Olga de Meyer
Encyclopedia
Olga, the Baroness de Meyer (8 August 1871 – 1930/1931) was a British
-born artists' model
, socialite, patron of the arts, writer, and fashion figure of the early 20th century. She was best known as the wife of photographer Adolph de Meyer and was rumoured to be the natural daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom
. After 1916 she preferred to be known as Mahrah de Meyer.
Maria Beatrice Olga Alberta Caracciolo in London
, England
. Her father was Neapolitan nobleman Gennaro Caracciolo Pinelli, Duke Caracciolo (1849-?), eldest son of the 4th Duke of Castelluccio, while her mother was the former Marie Blanche Sampayo (1849-1890), a daughter of Antoine François Oscar Sampayo, a French diplomat who served as that country's minister to Portugal, and his American wife, Virginia Timberlake. Her great-grandmother Margaret O'Neill Eaton
was the central figure in the Petticoat affair
, a scandal that plagued President Andrew Jackson
. Another great-grandparent was a Marshal of France
, Count Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély
.
To many individuals who observed the arc of Olga's early life the most distinguished familial connection was her relationship with Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales and later King Edward VII
. Though officially her godfather, the British royal was known to be one of Blanche Caracciolo's lovers and, consequently, suspected of being her daughter's actual father. Most stories related about Olga's youth describe her as illegitimate, though surely this means her legal father, the duke, was not her biological father. According to French historian Philippe Jullian, the British king believed that Olga was his child and therefore went to great lengths to ensure that she and her mother had sufficient material comforts. Other potential fathers have been identified, however. The strongest candidate to many was Stanislaus Augustus, 3rd Prince Poniatowski and 3rd Prince of Monte Rotondo (1835-1908), a married former equerry of Napoleon III, whom Olga reportedly resembled and with whom the newlywed Duchess Caracciolo reportedly eloped on 1 September 1869, the very day her arranged marriage with the duke took place.
The duke and duchess separated soon after Olga's birth, and the child spent her youth in Dieppe
, France
, at a house called Villa Olga, where she lived with her mother and maternal grandmother. (Since the duchess's father-in-law, the Duke of Castelluccio, was still living, she used the title Duchess Caracciolo.)
In 1916 Olga de Meyer took the forename Mahrah upon the advice of an astrologer.
Olga de Meyer had an affair with Princess (Edmond) de Polignac
, a Singer-sewing-machine heiress and arts patron, in the years 1901-05.
and model
to many artists, among them Jacques-Émile Blanche, James McNeill Whistler
, James Jebusa Shannon
, Giovanni Boldini
, Walter Sickert
, John Singer Sargent
, and Paul César Helleu
.http://jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Jacques-Emile_Blanche/Portrait_of_Donna_Olga_Caracciolo_dei_Duchi_di_Castelluccio.htm Another of her artist admirers was Charles Conder
, who was infatuated by Olga Caracciolo and painted her portrait; Aubrey Beardsley
was part of her youthful circle as well. Olga de Meyer also inspired characters in novels by Elinor Glyn
and Ada Leverson
.
Of Olga's beauty, British novelist George Moore
was unimpressed. As he commented to an admiring artist friend, "By Jove, you're all after the girl, a fine Mélisande
for the stage, with her beautiful hair down to her heels. She's paintable, I admit, but as to one's daily use, I should rather have the mother than the child. Too slender for me ... you know my tastes."
She worked briefly as a society columnist for La Galoise, a Paris newspaper, in the 1890s. As Mahrah de Meyer, a name she adopted in 1916, she wrote one novel, the aubiographical Nadine Narska (Wilmarth Publishing, 1916). The New York Times condemned the novel as "morbid, exaggerated, ... [and] guilty of many carelessly written sentences",http://books.google.com/books?id=Wv4jAAAAMAAJ&dq=nadine+narska&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=VHyekvJDvE&sig=12iR4BJLIlEDxo265k89cnx-WAo&hl=en&ei=xpBDS871AoH8lAf_9uycBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false while The Dial called de Meyer's book "a miscellaneous mixture of paganism, diluted Nietzsche, worldly morals, and the
doctrine of reincarnation".
One of de Meyer's short stories, Clothes and Treachery, was made into The Devil's Pass Key, a 1919 silent movie by director Erich von Stroheim
.
Olga de Meyer died of a heart attack in detoxification clinic in Austria in 1930 or 1931.http://books.google.com/books?id=Wv4jAAAAMAAJ&dq=nadine+narska&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=VHyekvJDvE&sig=12iR4BJLIlEDxo265k89cnx-WAo&hl=en&ei=xpBDS871AoH8lAf_9uycBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
[
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-born artists' model
Model (art)
Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...
, socialite, patron of the arts, writer, and fashion figure of the early 20th century. She was best known as the wife of photographer Adolph de Meyer and was rumoured to be the natural daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. After 1916 she preferred to be known as Mahrah de Meyer.
Background
Of Portuguese, French, and American descent, she was born DonnaDonna
-Fictional characters:*Donna Duck, character from the 1937 Disney short Don Donald*Donna Freedman, character from Neighbours*Donna Hayward, character from Twin Peaks*Donna Martin, character from Beverly Hills 90210...
