#Consuelo Duchess of Marlborough

[leifgrandeduchesse]

The choice of the American Consuelo [Duchess of Marlborough] and three other tall duchesses [Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland; Millicent Leveson-Gower, Duchess of Sutherland & Violet Graham, Duchess of Montrose] was orchestrated by Alexandra for effect rather than tradition, as the biographer Tisdall related:

Four of these ladies who were to stand by her throne in the Abbey and 'arrange' her crown, she was going to pick for herself. She was not interested in dusty claims or precedents and was sorry to cause disappointment if somebody had already selected them for her. She would have four Duchesses. The really important thing was that they should all be tall like herself. They must all be beautiful and they must have a certain similarity of appearance. She was not going to have the effect spoiled by some lady who did not match the rest (Tisdall 1953: 201).

According to Edward himself, it was successful, and he wrote that the synchronization of these ladies as they placed their coronets upon their heads when Alix was crowned was 'like a scene from a beautiful ballet' (Fisher 1974: 169).

Source: Inside the Royal Wardrobe, a Dress history of Queen Alexandra by Kate Strasdin

[ulysses-posts]

A Brief History of British Coronations 1902-1937

On 6 May King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey in a ceremony that has its origins dating back a thousand years to King Edgar the Peaceful. It will also be the first coronation in nearly 70 years and much like his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation which was the first to be televised, Charles III’s coronation will be the first to utilise both social media and YouTube as well as…

[mote-historie]

Consuelo Vanderbilt Duchess of Marlborough

[garlandedspirits]

Some well known aristocratic beauties of the late Victorian and the Edwardian era as depicted by John Singer Sargent and in photography

Lady Helen Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon (1904)  //  Winifred, Duchess of Portland (1902)  // Lady Agnew of Lochnaw (1892)  // Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland (1904) // Consuelo Vanderbilt in The Marlborough Family (1904/05)

[emvidal]

Giovanni Boldini (1842–1931) Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough, and Her Son, Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill, 1906, Oil on canvas, 221.6 x 170.2 cm (87 14 x 67 in.), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Strikingly beautiful, elegant, and wealthy, with a distinguished family pedigree to match, Consuelo Vanderbilt (1876–1964) was the doyenne of international high society. Boldini, one of the most sought-after portraitists of the day, reportedly asked to paint her when she was visiting Paris, finding her divine. Delighted with the picture, she requested that he enlarge it and include her youngest son. Using a photograph of the portrait, Boldini developed the present, final composition. Hung in the Duchess's splendid London residence, its dazzling brushwork and elongated curves proved a fitting complement to her glamorous milieu.This painting was originally conceived as a half-length portrait of Consuelo Vanderbilt; however, the sitter was so pleased with the composition that she asked Boldini to enlarge it and include her son, Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill (1898–1956). In order to prepare for the final version, Boldini had the original photographed, pasted it onto a larger sheet and expanded the composition. (Metmuseum) #PierreAugusteRenoir #Renoir #art #arthistory #paris #france #french #frenchart #français #impressionists #artist #Impressionism #portrait #pittore #pittura #pintor #pintura #peintre #peinture #impressionnisme #IntheGarden #imresionismo #Maler #Malerei #masterpiece #painting #painterRenoir New York, New York

[danielleurbansblog]

Review: American Duchess

Synopsis: Before Meghan and Harry, another American ‘princess’ captured the hand of an English aristocrat.  Now, Karen Harper tells the tale of Consuelo Vanderbilt, her “The Wedding of the Century” to the Duke of Marlborough, and her quest to find meaning behind “the glitter and the gold.” On a cold November day in 1895, a carriage approaches St Thomas Episcopal Church on New York City’s Fifth…

[wisteria-lodge]

Sargent tended to exaggerate people's heights and give them longer necks as a way to make them look more elegant while still looking like themselves... so a Sargent photoshoot with Nicole Kidman is actually really clever. She just *has* the proportions of a Sargent portrait.

I'm including all the paintings that (I think) inspired these specific photographs.

"Madame X"

(hugely scandalous painting because originally, her right strap was painted completely slipped off her shoulder. which I think they should have done in the photo re-creation with Nicole.)

