« Bello di corpo come l'Apollo del Belvedere, alto sei piedi e tre pollici, straripante di salute, vivacità e gaiezza, spiritoso, sempre di buon umore, amato ed ammirato da tutti: così era il conte d'Orsay quando ne feci la conoscenza. Egli amava il denaro non per il denaro in se stesso, ma per gli agi che procura. Era straordinariamente generoso e gli piaceva dare anche quello che aveva preso a prestito ... » 1
Mentre, il più famoso dei dandies, Lord George Brummell, nel 1840 si stava spegnendo in preda alla miseria nel suolo di Francia in cui si era stabilito per sfuggire a tutti i suoi creditori, nella Londra pre-vittoriana numerosi erano coloro che avrebbero meritato appieno il titolo di suoi successori, dandies forse altrettanto se non più eleganti e disinvolti, di sicuro meno esuberanti e più spiritosi, pronti a sostituirsi a lui nella realtà e nell'immaginario collettivo londinese: il 'semidio' Raikes, il capitano Gronow, che era inoltre un memorialista dotato di brillante spirito, lord Alvanley, Ball Hugues detto 'tutto d'oro', sir Saint Vincent Cotton, Lord Allen detto 'il re Allen' ed il famoso Comte d'Orsay proveniente da Parigi, che già ci è noto ( QUI potete leggere il post a cui mi riferisco ) per l'aver incontrato Lord e Lady Blessington e la di lei sorella nel 1823 in prossimità di Avignone - in sosta alla volta di Genova dove avrebbero incontrato il sommo poeta George Byron - e per essersi unito alla dilettevole comitiva al fine di conoscere l'allora già celebrato vate, sicuramente dei dandies del tempo il più ammirato.
Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimaud, conosciuto come Comte d'Orsay (1801-1852) « Era alto più di sei piedi ed avrebbe potuto servire da modello per una statua antica. Aveva il collo lungo, la vita sottile, le spalle larghe. Nulla superava la bellezza dei suoi piedi e delle sue caviglie. I suoi capelli castani scuri, i suoi baffi sottili ed i suoi favoriti erano naturalmente ricciuti. I suoi lineamenti erano regolari, gli occhi grandi e bruni. » 2 è questo il ritratto che farà il capitano Gronow di colui che divenne amico, commensale, compagno e probabilmente amante ( dopo gli otto mesi trascorsi insieme a Genova ) dell'avvenente Duchessa di Blessington, Marguerite.
Marguerite, comtesse de Blessington (1789-1849) by Deborah Docherty (?)
« ... Era un pittore ed uno scultore di talento, un buon musicista, un magnifico cavaliere, un atleta completo, Eccelleva nel tiro e nella spada e benché i suoi gusti fossero nettamente virili curava la sua bellezza come avrebbe potuto farlo una bella donna.
Aveva l'abitudine dei bagni profumati e i suoi amici non hanno dimenticato l'enorme scatola da toilette d'oro che l'accompagnava in tutti i suoi viaggi e che doveva essere spostata da due uomini. Pace alle sue ceneri. Il mondo non vedrà più per molto un uomo così! » 3
Alfred Count d'Orsay by Sir George Hayter (1792 - 1871)
Il 1° dicembre 1827, il Comte d'Orsay sposò la quindicenne Lady Harriet Gardiner, figlia di primo letto di Lord Blessington e se va detto che tale unione rese il suo legame con la famiglia Blessington meno apparentemente equivoca rispetto a prima, va altresì ricordato che fu tale unione per altri aspetti decisamente infelice, tanto da condurre ad una separazione legale nel 1838: Lady Harriet pagò più di £100,000 ai creditori dell'ex marito ( anche se questa cifra spropositata per il tempo non fu comunque sufficiente a coprire tutti i suoi debiti ) ed in cambio d'Orsay rinunciò a qualsiasi pretesa sui possedimenti dei Blessingtons.
Portrait of Harriet Gardiner, nee Blessington by Lizinka Aimée Zoé De Mirbel (1796-1849)
Va da sé che non è possibile ostentare lusso e vivere agiatamente se non si possiede un reddito, per di più di una certa consistenza ... lo si può fare solamente contraendo debiti ed il Comte d'Orsay a forza di gettar via denaro a piene mani ne contrasse talmente tanti da esserne sommerso ed i suoi creditori, numerosi,anzi, molto numerosi, decisero di farlo incarcerare ( solo nel 1870 venne abolita la legge che imponeva l'arresto per debiti ), ma la legge che prevedeva tale arresto, decisamente bizzarra, lo consentiva solo a domicilio e lo vietava di notte e la domenica, motivo per cui egli a partire dal 1842 prese alloggio presso la dimora di Lady Blessington che gli aveva riservata una stanza tappezzata in seta in blu con ricami in argento ed usciva solo la sera, in tutta tranquillità, per recarsi al club e per rimanervi fino all'alba.
