A Thruple, a Lemur and a Thigh Tattoo

 Whilst researching, I also seem to have moments of thinking 'Well, that's bonkers, I really want to tell someone about that!' but unfortunately most people I know are fairly sane and strangly uninterested in who some random woman in a painting was, or how many servants an artist had.  I know, it's unbelievable that someone wouldn't be gripped by that, but here we are. So, luckily I have you, my dear readers, who I couldn't wait to share this with, and just for a change, it won't make you too angry.

As you will undoubtedly remember, from this post, I love it when people reference (or outright copy) Pre-Raphaelite paintings in photographs.  This image of The Bridesmaid still makes me smile as it is wonderful.

And you will also remember from this post, there was a fascination to recreate Victorian paintings in photos at around the turn of the century, as in the 1894 article about whether a photo could be as effective as the painting it was based on.  I also knew this came out of a tradition of tableaux vivants which were from the medieval period but very popular in the 19th century and featured people recreating a scene or painting in a static manner.  The difference between this and poses plastiques is very little but in the latter you are more likely to be a woman with her boobs out.  Moving on.

Tableaux vivants did not have that reputation, in fact the Middlesex Chronicle reported in 1906 that the Congregational Sunday School had performed some as part of an evening entertainment, including one of Prince Charlie's Farewell to Flora Macdonald and Maud Goodman appearing as Millais' Bubbles. Immediately, you will see my interest, as in looking at reports of tableaux, I found that people liked doing Pre-Raphaelite images, and furthermore in 1928, the Illustrated London News featured a full page spread of some absolute corkers.

The event was Empire Day, now called Commonwealth Day, which is celebrated on 24th May every year (yes, still) and in the good old days, they used to hold a ball.  Now, when I say 'they' I mean posh people, for other posh people, and as such, it was newsworthy. In 1928, it was held at the May Fair Hotel, which I think actually opened in 1927, so was an exciting new establishment.  Looking at their website now, it looks absolutely glorious and if anyone from the May Fair Hotel is reading this, please feel free to give me a call because blimey. Anyway, the ball was held in aid of the University College Hospital and was attended by the Duke and Duchess of York (the future King and Queen Mum).  The theme of the night was 'A Famous Picture Gallery' and due to the year being the centenary of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's birth, they focused on the Pre-Raphaelites. Now, I was surprised that there was such appetite for the Pre-Raphaelites because haven't we been told No-one liked the Pre-Raphaelites after the First World War? Well, let's have a look...

We start off strong with The Beloved...

The Beloved (1865-6) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Yes, they missed out the little boy, which is a shocking oversight, but also a relief that no-one took it upon themselves to assume 'black-face' for the occasion, thank the Lord. This is the 1920s, for goodness sake, I was worried for a moment. So, in the centre of the photograph is Miss Gwen Le Bas (1903-1944), the daughter of a wealthy industrialist and the sister of sculptor Molly Le Bas and artist Edward Le Bas, one of Cecil Beaton's friends. Gwen married William Grey Horton, an Olympic bobsledder, which is not something I get to report on a regular basis, but you will have noticed that she only lived 41 years.  On Sunday 18th June 1944, Gwen was attending a church service at the Guards Chapel in Westminster when it was hit by a V1 flying bomb, killing 121 people, both military and civilian, including Gwen. I'd like to be able to say she's our only War casualty today, but sadly not.

On a far more jolly note, either side of Gwen are the 'Ralli Twins', or Alison (1901-1974) and Margaret (1901-1970) Hore-Ruthven, two Bright Young Things who appeared in Cecil Beaton's Book of Beauty...

Alison Hore-Ruthven (1923) Bassano

Margaret 'Peggy' Hore-Ruthven (1923) Bassano

They were the younger sisters of the Countess of Carlisle, Bridget Hore-Ruthven, who had married a member of the Howard family and become a Countess.  

Countess of Carlisle in the Tatler, 1920

The Countess (1896-1982) was the chairman of the organising committee, and was obviously a very capable woman, coming into her own during the Second World War when she was the commander of women's services in India for which she received a CBE. She is also at the back of The Beloved, I think on the right (where Fanny Eaton would be), with Lady Lavery (1880-1935) on the right.