"Elizabeth Winthrop Chandler" (going from the composition of the couch. I definitely think the nicole one is more 'inspired by.')

"The 9th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and their two sons" (Story goes that they're posed like that to disguise how much taller Consuelo Vanderbuilt was than the Duke. This was one of the American heiress/British aristocrat marriages from the early 1900s where her family wanted the title, old money class and prestige, and his family wanted the money, so they wouldn't have to sell off their ancestral holdings.)

"Lady Agnew of Lochnaw"

"Louise Pomeroy" (and we've still got the dress she was wearing, where we can see that the bow detail on the arm is actually part of the dress, and not a ribbon like nicole's got)

"Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children"

Nicole Kidman recreates John Singer Sargent paintings for Vogue by Steven Meisel, June 1999

[evita-shelby]

Hey Juli

Since I see you live-tumblring The Gilded Age, I have a question for you.

How would Eva navigate the gilded society? Like technically her family got aristocratic connections through her aunts and can technically be considered old money.

Pero like in PB, some people would be snobbish by her background (having indigenous blood and travelled blood).

Do you see her being welcomed by the old money in NY but I can also see her hanging out with the New Money peeps as they are more “fun”.

Lowkey can see her being the “middleman” between societies.

Eva would be in the middle or used like a prop like Bertha, Winterton and Mrs Astor use the the Duke this season.

Eva would definitely try to climb her way to the top like Bertha, as she is eccentric and rich enough to do it.

Since she's old money she may have an easier time, but she is also mexican and while Consuelo Yznaga was Cuban, Consuelo was also the Duchess of Marlborough so that gave her (and Alva Vanderbilt(who Bertha is based on) and automatic ticket to the top.

[theroyalhistory]

The Duchess of Marlborough (born Consuelo Vanderbilt), a friend, and the Duke of Marlborough on their way to Delhi, India, December 1902

[royaltyandpomp]

THE ART

Consuelo Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, née Vanderbilt  (1877-1964) by Paul César Helleu

[artschoolglasses]

The 9th Duchess of Marlborough, Consuelo Vanderbilt

Blenheim Palace, England

[experienced12]

Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough by Paul César Helleu (French, 1901 

[mote-historie]

Giovanni Boldini (Italian, 1845–1931), Consuelo Vanderbilt (1876–1964), Duchess of Marlborough, and Her Son, Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill (1898–1956) 1906, 

MET, NYC

[imkeepinit]

Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough and her son, Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill (1906) by Giovanni Boldini

[met-european-paintings]

Consuelo Vanderbilt (1876–1964), Duchess of Marlborough, and Her Son, Lord Ivor Spencer-Churchill (1898–1956), Giovanni Boldini, 1906, European Paintings

Gift of Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, 1946 Size: 87 1/4 x 67 in. (221.6 x 170.2 cm) Medium: Oil on canvas

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435693

[nanshe-of-nina]

Favorite History Books || The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy by David Cannadine ★★★★☆

Commissioned to hang opposite Reynolds’ huge portrait of “The Fourth Duke of Marlborough and His Family in the Red Room at Blenheim”, Sargent’s overwhelming painting captures the British aristocracy in the full plenitude of its pomp and power.

Or does it? On closer inspection, the initial impression of splendour and greatness is belied by much of the detail. The ancestral trophies date back to the early eighteenth century: since then, the family history has been at best mundane, at worst notorious. The Duke, for all his Gartered grandeur, looks detached, melancholy and disillusioned. And the Duchess dominates the picture in a way that would never have been permitted in the paintings of earlier centuries. How perceptively Sargent caught the disappointments, the tensions and the anxieties that lay behind this last, and rather implausible, display of patrician magnificence!

The ninth duke inherited an estate in parlous financial condition, and recently denuded of many of its finest treasures. In an effort to recoup the family fortunes, he married Consuelo Vanderbilt, the American heiress. But the union was not a success, and they were divorced in 1921. The Duke himself lived the whole of his life in the ‘depressing shadow’ of aristocratic decline, and ‘was always conscious that he belonged to a system which had been destroyed, to a society which had passed away.’