Lot Essay
"Madame Casati devant elle à sa grace
Son mystère, ses chiens, son énorme chapeau
Et son bouquet de fleurs qu'un seul coup d'oeil embrasse
Lorsque le temps est clair et que le jour est beau"
- Comte Robert de Montesquiou
Montesquiou's description of the Marchesa Casati, while viewing her portrait at the Salon, only partially describes the effect which she was to have on early twentieth century society. The Marchesa became a lifelong influence on Boldini, following their first meeting in 1908 through the poet, Gabriele d'Annunzio. Boldini recalls this encounter, when the Marchesa's seven meter pearl necklace was scattered over a restaurant floor. "We all hurried under the tables to retrieve the pearls and it was under one table that I found myself face to face with her and saw for the first time, close up, her immense eyes." These eyes were later to be outlined not only with black eyepaint but with strips of black velvet, which she glued to her eyelids.
Boldini began work on the portrait, following those of Mademoiselle de Nimidoff and Madame de Segonzac, with constant delays due to the Marchesa's irregular timekeeping. The portrait was eventually presented at the Salon of 1909 and received a storm of critical reaction. Various critics commented that the aggressiveness of her stare, combined with the disreputable black of her clothing suggested a demonic appearance. Arsène Alexandre, art critic for Le Figaro wrote, "Today, his talent has reached its climax. I am almost afraid to write that his portrait of Mme. La Marquise Casati is the most beautiful piece of pure painting in the whole Salon. By paradox, he attains with true greatness, by what seems in Art justly the same enemy of greatness: the boldest negation of lines....It reminds (me) of the Old Masters' technique. The old Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) has never painted such beautiful black eyes as these; Goya has never captured in a more attractive way the enigma of a lovely face. This Marquise face is unusual...in its big-eyed appearance...in its anti-Joconde counyenance that crowns the long, long question mark of a body wrapped in black satin." The Marchesa was to be painted again by the artist in 1914 (Galleria Nazionale, Rome) in an equally dramatic pose. In that work, the vigorous handling of paint and her expressive gesture often linked the artist with the Italian Futurist Movement.
The Marchesa had a reputation as a rich and glamorous woman who scandalised Europe over a thirty year period. Her whimsical and complex personality contributed to the development of all aspects of the Arts. She was influenced by the past, particularly by historical figures such as Cesare Borgia, Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and even Ludwig II of Bavaria, transforming herself into their personas. Her greatest influence was Sarah Bernhardt, who as her most important role model, caused her to create an extravagant appearance, and bizarre collections, which included large cats and snakes. The Marchesa also owed her independence to the "divine Sarah" who also rejected the traditional role of wife and mother and took complete liberty to act on her whims. She openly persued affairs with d'Annunzio and the painters Kees van Dongen and Augustus John . While she gained a notorious reputation through these actions, her attitude today might be considered an expression of autonomy and equality, which was only possible to achieve during the period through her position and wealth. Her intelligence and imagination, captured by artists such as the Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, provided her with the ability to propel herself in a realm between the real and imaginary worlds, thereby heightening her sense of reality.
La Casati was born on January 23, 1881, in Milan, the daughter of Conte Alberto Amman, a rich cotton manufacturer. At the age of nineteen, as perhaps the country's wealthiest heiress, she married Camillo Casati Stampa, a member of one of Milan's most aristocratic families. Their only child, Cristina, (later the Countess of Huntingdon) was born on July 15, 1901. Two years later she met d'Annunzio at a Milanese hunt. He was to alter the course of her life, by allowing her to reveal her inner character. He was later to recall "that day, a long time ago, when I saw for the first time a young slender Amazon galloping through the woods." While he rather unrealistically considered marriage, an impossibility bearing in mind that they were both married with children, their relationship lasted until his death in 1938. "She possessed a gift, an omnipotent knowledge of the masculine heart: she knew how to be or appear, incredible. She was, in fact, the only woman who ever astonished me." David Wistow describes their relationship. "Besides sharing profound interests in spiritualism, beauty, and luxury, they indulged their love of music, riding, and large dogs. When apart they always sent enigmatic telegrams and letters to each other, referring to d'Annunzio as "Ariel" and the Marchesa as "Coré" (after archaic Greek statues with sphinx-like smiles). Together they conspired to transform reality into "something rich and strange." Besides her role as lover, the Marchesa was also the poet's muse. Her ever increasing extravagance and originality served as the model for several of his characters including the rich widow Isabella Inghirami in Forse ché si forse che no (1910)."