Sette anni più tardi, nel 1849, si recò in Francia con la propria 'protettrice' la quale lo seguì dopo aver venduto tutti si suoi averi, ma lo lasciò poche settimane dopo poiché si spense poco dopo aver raggiunto Parigi, ed il povero 'Comte', affranto ed in miseria cercò quindi di procacciarsi da sé il denaro necessario per sopravvivere ricorrendo all'estro artistico di cui era naturalmente dotato
e proprio grazie al suo talento venne nominato da Luigi Napoleone, divenuto nel frattempo imperatore con il nome di Napoleone III conseguentemente ad un colpo di stato del 1851, direttore della Scuola di Belle Arti nell'anno 1852, ma pochi giorni sopravvisse a tale gesto di benignità, poiché la sua vita terminò il 4 di agosto presso la casa della sorella di conseguenza ad un'infezione spinale.
Un fatto fra mille può dare un'idea delle strane influenze che esercitò al tempo il M. le comte d’Orsay nel grande mondo britannico: un giorno i suoi amici del Jockey Club di Londra si riunirono e lo costrinsero a bastonate a pagare parte dei suo debiti, e si incontrarono insieme la sera stessa per ottenere una somma di quattrocentomila franchi. Non è chiaro chi sia da ammirare di più, se questi generosi amici dell'uomo o se piuttosto colui che aveva ispirato tali amicizie. Dal suo ritorno in Francia, nel 1849, M. le comte d’Orsay si era esclusivamente dedicato al culto dell'arte; busti di Lamartine, di Lady Blessington e la sua statua equestre di Napoleone furono notati nelle ultime sue mostre.
Dalla: Revue contemporaine. Bd. 3, 1852.
The Duke of Wellington and Mrs. Arburthnot meeting Prince de Talleyrand and Count d'Orsay in Hyde Park by (?)
Sette anni più tardi, nel 1849, si recò in Francia con la propria 'protettrice' la quale lo seguì dopo aver venduto tutti si suoi averi, ma lo lasciò poche settimane dopo poiché si spense poco dopo aver raggiunto Parigi, ed il povero 'Comte', affranto ed in miseria cercò quindi di procacciarsi da sé il denaro necessario per sopravvivere ricorrendo all'estro artistico di cui era naturalmente dotato
Dal pennello del Comte d'Orsay: Portrait of Lord Byron's daughter, Ada, who would become known as the mathematician Ada Lovelace; dal suo carboncino Portrait of a Gentleman e Selfportrait.
Un fatto fra mille può dare un'idea delle strane influenze che esercitò al tempo il M. le comte d’Orsay nel grande mondo britannico: un giorno i suoi amici del Jockey Club di Londra si riunirono e lo costrinsero a bastonate a pagare parte dei suo debiti, e si incontrarono insieme la sera stessa per ottenere una somma di quattrocentomila franchi. Non è chiaro chi sia da ammirare di più, se questi generosi amici dell'uomo o se piuttosto colui che aveva ispirato tali amicizie. Dal suo ritorno in Francia, nel 1849, M. le comte d’Orsay si era esclusivamente dedicato al culto dell'arte; busti di Lamartine, di Lady Blessington e la sua statua equestre di Napoleone furono notati nelle ultime sue mostre.
Dalla: Revue contemporaine. Bd. 3, 1852.