Hazel, Lady Lavery (unknown date and photographer)

Artist Hazel Lavery, wife of John Lavery (also an artist), had assisted in the presentation of the tableaux along with Lady George Cholmondeley also known as Sybil Sassoon (1894-1989), whose mother was a Rothchild - she was also known as the Countess of Rocksavage, which is possibly the coolest title in the world. Also assisting was Ernest Thesiger (1879-1961), an actor who had trained as an artist at the Slade and whose brother-in-law was William Ranken. The name dropping! Outrageous.

Next slide please!

The Countess of Carlisle as Mrs Leonard Collman

Mrs Leonard Collman (c.1854) Alfred Stevens

Here we have Bridget, Countess of Carlisle again, although quite why this was included in a Pre-Raphaelite gathering, I'm not sure.  It had been bought by the Tate Gallery in 1900, so maybe it was just a well-known image.  On we go...

The Last of England

The Last of England (1855) Ford Madox Brown

Involved in this tableaux of the Ford Madox Brown classic we have Valentine Whitaker (1904-1930), an actor who was engaged in Birmingham Rep and married for only 2 months when he caught pneumonia and died.  Next to him is Lady Morvyth Benson (1896-1959)...

Morvyth, on the front of the Tatler, 1945

Just a note - the Tatler is an absolute goldmine for glorious photographs of posh ladies. Morvyth, Lady Benson, was the daughter of the Earl of Dudley and as you can see by the photo, ended up as the vice-president of the Hampshire branch of the British Red Cross Society.  Her daughter Gillian worked for the Foreign Office, while her other daughter, Sarah, served in the WRNS. 

The Anunciation

Ecce Ancilla Domini! (1850) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Back on track with a Rossetti Tableaux, We have Mr B Algar (of whom I can discover nothing! Sorry Mr B Algar, whoever you might be) approaching a very dubious looking Mrs Alexander Carnegie.

Mrs Alexander Carnegie in the Tatler in 1928

Mrs Alexander Carnegie, or Susan Ottilia de Rodakowski-Rivers (1897-1968) was of Scottish and Swiss/Austrian extraction and a distant cousin of the Carnegie family. She married Alexander Bannerman Carnegie, whose father was the 10th Earl of Southesk.  In case you were wondering (like I was), the family was related to Andrew Carnegie the famous industrialist, but only because they were all descended from the 1st Earl of Southesk (1575-1658).

Lady with a Dove

Lady with a Dove (1864) John Brett

This was also an interesting inclusion as we count Brett among the circle of Pre-Raphaelites but he is not normally who you think of first as a Pre-Raphaelite artist.  Interestingly, this painting had only been in public hands a comparatively short time, having been donated by the artist Fannie Holroyd in 1919, after her husband's death - he had been Charles Holroyd, director of the National Gallery, and it is interesting that on the Wikipedia page, it is stated that his death was hastened by the suffragette war. I digress, whilst rolling my eyes...

Stephen and Virginia Courtauld (and Mah Jongg) (1920s) L Campbell Taylor

Posing for the role of Lady with a Dove is a Lady with a snake tattoo and a lemur. Virginia Courtauld (1883-1972) had previously been married to an Italian Count but married Stephen in 1923 and lived at Eltham Palace (which is glorious and well worth a visit) with Mah Jongg, their ring-tailed lemur. She allegedly had a snake tattoo that went up her leg from ankle to thigh.  What a brilliant lady, although I would have loved it if Mah-Jongg had been on her shoulder for the tableaux.

The First Earring

The First Earring (1834-5) David Wilkie

This one is a bit of a puzzle - it's another one from the Tate, donated in 1847, so possibly just a popular nineteenth century work - and in the tableaux we have Lady Anstruther, Mildred (1868-1958), who was Scottish nobility so maybe requested a Scottish artist for her tableaux. In the middle is Lady Pamela Smith (1914-1982), another Bright Young Thing and future Baroness Hartwell, who seems to have had a fascinating and intellectual life, including being on the V&A advisory council. On the other side of her is Countess Raben (1891-1976)...

