#Princess of Bavaria

[royalmotherhood]

Princess Bona of Bavaria, nee Princess of Savoy-Genoa, with her husband, and their two children, Amalie Isabella and Eugen, in 1921.

[cinematic-phosphenes]

Elisabeth (Sissi) of Bavaria, Empress of Austria | 1865 Franz Xaver Winterhalter

[sisionscreen]

Devrim Lingnau and Melika Foroutan as Empress Elisabeth and Archduchess Sophie in a new poster for the second season of The Empress (2022).

[archduchessofnowhere]

Archduchess Sophie to her son Archduke Maximilian, February 5 of 1863: The ball was said to have been very beautiful, as always at Alphons Pallavicini’s, and Sisi looked delicious in a light white dress interwoven with stars in matte silver and the diamond stars in her hair that look so good on her... At the court ball, Sisi’s dress was pinned all round with diamonds and rubies. I say this later because you and your wives [Archuke Karl Ludwig and his wife Maria Annunziata were staying in Trieste with his brother and sister-in-law] might be interested in jewellery and toilets.

Praschl-Bichler, Gabriel (2008). Unsere liebe Sisi. Die Wahrheit über Erzherzogin Sophie und Kaiserin Elisabeth (Machine translation. Please keep in mind that a lot of nuance may/will be lost)

Sisi’s success was overwhelming. In 1864, for example, she went to Dresden for her brother Karl Theodor’s wedding. After the court ball. Archduke Ludwig Viktor reported to Vienna that Sisi was “stunningly beautiful, also the people here acted insane. I have never seen anyone having such an effect before.” Sisi wore a white dress embroidered with stars, her famous large diamond stars in her hair, on her breast a corsage of camellias. Her sister “Helene, a very pale copy of the Empress, in a star dress also,” wrote Ludwig Viktor. At the wedding, the main attraction was not the bride, but Elisabeth. This time she appeared in a lilac dress embroidered with silver clover leaves, with a cape of silver lace, a diamond tiara on her intricately dressed hair. Ludwig Viktor: “the people here are so flabbergasted at our lady sovereign!!! they’re right.”

Hamann, Brigitte (1986). The Reluctant Empress: A Biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (translation by Ruth Hein)

[obscurehistoricalinterests]

'Sisi' was a terrible empress. Her romanticization needs to STOP.

In more recent decades, Elisabeth has received a growing attention in pop culture: there are several series, films and even a musical paying tribute to her legend. Her beauty is admired, her trials and tribulations are pitied, her struggle to escape the chafing constraints of royal life is celebrated. There's a whiff of feminism surrounding her lately - a strong, intelligent woman, metaphorically, and if we take the film Corsage, even literally flipping off the patriarchy. She's galloping through forests barefoot, she's facing off her tyrannical mother in law, she's fighting for her freedom, for control over her own life. German writer Karen Duve goes as far as to call Elisabeth "an undiscovered feminist icon." 

But... was she? One of her ladies in waiting once said that Elisabeth will "live on in legend, not in history". And right she was. You see, Elisabeth has triumphed. When I look around, it seems as if we see her exactly as she would have wanted us to. A tragic heroine, a beautiful apparition, a nymph who somehow got trapped in the mortal realm, to her immense suffering. And for a modern woman,  there is much to empathize with in Elisabeth: her sublime sensitivity, her iron self-discipline, her headstrong character, her inborn thirst for freedom. But upon lifting the starry veil of this ethereal fairy-tale queen, one will find the face of a much more complex, flawed and ultimately human woman. Self-obsessed and narcissistic, monstrously selfish and possessive, cruelly indifferent to her empire (with one all-consuming exception), incessantly self-victimizing and deeply, deeply unhappy - overwhelmingly through her own fault.  

[royalty-nobility]

Emperor Franz Joseph and His Bride on a Trip in the Area Around Ischl

Artist: Johann Erdmann Gottlieb Prestel (German, 1804-1885)

Date: c. 1853-1854

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Description

The picture, which comes from the possession of the Office of the Master of the Horse, depicts the first joint outing of Emperor Franz Joseph and his bride Princess Elisabeth in Bavaria, which took place on August 21, 1853 near Bad Ischl. The young couple is sitting in a Landschützer, which is driven by Count Grünne, a confidant of the Emperor. The Landschützer, a rural open carriage, is drawn by six horses in the "wild" style. In this type of harness, which originated in Hungary, two horses are attached to the drawbar and four horses are harnessed in parallel to a front scale.