Ma non tutti i dandies erano di bell'aspetto e di gradevole compagnia, ahimè, tra di loro vi era anche chi del dandy sembrava quasi una caricatura: molto familiare ai londinesi Lord Allen del quale si diceva fosse grande, grosso, pomposo, con sempre addosso un cilindro nuovo, , splendenti stivali di vernice e egli anelli sui guanti, assomigliava a un pappagallo, sia per il naso fortemente arcuato, sia per l'abitudine di camminare lentamente incrociando un piede davanti all'altro. 4
E che dire di un certo giovane deputato e romanziere ebreo di nome Benjamin Disraeli, personaggio dall'apparenza bizzarra ( che diverrà, anni dopo, primo ministro di sua maestà la Regina Victoria, conte di Beaconsfield e lo statista che ideò la 'democrazia' tory ) che il giornalista americano Willis conobbe a Gore House, presso Lady Blessington, e che con le seguenti parole ce lo ritrae:
« Egli era seduto vicino alla finestra che dava su Hyde Park, gli ultimi raggi di sole si riflettevano sui fiori dorati ricamati sul suo magnifico gilet. Aveva una canna bianca, una giacca granata, dei pantaloni di velluto verde, scarpini di vernice, una quantità di catene gli circondavano il collo, e gli uscivano dalle tasche facendone, anche nel crepuscolo, una persona estremamente vistosa. La sua carnagione era livida, i suoi occhi neri come l'Erebo e aveva un'espressione sardonica. La sua pettinatura era altrettanto stravagante quanto il suo gilet: sulla guancia destra gli cadeva, giù fino al collo, una massa folta di riccioli di un nero di gaietto tanto che a sinistra i capelli, lucidi e impomatati, stavano incollati al cranio ... Parlava nervosamente come un cavallo purosangue al momento della partenza, con tutti i muscoli in azione ... Nessuna corifea di danza sacra fu mai animata da una tale frenesia. » 5
Come detto poco sopra, se le ladies si incontravano nei salotti, era ordinario per i gentleman e per i dandies ritrovarsi presso i clubs: pensate che all'epoca in cui venne eletta regina Victoria la sola Londra ne contava ben 27 e ciascuno non contava più di 2000 membri, i soci erano veri gentlemen, nel senso che ancora si attribuiva allora a tale termine, non vi facevano parte borghesi di alcun tipo.
Brook's by Rolandson and Pugin
Ogni club aveva più o meno la sua specialità: il Brook's e il White's erano i luoghi d'incontro di un'aristocrazia molto amica delle carte e molto chiusa ( il principe Luigi Napoleone non vi fu mai ricevuto ); Crockford's era un po' più aperto e vi si giocava anche di più. L'Athenaeum era il club degli eruditi, professori e dignitari della chiesa anglicana; il Clarence era letterario, il Conservative, come lo indica il nome, era tory, il Reform Club era whig di tendenza avanzata; l'Oriental radunava gli ex residenti in oriente e nei territori indiani; Garrick's era soprattutto frequentato dagli amici del teatro. Molte persone eleganti facevano parte di un club.
Le varie istituzioni avevano tutte sede nelle vaste dimore site in St.James Street o a Pall Mall. Una delle più splendide era quella dove aveva sede il Reform Club, costruita sul modello dei palazzi fiorentini. Le sue vaste cucine riscaldate a gas erano considerate una delle curiosità della capitale. Molti celibi passavano al club una parte delle loro giornate e quando non erano invitati altrove vi consumavano i pasti. Era raro che anche i membri sposati non vi si facessero vedere almeno una volta al giorno nel periodo della season. Al club, col cappello immutabilmente calcato in testa e un monocolo all'occhio si poteva distendersi, guardare a lungo, attraverso gli ampi bow-windows l'andirivieni degli equipaggi, vi si coglievano le ultime voci in fatto di politica e di ippica, vi si leggevano i giornali e le riviste, si fumava tranquillamente ( ma solo in una stanza a ciò riservata ; e il sigaro non era ancor ammesso al White's prima del 1845 ). Al club si poteva meditare al riparo di orecchie indiscrete, e abbandonarsi senza limiti al piacere del gioco. 6
Qui si trovavano le 'vestigia' dell'alta società appartenete ad un'epoca che stava per concludersi ma che ancora emanava qualche sprazzo di vivacità che presto sarebbe stata sommersa dall'ondata di seria moralità del 'Vittorianesimo': presto scompariranno la moda del vestire accurato e del parlare bleso, dei profumi penetranti e dei gioielli vistosi e l'abito nero soppianterà definitivamente quelli colorati per accarezzare con più discrezione le forme del corpo maschile segnando l'avvento dell'eleganza del nuovo gentleman, impersonata dal Principe Consorte Albert.
Portrait by Camille Silvy of Prince Albert, Consort of English Queen Victoria,
Stampa fotografica Premium
E lasciate che concluda facendo infine menzione di una curiosità, ancora riguardo al Comte d'Orsay; era il 1830 quando egli, assecondando quella che era un'autentica fervida esaltazione per i profumi, che da sempre lo infervorava, diede vita ad una casa ed ad un marchio che li producesse,
Questa passione lo infiammò a tal punto che abbandonò carta e penna e divenne creatore d'indimenticabili profumi. Tutto nacque dal desiderio di donare alla sua amata Lady Blessington un profumo degno della sua bellezza e del suo fascino. Creo così "Eau de Bouquet" che poi nel 1908 venne ribattezzato "Etiquette Bleu", un profumo che decretò l'inizio di una nuova creatività e che ancora oggi orgogliosamente esibisce la sua originalità.