La Casati later moved to the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice, the one storey building on the Grand Canal which now houses the Peggy Guggenheim collection and was conveniently positioned opposite d'Annunzio's house "La Casetta Rossa". Its impressive entrance, with its enormous stone lion heads, large overgrown garden with white peacocks and albino blackbirds was the ideal setting for her lavish balls.
In 1914, she was officially separated from her husband, although she had to wait ten years for the divorce in Budapest. In the spring of that year, she moved to Paris, taking a suite at the Ritz, and spent the years during the War in Venice and Rome, returning to Paris in 1919, where she was painted by Augustus John. In 1921, La Casati purchased the Palais Rose from the estate of Count Robert de Montesquiou, living near Paris until the mid-thirties, in extraordinary gold and white chambers, surrounded by her collection of Lalique and Fabergé. The Marchesa's legendary menagerie of wild animals were also housed at the palace, as witnessed by Isidora Duncan. "One morning La Casati invited me to dine. I went to the palace and walked into the antechamber. It was all done out in Grecian style and I sat there awaiting the arrival of the Marquesa, when I suddenly heard a most violent tirade of the most vulgar language you could possibly imagine directed at me. I looked round and saw a green parrot. I noticed he was not chained. I got up and leaped into the next salon. I was sitting there awaiting the Marquessa, when I suddenly heard a noise---brrrr--and I saw a white bulldog. He wasn't chained, so I leaped into the next salon, which was carpeted with white bear rugs and had bear skins even on the walls. I sat down there and waited for the Marquesa. Suddenly I heard a hissing sound. I looked down and saw a cobra in a cage sitting up on end and hissing at me. I leaped into the next salon, all lined with tiger skins. There was a gorilla, showing its teeth."
Her contribution to the literary and performing arts was considerable. She collaborated with Fortunato Depéro in creating a ballo plastico, a theater piece for marionettes, to music by Ravel, and eighteen performances of the work, entitled Il Giardino Zoologico were performed at the Teatro dei Piccoli in the Palazzo Odeschalchi, Rome. She also had a close association with the Ballets Russes, even though she may have been over-shadowed by the equally rich and eccentric Ida Rubenstein; however Nijinsky, Diaghilev, and especially Bakst, the artist and costume designer, regularly stayed with her in Venice. While it is unclear whether she ever took to the stage with the group, a telegram from Montesquiou to her of 1914 mentions an offer to perform with the group in their forthcoming London season. There is however a record of her having performed for the Red Cross in Rome, wearing simply a black velvet rose.
La Casati's relationship with Bakst was close, commissioning him as a stage director for her more extravagant balls. In just six weeks, in 1913, she held three costume balls and ten processions on the Grand Canal and the Piazza San Marco. The lavishness of her costumes was described by Catherine Barjansky, the Polish sculptor.
"That evening she wore long Persian trousers of heavy gold brocade, fastened tightly around her slim ankles and held by diamond bangles of fine workmanship. Her feet were encased in gold sandals with high diamond heels. Her deep décolleté ended where her gold-draped sash began, her beautifuly chiseled breasts were veiled with valuable laces...Huge pearls were in her ears. An immensely large black pearl on one hand, an equally large white one in the other. A string of pearls encircled her slender neck several times...She smoked cigarettes out of a long black mouthpiece studded with diamonds.
She was an apparition out of the Thousand and One Nights, but, curiously enough she did not look unnatural. The fantastic garb really suited her. She was so different from other women that ordinary clothes were impossible for her."
