Luisa Casati
Encyclopedia
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Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th century Europe. As the concept of dandy
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...
was expanded to include women, the marchesa Casati fitted the utmost female example by saying: "I want to be a living work of art".
Early life
The younger daughter of Alberto von Amann and his wife, the former Lucia Bressi, Luisa Adele Rosa Maria von Amann was born in MilanMilan
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 ,...
to a life of luxury. Luisa's father was of Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
descent, while her mother was Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
and Austrian. Luisa's father was made a count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
by King Umberto I. Countess Amann died when Luisa was thirteen, and Count Amann died two years later, making his daughters, Luisa and her elder sister, Francesca (1880–1919, married Giulio Padulli), reportedly the wealthiest women in Italy.
Marriage and descendants
In 1900 Luisa married Camillo, Marquis Casati Stampa di Soncino (MuggiòMuggiò
Muggiò is a city in the Province of Monza and Brianza in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 15 km northeast of Milan. As of 2009, it had a population of 23,500 and an area of 5.5 km²...
, 12 August 1877 - Roma, 18 September 1946). A year later, their only child was born. The Casatis maintained separate residences for the duration of their marriage. They were legally separated in 1914, and the marriage ended upon the marchese's death.
The couple's daughter, Cristina Casati Stampa di Soncino (1901–1953), married Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings
Francis Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon
Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings, 16th Earl of Huntingdon , known as Viscount Hastings until 1939, was a British artist, academic and Labour politician.-Life:...
, known as Viscount Hastings and later the 16th Earl of Huntingdon
Earl of Huntingdon
Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The title is associated with the ruling house of Scotland, and latterly with the Hastings family.-Early history:...
, in 1925; they had one child, Lady Moorea Hastings (born 4 March 1928), and divorced in 1943. The following year the Viscountess Hastings married Honourable Wogan Philipps
Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford
Wogan Philipps, 2nd Baron Milford was the only member of the Communist Party of Great Britain ever to sit in the House of Lords.-Early life:...
; that marriage produced no children.
Luisa Casati's only grandchild, Lady Moorea Hastings, was from 1957 to 1966 the wife of politician and diarist Woodrow Wyatt
Woodrow Wyatt
Woodrow Lyle Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford , was a British politician, published author, journalist and broadcaster, close to the Queen Mother, Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch...
,
and later married the adman Brinsley Black, named as one of the best-dressed Englishmen in the inaugural issue of Men in Vogue in 1965. She had a son with each husband:
- The Hon. Pericles Plantagenet James Casati Wyatt (born 1963), became an owner and operator of water parks and recreational-vehicle camps in ArizonaArizonaArizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
; half-brother to journalist Petronella WyattPetronella WyattPetronella Wyatt , is a British journalist and author. She is the daughter of the former journalist and Labour politician, the late Woodrow Wyatt, and his fourth wife, the Hungarian Veronica Banszky Von Ambroz.-Biography:...
. - Octavius BlackOctavius BlackOctavius Orlando Irvine Casati Black is the CEO of The Mind Gym. He is close to prime minister David Cameron. Black is married to the libel barrister and Tory candidate Joanne Cash.-Early life:Black was born 2 May 1968 in West London...
(Octavius Orlando Irvine Casati Black, born 1968), the founder of The Mind Gym, a mind-development system based in London; was at EtonEton CollegeEton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
with David CameronDavid CameronDavid William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
, to whom he remains close; married to Tory barrister Joanne CashJoanne CashJoanne Cash is a media barrister. She was the unsuccessful Conservative Party candidate for Westminster North in the 2010 general election.-Early life:...
.
Moorea Hastings was so unmaternal that, on learning she was pregnant, she arranged with her first husband that childless cousins of his would care for the baby. When Wyatt later sued for divorce on grounds of her adultery, he was, unusually, given full custody of the child.
Muse and patroness
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...
, the marchesa's famous eccentricities dominated and delighted Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an society for nearly three decades. The beautiful and extravagant hostess to the Ballets Russes
Ballets Russes
The Ballets Russes was an itinerant ballet company from Russia which performed between 1909 and 1929 in many countries. Directed by Sergei Diaghilev, it is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg...
was something of a legend among her contemporaries. She astonished society by parading with a pair of leashed cheetahs and wearing live snakes as jewellery.