La famiglia d'Orsay decise di proseguire nella tradizione, mantenendo sempre fede allo spirito e al patrimonio olfattivo del Conte d'Orsay. Fu così che la Parfums d'Orsay, verso la fine del secolo, crebbe e divenne una delle case di profumi più prestigiose. 7
Ringraziandovi infinitamente per avermi seguita fin qui vi giunga gradito il mio più caloroso abbraccio,
a presto 💕
BIBLIOGRAFIA:
Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985;
James Harrison, The Victorian Age: 1837-1914 (British History), Kingfisher Books Ltd, 2002;
Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006. pag 45
CITAZIONI:
1 - Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985, pag.96;
2 - op. cit., pag. 96;
3 - ivi, pag. 97;
4 - ivi, pag. 96;
5 - ivi, pag. 92;
6 - ivi, pag. 94;
7 - Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006, pag. 45.
- picture 1
While the most famous of all the dandies, Lord George Brummell, in 1840 was expiring in the throes of misery in the soil of France where he was finally determined to escape to all his debtors, in pre-Victorian London numerous were those who would have fully deserved the title of his successors, dandies perhaps equally if not more elegant and jaunty, certainly less exuberant and more witty, ready to replace him in reality and in the collective immagination of the Londoneers : the 'demi-god' Raikes, captain Gronow, who was also a memoirist gifted with brilliant spirit, Lord Alvanley, Ball Hugues said 'all gold', Sir Saint Vincent Cotton, Lord Allen said 'king Allen' and the famous Comte d'Orsay from Paris, which is already known to us ( HERE you can read the post I'm talking about ) for having met Lord and Lady Blessington and her sister in 1823 in the neighborhood of Avignon - where they were stopping before than reaching Genoa: there they would have met the poet George Byron - and for having joining the pleasant company in order to know the then already celebrated bard, surely the most admired of the dandies of the time.
Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimaud, known as Comte d'Orsay (1801-1852) « He was more than six feet tall and could serve as a model for an ancient statue. He had a long neck, thin waist, broad shoulders. Nothing surpassed the beauty of his feet and his ankle. His dark brown hair, his thin mustache and his favorites were naturally curly. His features were regular, hie eyes were big and brown. » 2 this is the portrait that Captain Gronow will made of the man who became friend, companion, and probably, indeed, for sure, lover (after eight months spent together in Genoa) of the comely Duchess of Blessington, Marguerite.
- picture 2 - Marguerite, comtesse de Blessington (1789-1849) by Deborah Docherty (?)
« ... He was a painter and a talented sculptor, a good musician, a superb rider, a complete athlete, and excelled in the shot and in the sword and though his tastes were distinctly masculine he cared his beauty as could have done a beautiful woman.
He had a habit of perfumed baths and his friends have not forgotten the huge golden toilet box that accompanied him in all his travels and had to be moved by two men. Peace to his ashes. The world will have to wait a lot before than seeing such a man ! » 3
- picture 3 - Alfred Count d'Orsay by Sir George Hayter (1792 - 1871)
On December 1st, 1827, the Comte d'Orsay married Lady Harriet Gardiner, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the first bed of Lord Blessington, and it must be said that if this union made his link with the Blessingtons apparently less equivocal than before, it should also be remembered that this was an union decidedly unhappy for some other aspects, so as to lead to a legal separation in 1838: Lady Harriet paid more than £100,000 to the creditors of her former husband (even if this disproportionate amount of money wasn't enough, however, to cover all his debts) and in change d'Orsay gave up any claim on the Blessingtons' estates.
- picture 4 - Portrait of Harriet Gardiner, nee Blessington by Lizinka Aimée Zoé De Mirbel (1796-1849)
It goes without saying that you can not flaunt luxury and live comfortably if you do not have an income, forthermore substantial ... you can do it only by contracting debts and the Comte d'Orsay by dint of throwing away money by the handful he contracted so many of them to be submerged and his creditors, quite many, in fact, very numerous, decided to make him imprison (only in 1870 it was abolished the law requiring the arrest for debts), but the law which provided for this arrest, definitely bizarre, allowed it only at home and forbade it at night and on Sundays, that's why he, starting from 1842, took up residence at Lady Blessington's home who had reserved him a room covered in blue silk with silver embroidery and went out only in the evening, peacefully, to go to the club and to remain there till dawn arrived.