The Marchesa's contribition to the visual arts has proved easier to quantify. While up to one hundred portraits of her are known to exist, the Marchesa has placed the figure, probably more correctly, closer to two hundred. This collection of her own image was housed in a pavilion close to her Parisian mansion and may have rivaled those of Sarah Bernhardt and Misia Sert. The range of schools which it encompassed included Symbolism, Academic Realism, Cubism, Futurism, Fauvism, and Surrealism and the media ranges from oil and watercolor to wood and bronze. The Futurist Alberto Marini received a series of commissions from her, the most remarkable work Un lent reveil après bien de metempsycoses depicted the Marchesa with a Venetian backdrop, being transformed into a butterfly. Such a composition revealed her narcissistic tendencies demonstrating the way in which she viewed her life, and yet simultaneously displays her extraordinarily vivid imagination. The artist was also able to capture La Casati's other "characters" - Cesare Borgia, Joan of Arc, Hamlet, and Medusa. This latter role was particularly apt, as Jacob Epstein related in this anecdote on the sitting for his celebrated bronze. "The Marchesa arrived in a taxicab at ten o'clock and left it waiting for her. We began the sittings, and her Medusa-like head kept me busy until nightfall. It was snowing outside, and a report came in that the taxi man had at length made a declaration. He did not care if it was Epstein and if it was a countess; he would not wait any longer. On hearing this; Casati shouted; "He is a Bolshevik! Ask him to wait a little longer." He was given tea and a place by the fire and shown the bookshelf. "The winter light had failed, and I had many candles brought in. They formed a circle round my weird sitter with the fire in the grate piled high to give more light. The tireless Marchesa, with her overlarge blue-veined eyes sat with a basilisk stare; and as if to bear out her epithet of "Bolshevik" the taxi man picked out for himself Brothers Karamzzov to read; and ceased to protest. The Medusa-like mask was finished the next day."
One of the most powerful images of La Casati is Man Ray's photograph with three pairs of eyes, now viewed as a prototype for his surrealistic work. Man Ray describes the Marchesa's foresight in choosing the rejected print. "When I turned on my lights there was a quick flash and everything went dark. As usual in French interiors, every room was wired and fused for a minimum of current. The porter replaced the burned-out fuses, but I did not dare use my lights again. I told the Marquise that I'd use the ordinary lighting in the room, but that the poses would be longer and she must try to hold them as still as possible. It was trying work - the lady acted as if I were doing a movie for her.
That night when I developed my negatives, they were all blurred; I put them aside and considered the sitting a failure. Not hearing from me, she phoned me sometime later; when I informed her that the negatives were worthless, she insisted on seeing some prints, bad as they were. I printed up a couple on which there was a semblance of a face - one with three pairs of eyes. It might have passed for a Surrealist version of the Medusa. She was enchanted with this one - said I had portrayed her soul, and ordered dozens of prints. I wished other sitters were as easy to please. The picture of the Marquise went all over Paris; sitters began coming in - people from the more exclusive circles."
Despite her use of artists for self-glorification, she was profoundly interested in the greatness of art and in its development. The addition of three portraits to her "gallery" gave her reason to hold a ball, and her response to Martini's criticism which prevented him from exhibiting portraits of her for commercial ends was: "What is fortune compared to the dignity of art. Nothing!"
In 1932, her debts were believed to have reached the modern equivalent of twenty million dollars. Although the Archbishop of Paris considered this divine retribution, she attempted to seek his forgiveness. "The priest was confronted by La Casati dressed all in white, carried in on a settee by four valets, holding a white gladiolus on her lap while a white parrot, representing the Holy Ghost, perched near her feet. With a transfixed stare she kept repeating: "Je suis la Vierge immaculée!" Her collections were sold to satisfy creditors and she fled to England, where she spent the last twenty five years of her life. She died on June 1, 1957. Perhaps the Marchesa would have enjoyed Augustus John's quip to Cecil Beaton that she should be stuffed and put in a glass case.