Maria Beatrice Olga Alberta Caracciolo in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Her father was Neapolitan nobleman Gennaro Caracciolo Pinelli, Duke Caracciolo (1849-?), eldest son of the 4th Duke of Castelluccio, while her mother was the former Marie Blanche Sampayo (1849-1890), a daughter of Antoine François Oscar Sampayo, a French diplomat who served as that country's minister to Portugal, and his American wife, Virginia Timberlake. Her great-grandmother Margaret O'Neill Eaton
Margaret O'Neill Eaton
Margaret O'Neill Eaton , better known as Peggy Eaton, was the daughter of Rhoda Howell and William O'Neale, the owner of Franklin House, a popular Washington, D.C. hotel. Peggy was noted for her beauty, wit and vivacity...
was the central figure in the Petticoat affair
Petticoat Affair
The Petticoat affair was an 1830–1831 U.S. scandal involving members of President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet and their wives. Although it started over a private matter, it affected the political careers of several men and resulted in the informal "Kitchen Cabinet"...
, a scandal that plagued President Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
. Another great-grandparent was a Marshal of France
Marshal of France
The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...
, Count Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély
Auguste Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély
Auguste Michel Étienne Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély, later 2nd Count Regnaud de Saint-Jean d'Angély was a Marshal of France, soldier and politician....
.
To many individuals who observed the arc of Olga's early life the most distinguished familial connection was her relationship with Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales and later King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. Though officially her godfather, the British royal was known to be one of Blanche Caracciolo's lovers and, consequently, suspected of being her daughter's actual father. Most stories related about Olga's youth describe her as illegitimate, though surely this means her legal father, the duke, was not her biological father. According to French historian Philippe Jullian, the British king believed that Olga was his child and therefore went to great lengths to ensure that she and her mother had sufficient material comforts. Other potential fathers have been identified, however. The strongest candidate to many was Stanislaus Augustus, 3rd Prince Poniatowski and 3rd Prince of Monte Rotondo (1835-1908), a married former equerry of Napoleon III, whom Olga reportedly resembled and with whom the newlywed Duchess Caracciolo reportedly eloped on 1 September 1869, the very day her arranged marriage with the duke took place.
The duke and duchess separated soon after Olga's birth, and the child spent her youth in Dieppe
Dieppe, Seine-Maritime
Dieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in France. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe urban area was 81,419.A port on the English Channel, famous for its scallops, and with a regular ferry service from the Gare Maritime to Newhaven in England, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, at a house called Villa Olga, where she lived with her mother and maternal grandmother. (Since the duchess's father-in-law, the Duke of Castelluccio, was still living, she used the title Duchess Caracciolo.)
In 1916 Olga de Meyer took the forename Mahrah upon the advice of an astrologer.
Marriages
Olga Caracciolo was married to:- NobileNobile (aristocracy)Nobile or Nob. is an Italian title of nobility ranking between that of baron and knight. As with the other titles of nobility, such as baron or count, nobile is also used immediately before the family name, usually in the abbreviated form: Nob.The word “nobile” is derived from the Latin “nobilis”,...
Marino Brancaccio (1852-1920), a Neapolitan nobleman who was a son of Carlo Brancaccio, Prince of Triggiano and Duke of Lustra. They married in NaplesNaplesNaples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, ItalyItalyItaly , 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...
, on 9 May 1892 (civil) and 11 May 1892 (religious), and divorced on 7 June 1899, in Hamburg, Germany. Artist Jacques-Émile Blanche, a family friend, called it "a short and most dramatic union". - Adolph de Meyer (1868-1946), a celebrated artist dubbed by Cecil BeatonCecil BeatonSir 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...
"the DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
of photography." They married on 25 July 1899 at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, Cadogan Square, in London. This was a marriage of convenience, as the groom was homosexual and the bride was bisexual; some sources identify her as a lesbianLesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
. The de Meyers were characterized by Violet TrefusisViolet TrefusisViolet Trefusis née Keppel was an English writer and socialite. She is most notable for her lesbian affair with Vita Sackville-West, which was featured under disguise in Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography....
—who counted Olga among her lovers and whose mother, Alice KeppelAlice KeppelAlice Frederica Keppel, née Edmonstone was a British socialite and the most famous mistress of Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria. Her formal style after marriage was The Hon. Mrs George Keppel. Her daughter, Violet Trefusis, was the lover of poet Vita Sackville-West...
, was Edward VIIEdward VII of the United KingdomEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
's best known mistress—as "Pederaste and Medisante" because, as Trefusis observed, "He looked so queer and she had such a vicious tongue."
Olga de Meyer had an affair with Princess (Edmond) de Polignac
Winnaretta Singer
Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac was an American musical patron and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune.-Early Life and Family:...
, a Singer-sewing-machine heiress and arts patron, in the years 1901-05.