- picture 5 - The Duke of Wellington and Mrs. Arburthnot meeting Prince de Talleyrand and Count d'Orsay in Hyde Park by (?)
Seven years later, in 1849, he went to France with his 'protectress' who followed him after selling every possession of hers, but left him a few weeks later for she died shortly after reaching Paris, and the poor 'Comte', heartbroken and destitute, tried then to procure by himself the money he needed to survive by resorting his artistic talent with which he was naturally gifted.
- picture 6 - By Comte d'Orsay's paintbrush: Portrait of Lord Byron's daughter, Ada, who would become known as the mathematician Ada Lovelace; by his pencil crayon Portrait of a Gentleman and Selfportrait.
and just thanks to his expertise he was appointed by Louis Napoleon, meanwhile become emperor as Napoleon III consequently to a coup in 1851, director of the School of Fine Arts in 1852, but a few days survived to this gesture of kindness, because his life ended on August 4th at his sister's home consequently to a spinal infection.
A fact among a thousand can give an idea of the strange influences which, at the time, M. le comte d'Orsay exerted in the great British world: one day his friends from the Jockey Club in London met with sticks and forced him to pay part of his debts, and then met together that evening again to get a sum of four hundred thousand francs. It is not clear who is to be more admired, whether these generous friends of the man or he who had inspired such friendships. Since his return to France, in 1849, M. le comte d'Orsay had dedicated himself exclusively to the art worship; busts of Lamartine, Lady Blessington and his equestrian statue of Napoleon were noticed at his last exhibitions.
From: Contemporary Review. Bd. 3 1852.
But not all the dandies were personable and of pleasant company, alas, among them there was also who of the dandy seemed almost a caricature: very familiar to the Londoners was Lord Allen who was said to be tall, great, pompous, always wearing a new cylinder, shiny boots of patent leather and rings on his gloves, he looked like a parrot, both for his strongly arched nose, and for his habit of walking slowly crossing one foot before the other. 4
And what about a certain young Jew deputy and novelist named Benjamin Disraeli, a weird-looking character (who will become, years later, Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Prime Minister, Earl of Beaconsfield and the statesman who had the idea of the tory 'democracy' ) whom the American journalist Willis met at Lady Blessington's Gore House, and in these words so depicts him:
« He was sitting by the window looking out over Hyde Park, the last rays of sunlight reflected on the golden flowers embroidered on his magnificent gilet. He had a white cane, a grenade jacket, green velvet trousers, shoes of patent leather, a number of chains surrounded his neck, and came out of the pockets making of him, even in the twilight, an extremely showy person. His complexion was pale, his eyes blacks as Erebus and had a sardonic expression. His hair was just as extravagant as his gilet: on his right cheek was falling, down to the neck, a thick mass of the blackest curls much that the hair on the left, shiny and slicked, were glued to the skull ... He spoke nervously like a thoroughbred horse on departure, with all the muscles in action ... No coryphaea of sacred dance was never animated by such a frenzy. » 5
As mentioned above, if ladies met in the salons, it was ordinary for gentlemen and dandies to meet at the clubs: think that at the time when she was elected Queen Victoria the only London had 27 clubs and each didn't count more than 2000 members: they were true gentlemen in the sense that then was still attributed to that term, they were not part of the middle class at all.
- picture 7 - Brook's by Rolandson and Pugin
Each club had more or less his specialty: the Brook's and White's were the meeting places of an aristocracy friend of cards and very closed ( Prince Louis Napoleon was never received there ); Crockford's was a bit more open and there they played even more. The Athenaeum was the club of scholars, professors and dignitaries of the Anglican Church; Clarence was literary, the Conservative, as its name indicates, was Tory, The Reform Club was Whig, of advanced trend; the Oriental rallied the former residents of the East and the Indian territories; Garrick's was frequented mostly by friends of the theater. Many elegant people were part of a club.
The various institutions were all based in the vast mansions located in St. James Street and Pall Mall. One of the most beautiful was that which housed The Reform Club, built on the model of the Florentine palaces. Its vast gas heated kitchens were considered one of the curiosities of the capital. Many unmarried people spent at the club their days, and when they were not invited anywhere else they even ate meals there. It was rare not to see at least once during the season even married members. At the club, with his hat immutably pulled down on his head and a monocle at his eye a man could relax, looking for long, through the wide bow windows, at the comings and goings of crews, there were picking the latest rumors in terms of politics and horse racing, there you read the newspapers and magazines, you smoked quietly (but only in a private room reserved at this, and the cigar wasn't admitted at the White's before than 1845). ). At the club you could meditate in the shelter from prying ears, and indulge without limits to the pleasure of the game. 6
Here were the 'vestiges' of the high society belonging to an era that was about to end but that was still giving off some spark of vitality which would soon have been submerged by the wave of serious morality of the 'Victorianism': soon will disappear the fashion of accurate dresses and of speaking lisping, of piercing scents and showy jewelry and black dress will displace permanently the colored ones to stroke with more discretion the forms of the male body, marking the advent of the new gentleman's elegance, embodied by Prince Consort Albert.