We are grateful to David Wistow of the Art Gallery of Ontario for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Son mystère, ses chiens, son énorme chapeau
Et son bouquet de fleurs qu'un seul coup d'oeil embrasse
Lorsque le temps est clair et que le jour est beau"
- Comte Robert de Montesquiou
Montesquiou's description of the Marchesa Casati, while viewing her portrait at the Salon, only partially describes the effect which she was to have on early twentieth century society. The Marchesa became a lifelong influence on Boldini, following their first meeting in 1908 through the poet, Gabriele d'Annunzio. Boldini recalls this encounter, when the Marchesa's seven meter pearl necklace was scattered over a restaurant floor. "We all hurried under the tables to retrieve the pearls and it was under one table that I found myself face to face with her and saw for the first time, close up, her immense eyes." These eyes were later to be outlined not only with black eyepaint but with strips of black velvet, which she glued to her eyelids.
Boldini began work on the portrait, following those of Mademoiselle de Nimidoff and Madame de Segonzac, with constant delays due to the Marchesa's irregular timekeeping. The portrait was eventually presented at the Salon of 1909 and received a storm of critical reaction. Various critics commented that the aggressiveness of her stare, combined with the disreputable black of her clothing suggested a demonic appearance. Arsène Alexandre, art critic for Le Figaro wrote, "Today, his talent has reached its climax. I am almost afraid to write that his portrait of Mme. La Marquise Casati is the most beautiful piece of pure painting in the whole Salon. By paradox, he attains with true greatness, by what seems in Art justly the same enemy of greatness: the boldest negation of lines....It reminds (me) of the Old Masters' technique. The old Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) has never painted such beautiful black eyes as these; Goya has never captured in a more attractive way the enigma of a lovely face. This Marquise face is unusual...in its big-eyed appearance...in its anti-Joconde counyenance that crowns the long, long question mark of a body wrapped in black satin." The Marchesa was to be painted again by the artist in 1914 (Galleria Nazionale, Rome) in an equally dramatic pose. In that work, the vigorous handling of paint and her expressive gesture often linked the artist with the Italian Futurist Movement.
The Marchesa had a reputation as a rich and glamorous woman who scandalised Europe over a thirty year period. Her whimsical and complex personality contributed to the development of all aspects of the Arts. She was influenced by the past, particularly by historical figures such as Cesare Borgia, Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth, Empress of Austria and even Ludwig II of Bavaria, transforming herself into their personas. Her greatest influence was Sarah Bernhardt, who as her most important role model, caused her to create an extravagant appearance, and bizarre collections, which included large cats and snakes. The Marchesa also owed her independence to the "divine Sarah" who also rejected the traditional role of wife and mother and took complete liberty to act on her whims. She openly persued affairs with d'Annunzio and the painters Kees van Dongen and Augustus John . While she gained a notorious reputation through these actions, her attitude today might be considered an expression of autonomy and equality, which was only possible to achieve during the period through her position and wealth. Her intelligence and imagination, captured by artists such as the Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, provided her with the ability to propel herself in a realm between the real and imaginary worlds, thereby heightening her sense of reality.
La Casati was born on January 23, 1881, in Milan, the daughter of Conte Alberto Amman, a rich cotton manufacturer. At the age of nineteen, as perhaps the country's wealthiest heiress, she married Camillo Casati Stampa, a member of one of Milan's most aristocratic families. Their only child, Cristina, (later the Countess of Huntingdon) was born on July 15, 1901. Two years later she met d'Annunzio at a Milanese hunt. He was to alter the course of her life, by allowing her to reveal her inner character. He was later to recall "that day, a long time ago, when I saw for the first time a young slender Amazon galloping through the woods." While he rather unrealistically considered marriage, an impossibility bearing in mind that they were both married with children, their relationship lasted until his death in 1938. "She possessed a gift, an omnipotent knowledge of the masculine heart: she knew how to be or appear, incredible. She was, in fact, the only woman who ever astonished me." David Wistow describes their relationship. "Besides sharing profound interests in spiritualism, beauty, and luxury, they indulged their love of music, riding, and large dogs. When apart they always sent enigmatic telegrams and letters to each other, referring to d'Annunzio as "Ariel" and the Marchesa as "Coré" (after archaic Greek statues with sphinx-like smiles). Together they conspired to transform reality into "something rich and strange." Besides her role as lover, the Marchesa was also the poet's muse. Her ever increasing extravagance and originality served as the model for several of his characters including the rich widow Isabella Inghirami in Forse ché si forse che no (1910)."