She captivated artists and literary figures such as Robert de Montesquiou
Robert de Montesquiou
Marie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac , was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, art collector and dandy....
, Romain de Tirtoff
Romain de Tirtoff
Romain de Tirtoff was a Russian-born French artist and designer known by the pseudonym Erté, the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T. He was a diversely-talented 20th century artist and designer who flourished in an array of fields, including fashion, jewellery, graphic arts, costume and...
(Erté), Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, and Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
. She had a long term affair with the author Gabriele d'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...
, who is said to have based on her the character of Isabella Inghirami in Forse che si forse che no (Maybe yes, maybe no) (1910). The character of La Casinelle, who appeared in two novels by Michel Georges-Michel
Michel Georges-Michel
Michel Georges-Michel, pseudonym of Georges Dreyfus , was a painter, journalist, novelist, and translator of English and American authors. He was born in Paris.-Biography:...
, Dans la fete de Venise (1922) and Nouvelle Riviera (1924), was also inspired by her.
In 1910 Casati took up residence at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on Grand Canal in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
(now the home of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy. It is one of several museums of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation....
). Her soirées there would become legendary. Casati collected a menagerie of exotic animals, and patronized fashion designers such as Fortuny
Fortuny
Fortuny is a surname of Catalan origin. It may refer to:* Enzo Fortuny, Mexican voice actor* Jason Fortuny, creator of an internet hoax* Mariano Fortuny , Spanish painter...
and Poiret
Poiret
Poiret may refer to several people:*Jean Poiret, author of La Cage aux Folles*Jean Louis Marie Poiret, French botanist*Jean Louis Georges Poiret*Paul Poiret, fashion designer...
. From 1919-1920 she lived at Villa San Michele
Villa San Michele
The Villa San Michele was built around the turn of the 20th century by the Swedish physician, Axel Munthe, on the ruins of the Roman Emperor Tiberius's villa, on the Isle of Capri, Italy. Its gardens have panoramic views of Capri town and its marina, the Sorrentine Peninsula and Mount Vesuvius...
in Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
, the tenant of the unwilling Axel Munthe
Axel Munthe
Axel Martin Fredrik Munthe was a Swedish psychiatrist, best known as the author of The Story of San Michele, an autobiographical account of his life and work....
. Her time on the Italian island, tolerant home to a wide collection of artists, gay men, and lesbians in exile, was described by British author Compton Mackenzie
Compton Mackenzie
Sir Compton Mackenzie, OBE was a writer and a Scottish nationalist.-Background:Compton Mackenzie was born in West Hartlepool, England, into a theatrical family of Mackenzies, but many of whose members used Compton as their stage surname, starting with his grandfather Henry Compton, a well-known...
in his diaries.
Her numerous portraits were painted and sculpted by artists as various as Giovanni Boldini
Giovanni Boldini
Giovanni Boldini was an Italian genre and portrait painter. According to , he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting.-Early life:...
, Paolo Troubetzkoy
Paolo Troubetzkoy
Prince Paolo or Paul Troubetzkoy was an artist and a sculptor, of Russia's Troubetzkoy princely family, who was described by G.B. Shaw as "the most astonishing sculptor of modern times".-Life:He worked in Russia, America, England and Italy...
, Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks
Romaine Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard , was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued palette dominated by the color gray...
(with whom she also had an affair with), Kees van Dongen
Kees van Dongen
Cornelis Theodorus Maria van Dongen , usually known as Kees van Dongen or just Van Dongen, was a Dutch painter and one of the Fauves. He gained a reputation for his sensuous, at times garish, portraits....
, and Man Ray
Man Ray
Man Ray , born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal...
; many of them she paid for, as a wish to "commission her own immortality". She was muse to Italian Futurists
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
such as F. T. Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement, and a fascist ideologue.-Childhood and adolescence:...