[tiaramania]

TIARA ALERT: Sophie Alexandra Evekink wore the Bavarian Sapphire Floral Tiara for her wedding to Prince Ludwig of Bavaria at the Theatine Church in Munich, Germany on 20 May 2023.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Joseph Karl Stieler (German, 1781–1858) Sophie, Archduchess of Austria (née Princess of Bavaria), 1832 Gallery of Beauties, Nymphenburg Palace

Sophie was the eldest daughter of King Maximilan I of Bavaria and his second wife, Princess Caroline of Baden. She was thus a half-sister to King Ludwig I. She was also the mother of the future Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.

[alienas]

COSTUME APPRECIATION Princess Sophie, Archduchess of Austria, The Empress

[tiny-librarian]

Royal Birthdays for today, January 8th:

Rudolph, Archduke of Austria, 1788

Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, 1864

Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy, 1873

Elisabeth Marie of Bavaria, Countess of of Seefried and Buttenheim, 1874

Sirivannavari Nariratana, Princess of Thailand, 1987

Josephine, Princess of Denmark, 2011

Vincent, Prince of Denmark, 2011

[taniatas]

hi again, may i make another request for an artwork of princess augusta of bavaria (love ur art and it deserves more recognition) <3

Hi again athqera!!

Sorry for the long wait I needed a little more time to think about what I wanted from this art. Anyway, Princess Augusta of Bavaria (Duchess consort of Leuchtenburg)!

[adini-nikolaevna]

Princesses Elisabeth Marie and Auguste of Bavaria, daughters of Archduchess Gisela of Austria, by Heigl.

[royal-confessions]

“Crown princess Antonia of Bavaria had such a tragic life. She was imprisoned in a concentration camp, due to her and her husband’s not supporting the nazis. She was reportedly tortured and was very malnourished when they found her in a hospital. She never talked about her experiences and vowed that she would never return to Germany. She died prematurely in her mid fifties after a decade of suffering from the aftermath.” - Submitted by Anonymous

[sisionscreen]

Devrim Lingnau and Melika Foroutan as Empress Elisabeth and Archduchess Sophie in the second season of The Empress (2022).

[archduchessofnowhere]

Letter from Archduchess Sophie to her daughter-in-law Archduchess Margarethe, on the Christmas Eve of 1857:

December 28, 1857 … Christmas presents downstairs with my children [the Imperial couple and their daughter Archduchess Gisela] went much better than we could have expected after our painful loss [the death of the couple's first child, Sophie, on May], as our dear, now only child softened all the melancholy memories with her so kind friendliness and joy. When her father carried her into all the splendors, she looked around in silent amazement, then standing at her little table, she looked closely at every toy, held a stuffed puppy, which set a clockwork in motion and which wriggled on all its limbs, calmly in her little hand and played delicately, so calmly and joyfully with all her splendors. Once she shouted for joy, which is her habit when she is happy, and the next morning every time she saw all her beautiful things again in the next room, only a few of which she gets to play with every day, she shouted for joy again! - When her mother said she had to go to bed on Christmas Eve, she went gently, without reluctance. She only slipped two bracelets, which her beloved grandfather and I had given her, off her arms with difficulty, thinking she would have to leave them with the toys and wanted to give them to Sophie Esterhazy [Oberhofmeisterin of the Empress], but she kept them firmly in her hands and after a few bows she went her way in a friendly manner.

Praschl-Bichler, Gabriel (2008). Unsere liebe Sisi. Die Wahrheit über Erzherzogin Sophie und Kaiserin Elisabeth (Translation done by DeepL. Please keep in mind that in a machine translation a lot of nuance may/will be lost)

[Pictured: Litography of Archduchess Gisela, by Adolf Dauthage, 1860].

[thecatalogueofroyalfashion]

Princess Sophie Alexandra of Bavaria || WONÁ Concept