La Casati later moved to the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice, the one storey building on the Grand Canal which now houses the Peggy Guggenheim collection and was conveniently positioned opposite d'Annunzio's house "La Casetta Rossa". Its impressive entrance, with its enormous stone lion heads, large overgrown garden with white peacocks and albino blackbirds was the ideal setting for her lavish balls.
In 1914, she was officially separated from her husband, although she had to wait ten years for the divorce in Budapest. In the spring of that year, she moved to Paris, taking a suite at the Ritz, and spent the years during the War in Venice and Rome, returning to Paris in 1919, where she was painted by Augustus John. In 1921, La Casati purchased the Palais Rose from the estate of Count Robert de Montesquiou, living near Paris until the mid-thirties, in extraordinary gold and white chambers, surrounded by her collection of Lalique and Fabergé. The Marchesa's legendary menagerie of wild animals were also housed at the palace, as witnessed by Isidora Duncan. "One morning La Casati invited me to dine. I went to the palace and walked into the antechamber. It was all done out in Grecian style and I sat there awaiting the arrival of the Marquesa, when I suddenly heard a most violent tirade of the most vulgar language you could possibly imagine directed at me. I looked round and saw a green parrot. I noticed he was not chained. I got up and leaped into the next salon. I was sitting there awaiting the Marquessa, when I suddenly heard a noise---brrrr--and I saw a white bulldog. He wasn't chained, so I leaped into the next salon, which was carpeted with white bear rugs and had bear skins even on the walls. I sat down there and waited for the Marquesa. Suddenly I heard a hissing sound. I looked down and saw a cobra in a cage sitting up on end and hissing at me. I leaped into the next salon, all lined with tiger skins. There was a gorilla, showing its teeth."
Her contribution to the literary and performing arts was considerable. She collaborated with Fortunato Depéro in creating a ballo plastico, a theater piece for marionettes, to music by Ravel, and eighteen performances of the work, entitled Il Giardino Zoologico were performed at the Teatro dei Piccoli in the Palazzo Odeschalchi, Rome. She also had a close association with the Ballets Russes, even though she may have been over-shadowed by the equally rich and eccentric Ida Rubenstein; however Nijinsky, Diaghilev, and especially Bakst, the artist and costume designer, regularly stayed with her in Venice. While it is unclear whether she ever took to the stage with the group, a telegram from Montesquiou to her of 1914 mentions an offer to perform with the group in their forthcoming London season. There is however a record of her having performed for the Red Cross in Rome, wearing simply a black velvet rose.
La Casati's relationship with Bakst was close, commissioning him as a stage director for her more extravagant balls. In just six weeks, in 1913, she held three costume balls and ten processions on the Grand Canal and the Piazza San Marco. The lavishness of her costumes was described by Catherine Barjansky, the Polish sculptor.
"That evening she wore long Persian trousers of heavy gold brocade, fastened tightly around her slim ankles and held by diamond bangles of fine workmanship. Her feet were encased in gold sandals with high diamond heels. Her deep décolleté ended where her gold-draped sash began, her beautifuly chiseled breasts were veiled with valuable laces...Huge pearls were in her ears. An immensely large black pearl on one hand, an equally large white one in the other. A string of pearls encircled her slender neck several times...She smoked cigarettes out of a long black mouthpiece studded with diamonds.
She was an apparition out of the Thousand and One Nights, but, curiously enough she did not look unnatural. The fantastic garb really suited her. She was so different from other women that ordinary clothes were impossible for her."
