of her books to be a popular, as well as a critical, success.
Post WWII
After the war, she divided her time between La Foce and Rome, where the Origos had bought a flat in the Palazzo Orsini, and devoted herself to writing. The Origos also spent holidays at Gli Scafari, the house built by Iris' mother at LericiLerici
Lerici is a town and comune in the province of La Spezia in Liguria , part of the Italian Riviera. Its nearest bay is the Bay of Lerici. The town is connected by ferry to the Cinque Terre and Portovenere....
on the Gulf of Spezia.
Death
Antonio Origo died on 27 June 1976. Iris Origo died on 28 June 1988, aged 85.Honours
On 31 December 1976 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(DBE) in the Overseas and Diplomatic List.
Works
- A Measure of Love (1957), a collection of biographical essays
- A Need to Testify (1984), containing biographies of Ignazio SiloneIgnazio SiloneIgnazio Silone was the pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli, an Italian author and politician.-Early life and career:...
, Gaetano SalveminiGaetano SalveminiGaetano Salvemini was an Italian anti-fascist politician, historian and writer.- Biography :Salvemini was born in Molfetta, Apulia....
, Ruth DraperRuth DraperRuth Draper was an American actress, dramatist and noted diseuse who specialized in character-driven monologues.-Early life and family:...
and Lauro de BosisLauro De BosisLauro Adolfo De Bosis was an Italian poet and aviator.In 1928 he won a silver medal in the art competitions of the Olympic Games for his "Icarus". When he turned anti-fascist, he was shot down by Benito Mussolini's airplanes over the Tyrrhenian Sea...
, four opponents of Fascism - Allegra (1935), a short life of Byron’s daughterAllegra ByronClara Allegra Byron , initially named Alba, meaning "dawn," or "white," by her mother, was the illegitimate daughter of the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron and Claire Clairmont, the stepsister of Mary Shelley....
- Gianni, a privately printed memorial to Iris' son
- Giovanni and Jane (1950), a children’s book
- Images and Shadows (1970), an elegiac autobiography
- Leopardi (1935), a biography of Giacomo LeopardiGiacomo LeopardiGiacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was an Italian poet, essayist, philosopher, and philologist...
- The Last Attachment (1949), an account of the relationship between Byron and Countess GuiccioliTeresa, Contessa GuiccioliTeresa, Contessa Guiccioli was the mistress of Lord Byron whilst he was living in Ravenna, Italy, and writing the first five cantos of Don Juan. She wrote the biographical account Lord Byron's Life in Italy....
- The Merchant of Prato (1957), an account of the life and times of Francesco di Marco DatiniFrancesco di Marco DatiniFrancesco di Marco Datini was an Italian merchant born in Prato.-Biography:He was the only child of Marco di Datino and Monna Vermigilia, who both died as a result of the Black Death in 1348....
- The Vagabond Path (1972), an anthology
- The World of San Bernardino (1963), a life of Bernardino of SienaBernardino of SienaSaint Bernardino of Siena, O.F.M., was an Italian priest, Franciscan missionary, and is a Catholic saint.-Early life:...
- Un'amica. Ritratto di Elsa Dallolio (1982), a memoir of an old friend
- War in the Val D'OrciaWar in the Val D'OrciaWar in Val D'Orcia is a book by Iris Origo, the Irish-American-Italian writer who owned and lived in the Tuscan estate of La Foce. Set in Italy during the Second World War, the book describes the experiences of the author and her family as they sheltered children seeking refuge from the war and the...
(1947), an account of Iris Origo's experiences during the Second World War in diary form
External links
Sources
- "Coming Home to Heroism", The Spectator 7 October 2000. Available online. Book review of Caroline MooreheadCaroline MooreheadCaroline Moorehead is a human rights journalist and biographer.Born in London, England, Moorehead received a BA from the University of London in 1965....
's Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val d'Orcia (London, John Murray, 2000) - Gianna Pomata, "Dalla biografia alla storia e ritorno: Iris Origo fra Bloomsbury e Toscana" in Genesis. Rivista della Sociata' italiana delle storiche, pgs. 117-156 (2007)