, Fortunato Depero
Fortunato Depero
Fortunato Depero was an Italian futurist painter, writer, sculptor and graphic designer.Although born in Fondo/Malosco , Depero grew up in Rovereto and it was here he first began exhibiting his works, while serving as an apprentice to a marble worker...
, and Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni
Umberto Boccioni was an Italian painter and sculptor. Like other Futurists, his work centered on the portrayal of movement , speed, and technology. He was born in Reggio Calabria, Italy.-Biography:...
. Augustus John
Augustus John
Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in the United Kingdom....
's portrait of her
Marchesa Casati (Augustus John)
The Marchesa Casati is a portrait of Luisa Casati by Augustus John, currently housed in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto....
is one of the most popular paintings at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
; Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
wrote poems about it and Robert Fulford was impressed by it as a schoolboy.
Characters based on Casati were played by Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh, Lady Olivier was an English actress. She won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire , a role she also played on stage in London's West End, as well as for her portrayal of the southern belle Scarlett O'Hara, alongside Clark...
in La Contessa (1965) and by Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
in the movie A Matter of Time
A Matter of Time (1976 film)
A Matter of Time is a 1976 American/Italian musical fantasy film directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay by John Gay is based on the novel Film of Memory by Maurice Druon...
(1976).
Much later, John Galliano
John Galliano
John Charles Galliano CBE, RDI is a Gibraltan-born British fashion designer who was best known as head designer of French haute couture houses Givenchy and Christian Dior , and his own self titled fashion house.-Family:He was born in Gibraltar to a Gibraltarian father, Juan Galliano, and a...
based the 1998 Spring/Summer Christian Dior
Christian Dior
Christian Dior , was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior.-Life:...
collection on her. Gown
Gown
A gown is a loose outer garment from knee- to full-length worn by men and women in Europe from the early Middle Ages to the 17th century ; later, gown was applied to any woman's garment consisting of a bodice and attached skirt.A long, loosely-fitted gown called a Banyan was worn by men in the 18th...
s from this collection have been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
Fashion Institute. Casati served as inspiration for another of Galliano's ensembles created for his autumn/winter 2007/2008 Bal des Artistes haute couture collection for Dior. She is also the namesake of the Marchesa fashion house started by British designers Georgina Chapman
Georgina Chapman
Georgina Chapman is an English fashion designer and actress. Chapman, alongside Keren Craig, an actress and a former model, are the co-founders of fashion label Marchesa.-Biography:...
and Keren Craig. And in May 2009, Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel...
debuted his 2010 Cruise-wear collection fittingly on the Lido in Venice, for which Casati was once again a major muse.
Debt, flight and death
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...
.
Casati fled to London, where she lived in comparative poverty. She was rumoured to be seen rummaging in bins searching for feathers to decorate her hair. She died at her last residence, 32 Beaufort Gardens in Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, on 1 June 1957, aged 76. Following a requiem mass at Brompton Oratory, the Marchesa was interred in Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...
. The quote "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety" from Shakespeare's
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra
Antony and Cleopatra is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. It was first printed in the First Folio of 1623. The plot is based on Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony...
was inscribed on her tombstone.
She was buried wearing not only her black and leopardskin finery but also a pair of false eyelashes. She shares her coffin with one of her beloved stuffed pekinese dogs. Her tombstone is a small grave marker in the shape of an urn draped in cloth with a swag of flowers to the front. The inscription strangely mis-spells her name as 'Louisa' rather than 'Luisa'. It is a hard grave to find and, despite her fame, wealth and notoriety, is modest compared to the thousands of grand monuments surrounding it.
External links
- "www.marchesacasati.com": The official website devoted to the marchesa Casati, her biography 'Infinite Variety' and the Casati Archives.
- Peggy Guggenheim Collection: Palazzo Venier dei Leoni (Venice) where La Casati gave her most memorable extravaganzas.
- "www.dandyism.net" A page on the website dandyism.net about her
- Find A Grave Memorial Find A Grave memorial for Luisa Casati
- Villa Lysis of Baron Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, one of the "Sinners' Paradises" in Capri, very much frequented by Marchesa Casati.