Muse and Writer
Known for "her elusive combination of childlike innocence and soigné charm" and described as "tall and slender, with Venetian red hair", Olga de Meyer was museMuse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
and model
Model (art)
Art models are models who pose for photographers, painters, sculptors, and other artists as part of their work of art. Art models who pose in the nude for life drawing are usually called life models...
to many artists, among them Jacques-Émile Blanche, James McNeill Whistler
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...
, James Jebusa Shannon
James Jebusa Shannon
Sir James Jebusa Shannon , Anglo-American artist, was born in Auburn, New York, and at the age of eight was taken by his parents to Canada....
, 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:...
, Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
, John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
, and Paul César Helleu
Paul César Helleu
Paul César Helleu was a French artist best known for his portraits of many of the most famous and beautiful women of his time including the Duchess of Marlborough, the Countess of Greffulhe, the Marchesa Casati and Belle da Costa Greene.-Biography:He was born in Vannes, Brittany, France...
.http://jssgallery.org/Other_Artists/Jacques-Emile_Blanche/Portrait_of_Donna_Olga_Caracciolo_dei_Duchi_di_Castelluccio.htm Another of her artist admirers was Charles Conder
Charles Conder
Charles Edward Conder was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer. He emigrated to Australia and was a key figure in the Heidelberg School, arguably the beginning of a distinctively Australian tradition in Western art.-Early life:Conder was born in Tottenham, Middlesex, the second son,...
, who was infatuated by Olga Caracciolo and painted her portrait; Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Beardsley
Aubrey Vincent Beardsley was an English illustrator and author. His drawings, done in black ink and influenced by the style of Japanese woodcuts, emphasized the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. He was a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement which also included Oscar Wilde and James A....
was part of her youthful circle as well. Olga de Meyer also inspired characters in novels by Elinor Glyn
Elinor Glyn
Elinor Glyn , born Elinor Sutherland, was a British novelist and scriptwriter who pioneered mass-market women's erotic fiction. She popularized the concept It...
and Ada Leverson
Ada Leverson
Ada Leverson was a British writer who is now known primarily for her work as a novelist.She began writing during the 1890s, as a contributor to Black and White, Punch, and The Yellow Book. She was a loyal friend to Oscar Wilde, who called her Sphinx...
.
Of Olga's beauty, British novelist George Moore
George Moore (novelist)
George Augustus Moore was an Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist. Moore came from a Roman Catholic landed family who lived at Moore Hall in Carra, County Mayo. He originally wanted to be a painter, and studied art in Paris during the 1870s...
was unimpressed. As he commented to an admiring artist friend, "By Jove, you're all after the girl, a fine Mélisande
Pelléas and Mélisande
Pelléas and Mélisande is a Symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. It was first performed in 1893....
for the stage, with her beautiful hair down to her heels. She's paintable, I admit, but as to one's daily use, I should rather have the mother than the child. Too slender for me ... you know my tastes."
She worked briefly as a society columnist for La Galoise, a Paris newspaper, in the 1890s. As Mahrah de Meyer, a name she adopted in 1916, she wrote one novel, the aubiographical Nadine Narska (Wilmarth Publishing, 1916). The New York Times condemned the novel as "morbid, exaggerated, ... [and] guilty of many carelessly written sentences",http://books.google.com/books?id=Wv4jAAAAMAAJ&dq=nadine+narska&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=VHyekvJDvE&sig=12iR4BJLIlEDxo265k89cnx-WAo&hl=en&ei=xpBDS871AoH8lAf_9uycBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false while The Dial called de Meyer's book "a miscellaneous mixture of paganism, diluted Nietzsche, worldly morals, and the
doctrine of reincarnation".
One of de Meyer's short stories, Clothes and Treachery, was made into The Devil's Pass Key, a 1919 silent movie by director Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
.
Sportswoman
Known as the "woman [amateur fencing] champion of Europe", Baroness de Meyer competed at tournaments in Europe and the United States in the early 1900s. At the Colony Club in New York City on 6 January 1913, she participated in an exhibition match with California champion fencer Sibyl Marston.http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/article_2ddf6e2b-233e-53df-b5b1-5acd3061ed79.html?mode=storyDeath
The last years of Olga de Meyer's life were not pleasant ones. As an observer wrote, "Nervous, drugged, surrounded by ambiguous friends and accompanied by a too-conspicuous husband, Olga had become frankly spiteful. Her scandal-mongering had eliminated the last of her respectable friends, and people visited her only because they could be sure to find a pipe of opium or a sniff of cocaine."Olga de Meyer died of a heart attack in detoxification clinic in Austria in 1930 or 1931.http://books.google.com/books?id=Wv4jAAAAMAAJ&dq=nadine+narska&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=VHyekvJDvE&sig=12iR4BJLIlEDxo265k89cnx-WAo&hl=en&ei=xpBDS871AoH8lAf_9uycBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
External links
- Biography and portraits of Olga
- Portrait by Jacques Emile BlancheJacques Émile BlancheJacques-Émile Blanche was a French painter born in Paris. His father was a successful psychiatrist who ran a fashionable clinic, and Blanche was brought up in the rich Parisian neighborhood of Passy in a house that had belonged to the Princesse de Lamballe.Although he received some instruction in...
- Photograph of Olga
- Photograph of Olga
[