- picture 8 - Portrait by Camille Silvy of Prince Albert, Consort of English Queen Victoria,
And finally, let me conclude this writing of mine by mentioning a curiosity, still about the Comte d'Orsay; it was 1830 when, favoring what was an authentic fervent exaltation for perfumes, he gave birth to a house and a brand that could produced them, and he called it PARFUMS D'ORSAY - PARIS, whic, think, is still surviving today:
- picture 9 on the left - This passion inflamed him so much that he abandoned pen and paper and became the creator of unforgettable scents. Everything was born from the desire to give to his beloved Lady Blessington a perfume worthy of her beauty and her charm. So he create "Eau de Bouquet" which in 1908 was renamed "Etiquette Bleu", a scent that decreed the beginning of a new creativity and that still today proudly exhibits its originality.
The Orsay family decided to continue this tradition, always keeping faith with the spirit and to the olfactory heritage of the Count d'Orsay. Thus the Parfums d'Orsay, at the end of the century, grew up and became one of the most prestigious perfume houses. 7
Thanks most sincerely for having followed me up to this point and hope you'll enjoy my warmest hug, I'm wishing you all my best till the next time,
see you soon 💕
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985;
James Harrison, The Victorian Age: 1837-1914 (British History), Kingfisher Books Ltd, 2002;
Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006. pag 45
QUOTATIONS:
1 - Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985, p.96;
2 - op. cit., p. 96;
3 - ibid., p. 97;
4 - ibid., p. 96;
5 - ibid., p. 92;
6 - ibid., p. 94;
7 - Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006, p. 45.
La famiglia d'Orsay decise di proseguire nella tradizione, mantenendo sempre fede allo spirito e al patrimonio olfattivo del Conte d'Orsay. Fu così che la Parfums d'Orsay, verso la fine del secolo, crebbe e divenne una delle case di profumi più prestigiose. 7
Ringraziandovi infinitamente per avermi seguita fin qui vi giunga gradito il mio più caloroso abbraccio,
a presto 💕
BIBLIOGRAFIA:
Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985;
James Harrison, The Victorian Age: 1837-1914 (British History), Kingfisher Books Ltd, 2002;
Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006. pag 45
CITAZIONI:
1 - Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985, pag.96;
2 - op. cit., pag. 96;
3 - ivi, pag. 97;
4 - ivi, pag. 96;
5 - ivi, pag. 92;
6 - ivi, pag. 94;
7 - Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006, pag. 45.
"Beautiful of body like the Apollo of the Belvedere, six feet and three inches tall, overflowing with health, liveliness and gaiety, witty, always in a good mood, loved and admired by everybody: this was the Count d'Orsay when I made his knowledge. He loved money not for the money itself, but for the comforts that it brought. He was extraordinarily generous and he also liked to give what he had borrowed ... "1
- picture 1
While the most famous of all the dandies, Lord George Brummell, in 1840 was expiring in the throes of misery in the soil of France where he was finally determined to escape to all his debtors, in pre-Victorian London numerous were those who would have fully deserved the title of his successors, dandies perhaps equally if not more elegant and jaunty, certainly less exuberant and more witty, ready to replace him in reality and in the collective immagination of the Londoneers : the 'demi-god' Raikes, captain Gronow, who was also a memoirist gifted with brilliant spirit, Lord Alvanley, Ball Hugues said 'all gold', Sir Saint Vincent Cotton, Lord Allen said 'king Allen' and the famous Comte d'Orsay from Paris, which is already known to us ( HERE you can read the post I'm talking about ) for having met Lord and Lady Blessington and her sister in 1823 in the neighborhood of Avignon - where they were stopping before than reaching Genoa: there they would have met the poet George Byron - and for having joining the pleasant company in order to know the then already celebrated bard, surely the most admired of the dandies of the time.
Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimaud, known as Comte d'Orsay (1801-1852) « He was more than six feet tall and could serve as a model for an ancient statue. He had a long neck, thin waist, broad shoulders. Nothing surpassed the beauty of his feet and his ankle. His dark brown hair, his thin mustache and his favorites were naturally curly. His features were regular, hie eyes were big and brown. » 2 this is the portrait that Captain Gronow will made of the man who became friend, companion, and probably, indeed, for sure, lover (after eight months spent together in Genoa) of the comely Duchess of Blessington, Marguerite.