Countess Raben and children, from the cover of the Bystander, 1925

Countess Raben, or Pauline Wilhelmine zu Pappenheim had married into the Danish royal family but also lived in Somerset.  However, the picture that appeared of her and her children Peter and Anastasia in the Bystander is positively haunted. Moving on.

We're in the home-straight now, so hang in there.  Next up is Monna Vanna...

Monna Vanna (1866) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Posing for Monna Vanna is Lady Dorothy Warrender, the first wife of Sir Victor Warrender MP and she is another one who seems to have come into her own in the Second World War. She became an officer in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and appeared in the Tatler in 1942 as the President of the Polish Armed Forces Comforts Fund (which she founded in 1939), appealing to anyone whose name begins with a 'P' to donate money and garments to be sent to Polish troops.

Lady Warrender, 1942

The Warrenders divorced in 1945, but Dorothy was invested as an Officer, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem for her actions during wartime. 

Beata Beatrix (1864-70) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Our penultimate tableaux is Mrs Henry Mond as Beata Beatrix.  Amy Gwen Wilson married politician and industrialist Henry Mond, 2nd Baron Melchett in 1920 after he crashed his motorcycle outside the house where she was living with novelist Gilbert Cannan (best chum of D H Lawrence).  Cannan had left his wife for Gwen, but then Gwen and Mond married when Cannan was off in America for a lecture tour.  For a while, they lived as a thruple until Cannan couldn't cope anymore and was committed to a sanatorium for the rest of his life.  The Monds lived happily and wealthily ever after and didn't seem to have any social repercussions of their unusual lifestyle, even celebrating it by commissioning a 5 feet tall art work entitled Scandal by Charles Sargeant Jagger, showing a pair of naked embracing lovers being watched by disapproving society women (see it here).  Good for them, not everyone's kink-owning ends up in the V&A.

Sidonia Von Borck (1860) Edward Burne-Jones

Finally, we have Mrs Robin D'Erlanger (1896-1941), or Myrtle Farquharson of Invercauld, a favourite in the newspapers as she was so beautiful.

Mrs Robin D'Erlanger and her sister Mrs Edward Compton in the Tatler, 1931

Myrtle had an active brain, which she used to organise many charity events, and she favoured a narrow shoulder strap according to the newspapers in 1929. Mr and Mrs D'Erlanger divorced in 1934 and a few months later Robin died after an operation to remove his tonsils.  Myrtle was staying with her friend Lady Mainwaring in London in 1941 when the house was hit by a bomb, killing Myrtle who was knitting on a chaise longue, which is an impressive way to go.

The Order of Release, from a tableaux in 1922

Well done for making it to the end of this post - I know it was a bit epic.  I am now slightly obsessed by tableaux vivants, partly because this is how Ethel Warwick (subject of my new book) ended up in acting, and so will be hunting down more, especially if there are pictures.  The above rendition of The Order of Release, 1746 from the painting by Millais came from another charitable event in 1922, this time for the Children's Country Holiday Fund.  It involved a couple of Pre-Raphaelite works, including The Mirror of Venus by Burne-Jones (which unfortunately fell across two pages or else I would have included it).

Dante's Dream tableaux from 1910

There was also Dante's Dream by Rossetti included in the tableaux vivants at the Ritz Hotel, held on behalf of the English Branch of the International Catholic Society for Befriending Working Girls, which is not far from the behaviour of the Pre-Raphaelite Brothers, who were all for befriending working girls, allegedly.  Anyway, there were obviously Pre-Raphaelite and Pre-Raphaelite-adjacent pictures used in these tableaux from the late nineteenth century onwards, but the unique thing about the 1928 event was that they went so heavily into the Pre-Raphaelite images, due to Rossetti's anniversary.  The narrative that all interest in the Pre-Raphaelites vanished after the First World War (if not before) is too simplistic, however it can be argued that the power and impact of the works might have lessened in the decades since their creation.  I think the Victorians in 1860 would have been a little dubious about cosplaying as Pre-Raphaelite heroines but for the 1920s Bright Young Things it was all just fun. 

Honestly, when you have a thruple and a thigh tattoo, I don't think much can shock you.