Other Famous Ladies
Empress Elisabeth of Austria:
Elisabeth,
Empress of Austria, better known as “Sissi” (1837 to 1898), was famed of her beauty and
especially of her very long hair across Europe. This picture shows well her
huge crown of braided hair. She did cultivate her own image as a work of art.
Although she was quite tall (at 5’8’’ or 172cm) for that time, she weighed only
50 kg and had a 19-inch waist (50 cm)!
(Painting “Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary” by Leopold Horovitz)
Sissi
– or to be
correctly “Sisi” – was especially proud of her incredibly long,
chestnut hair, which hung down to her knees and grew to her ankles over the
years. The braiding, arrangement and care of these streaming tresses took about
3 hours daily. The washing with mysterious essences occupied a whole day. Her
appearances in public with her hair down were rare.
Sissi
‘s paintings helped
to proclaim her fairy-like beauty all over the world.
(Painting “Empress Elisabeth with her Hair down” by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1865)
Elisabeth had a love of Hungary. When the
Habsburg domains were divided into the dual Austro-Hungarian State with it’s
capitals Budapest and Vienna in 1866, her husband Franz Joseph received his
coronation as King of Hungary. It was the highpoint of Sisi’s life and she
spent a lot of time in Hungary now. This portrait shows Sisi as the Queen of
Hungary.
Sophie
de Alencon
(1847-1897) was a sister of Elisabeth and a dazzling beauty too. She has been a
fiancée of the Bavarian king Ludwig II, but married the Duke of Alencon then.
Her brown hair reached knee-length.
(Private photo, 1871)
Elisabeth, the empress of everyone’s dreams,
was aged and lonely when this painting was created. She fought a real battle to
preserve her extraordinary look. As her fabulous beauty began to fade, her
appearances in public became extremely rare and she would not be photographed
or sit to have her portrait painted after she was forty. This was the way of
keeping the myth of her beauty alive.
Sissi was assassinated by an anarchist in Geneva 1898.
Archive of other famous ladies