- picture 2 - Marguerite, comtesse de Blessington (1789-1849) by Deborah Docherty (?)
« ... He was a painter and a talented sculptor, a good musician, a superb rider, a complete athlete, and excelled in the shot and in the sword and though his tastes were distinctly masculine he cared his beauty as could have done a beautiful woman.
He had a habit of perfumed baths and his friends have not forgotten the huge golden toilet box that accompanied him in all his travels and had to be moved by two men. Peace to his ashes. The world will have to wait a lot before than seeing such a man ! » 3
- picture 3 - Alfred Count d'Orsay by Sir George Hayter (1792 - 1871)
On December 1st, 1827, the Comte d'Orsay married Lady Harriet Gardiner, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the first bed of Lord Blessington, and it must be said that if this union made his link with the Blessingtons apparently less equivocal than before, it should also be remembered that this was an union decidedly unhappy for some other aspects, so as to lead to a legal separation in 1838: Lady Harriet paid more than £100,000 to the creditors of her former husband (even if this disproportionate amount of money wasn't enough, however, to cover all his debts) and in change d'Orsay gave up any claim on the Blessingtons' estates.
- picture 4 - Portrait of Harriet Gardiner, nee Blessington by Lizinka Aimée Zoé De Mirbel (1796-1849)
It goes without saying that you can not flaunt luxury and live comfortably if you do not have an income, forthermore substantial ... you can do it only by contracting debts and the Comte d'Orsay by dint of throwing away money by the handful he contracted so many of them to be submerged and his creditors, quite many, in fact, very numerous, decided to make him imprison (only in 1870 it was abolished the law requiring the arrest for debts), but the law which provided for this arrest, definitely bizarre, allowed it only at home and forbade it at night and on Sundays, that's why he, starting from 1842, took up residence at Lady Blessington's home who had reserved him a room covered in blue silk with silver embroidery and went out only in the evening, peacefully, to go to the club and to remain there till dawn arrived.
- picture 5 - The Duke of Wellington and Mrs. Arburthnot meeting Prince de Talleyrand and Count d'Orsay in Hyde Park by (?)
Seven years later, in 1849, he went to France with his 'protectress' who followed him after selling every possession of hers, but left him a few weeks later for she died shortly after reaching Paris, and the poor 'Comte', heartbroken and destitute, tried then to procure by himself the money he needed to survive by resorting his artistic talent with which he was naturally gifted.
- picture 6 - By Comte d'Orsay's paintbrush: Portrait of Lord Byron's daughter, Ada, who would become known as the mathematician Ada Lovelace; by his pencil crayon Portrait of a Gentleman and Selfportrait.
and just thanks to his expertise he was appointed by Louis Napoleon, meanwhile become emperor as Napoleon III consequently to a coup in 1851, director of the School of Fine Arts in 1852, but a few days survived to this gesture of kindness, because his life ended on August 4th at his sister's home consequently to a spinal infection.
A fact among a thousand can give an idea of the strange influences which, at the time, M. le comte d'Orsay exerted in the great British world: one day his friends from the Jockey Club in London met with sticks and forced him to pay part of his debts, and then met together that evening again to get a sum of four hundred thousand francs. It is not clear who is to be more admired, whether these generous friends of the man or he who had inspired such friendships. Since his return to France, in 1849, M. le comte d'Orsay had dedicated himself exclusively to the art worship; busts of Lamartine, Lady Blessington and his equestrian statue of Napoleon were noticed at his last exhibitions.
From: Contemporary Review. Bd. 3 1852.