The Marchesa's contribition to the visual arts has proved easier to quantify. While up to one hundred portraits of her are known to exist, the Marchesa has placed the figure, probably more correctly, closer to two hundred. This collection of her own image was housed in a pavilion close to her Parisian mansion and may have rivaled those of Sarah Bernhardt and Misia Sert. The range of schools which it encompassed included Symbolism, Academic Realism, Cubism, Futurism, Fauvism, and Surrealism and the media ranges from oil and watercolor to wood and bronze. The Futurist Alberto Marini received a series of commissions from her, the most remarkable work Un lent reveil après bien de metempsycoses depicted the Marchesa with a Venetian backdrop, being transformed into a butterfly. Such a composition revealed her narcissistic tendencies demonstrating the way in which she viewed her life, and yet simultaneously displays her extraordinarily vivid imagination. The artist was also able to capture La Casati's other "characters" - Cesare Borgia, Joan of Arc, Hamlet, and Medusa. This latter role was particularly apt, as Jacob Epstein related in this anecdote on the sitting for his celebrated bronze. "The Marchesa arrived in a taxicab at ten o'clock and left it waiting for her. We began the sittings, and her Medusa-like head kept me busy until nightfall. It was snowing outside, and a report came in that the taxi man had at length made a declaration. He did not care if it was Epstein and if it was a countess; he would not wait any longer. On hearing this; Casati shouted; "He is a Bolshevik! Ask him to wait a little longer." He was given tea and a place by the fire and shown the bookshelf. "The winter light had failed, and I had many candles brought in. They formed a circle round my weird sitter with the fire in the grate piled high to give more light. The tireless Marchesa, with her overlarge blue-veined eyes sat with a basilisk stare; and as if to bear out her epithet of "Bolshevik" the taxi man picked out for himself Brothers Karamzzov to read; and ceased to protest. The Medusa-like mask was finished the next day."
One of the most powerful images of La Casati is Man Ray's photograph with three pairs of eyes, now viewed as a prototype for his surrealistic work. Man Ray describes the Marchesa's foresight in choosing the rejected print. "When I turned on my lights there was a quick flash and everything went dark. As usual in French interiors, every room was wired and fused for a minimum of current. The porter replaced the burned-out fuses, but I did not dare use my lights again. I told the Marquise that I'd use the ordinary lighting in the room, but that the poses would be longer and she must try to hold them as still as possible. It was trying work - the lady acted as if I were doing a movie for her.
That night when I developed my negatives, they were all blurred; I put them aside and considered the sitting a failure. Not hearing from me, she phoned me sometime later; when I informed her that the negatives were worthless, she insisted on seeing some prints, bad as they were. I printed up a couple on which there was a semblance of a face - one with three pairs of eyes. It might have passed for a Surrealist version of the Medusa. She was enchanted with this one - said I had portrayed her soul, and ordered dozens of prints. I wished other sitters were as easy to please. The picture of the Marquise went all over Paris; sitters began coming in - people from the more exclusive circles."
Despite her use of artists for self-glorification, she was profoundly interested in the greatness of art and in its development. The addition of three portraits to her "gallery" gave her reason to hold a ball, and her response to Martini's criticism which prevented him from exhibiting portraits of her for commercial ends was: "What is fortune compared to the dignity of art. Nothing!"
In 1932, her debts were believed to have reached the modern equivalent of twenty million dollars. Although the Archbishop of Paris considered this divine retribution, she attempted to seek his forgiveness. "The priest was confronted by La Casati dressed all in white, carried in on a settee by four valets, holding a white gladiolus on her lap while a white parrot, representing the Holy Ghost, perched near her feet. With a transfixed stare she kept repeating: "Je suis la Vierge immaculée!" Her collections were sold to satisfy creditors and she fled to England, where she spent the last twenty five years of her life. She died on June 1, 1957. Perhaps the Marchesa would have enjoyed Augustus John's quip to Cecil Beaton that she should be stuffed and put in a glass case.
We are grateful to David Wistow of the Art Gallery of Ontario for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.