But not all the dandies were personable and of pleasant company, alas, among them there was also who of the dandy seemed almost a caricature: very familiar to the Londoners was Lord Allen who was said to be tall, great, pompous, always wearing a new cylinder, shiny boots of patent leather and rings on his gloves, he looked like a parrot, both for his strongly arched nose, and for his habit of walking slowly crossing one foot before the other. 4
And what about a certain young Jew deputy and novelist named Benjamin Disraeli, a weird-looking character (who will become, years later, Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Prime Minister, Earl of Beaconsfield and the statesman who had the idea of the tory 'democracy' ) whom the American journalist Willis met at Lady Blessington's Gore House, and in these words so depicts him:
« He was sitting by the window looking out over Hyde Park, the last rays of sunlight reflected on the golden flowers embroidered on his magnificent gilet. He had a white cane, a grenade jacket, green velvet trousers, shoes of patent leather, a number of chains surrounded his neck, and came out of the pockets making of him, even in the twilight, an extremely showy person. His complexion was pale, his eyes blacks as Erebus and had a sardonic expression. His hair was just as extravagant as his gilet: on his right cheek was falling, down to the neck, a thick mass of the blackest curls much that the hair on the left, shiny and slicked, were glued to the skull ... He spoke nervously like a thoroughbred horse on departure, with all the muscles in action ... No coryphaea of sacred dance was never animated by such a frenzy. » 5
As mentioned above, if ladies met in the salons, it was ordinary for gentlemen and dandies to meet at the clubs: think that at the time when she was elected Queen Victoria the only London had 27 clubs and each didn't count more than 2000 members: they were true gentlemen in the sense that then was still attributed to that term, they were not part of the middle class at all.
- picture 7 - Brook's by Rolandson and Pugin
Each club had more or less his specialty: the Brook's and White's were the meeting places of an aristocracy friend of cards and very closed ( Prince Louis Napoleon was never received there ); Crockford's was a bit more open and there they played even more. The Athenaeum was the club of scholars, professors and dignitaries of the Anglican Church; Clarence was literary, the Conservative, as its name indicates, was Tory, The Reform Club was Whig, of advanced trend; the Oriental rallied the former residents of the East and the Indian territories; Garrick's was frequented mostly by friends of the theater. Many elegant people were part of a club.
The various institutions were all based in the vast mansions located in St. James Street and Pall Mall. One of the most beautiful was that which housed The Reform Club, built on the model of the Florentine palaces. Its vast gas heated kitchens were considered one of the curiosities of the capital. Many unmarried people spent at the club their days, and when they were not invited anywhere else they even ate meals there. It was rare not to see at least once during the season even married members. At the club, with his hat immutably pulled down on his head and a monocle at his eye a man could relax, looking for long, through the wide bow windows, at the comings and goings of crews, there were picking the latest rumors in terms of politics and horse racing, there you read the newspapers and magazines, you smoked quietly (but only in a private room reserved at this, and the cigar wasn't admitted at the White's before than 1845). ). At the club you could meditate in the shelter from prying ears, and indulge without limits to the pleasure of the game. 6
Here were the 'vestiges' of the high society belonging to an era that was about to end but that was still giving off some spark of vitality which would soon have been submerged by the wave of serious morality of the 'Victorianism': soon will disappear the fashion of accurate dresses and of speaking lisping, of piercing scents and showy jewelry and black dress will displace permanently the colored ones to stroke with more discretion the forms of the male body, marking the advent of the new gentleman's elegance, embodied by Prince Consort Albert.
- picture 8 - Portrait by Camille Silvy of Prince Albert, Consort of English Queen Victoria,
And finally, let me conclude this writing of mine by mentioning a curiosity, still about the Comte d'Orsay; it was 1830 when, favoring what was an authentic fervent exaltation for perfumes, he gave birth to a house and a brand that could produced them, and he called it PARFUMS D'ORSAY - PARIS, whic, think, is still surviving today:
- picture 9 on the left - This passion inflamed him so much that he abandoned pen and paper and became the creator of unforgettable scents. Everything was born from the desire to give to his beloved Lady Blessington a perfume worthy of her beauty and her charm. So he create "Eau de Bouquet" which in 1908 was renamed "Etiquette Bleu", a scent that decreed the beginning of a new creativity and that still today proudly exhibits its originality.
The Orsay family decided to continue this tradition, always keeping faith with the spirit and to the olfactory heritage of the Count d'Orsay. Thus the Parfums d'Orsay, at the end of the century, grew up and became one of the most prestigious perfume houses. 7
Thanks most sincerely for having followed me up to this point and hope you'll enjoy my warmest hug, I'm wishing you all my best till the next time,
see you soon 💕
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985;
James Harrison, The Victorian Age: 1837-1914 (British History), Kingfisher Books Ltd, 2002;
Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006. pag 45
QUOTATIONS:
1 - Jacques Chastenet, LA VITA QUOTIDIANA IN INGHILTERRA AI TEMPI DELLA REGNA VITTORIA, Traduzione Maria Grazia Meriggi, Rizzoli Editore, Milano, 1985, p.96;
2 - op. cit., p. 96;
3 - ibid., p. 97;
4 - ibid., p. 96;
5 - ibid., p. 92;
6 - ibid., p. 94;
7 - Ornella Pastorelli, Silvio Levi, Leggere il Profumo, Franco Angeli, 2006, p. 45.
