Lady ottoline morrell

A century and eight years ago, an aristocrat and her lady ottoline morrell class husband moved into number 44 Bedford Square. Lady Ottoline Morrell was what modern jargon would call a facilitator, and the Edwardians called a patroness.

A cache of unpublished letters from the novelist Virginia Woolf and scores of first editions inscribed by leading writers and poets of the early 20th century has emerged in the contents of the library of Lady Ottoline Morrell, the society hostess who became one of the most flamboyant, loved and mocked associates of the Bloomsbury group. Lady Ottoline was extremely well connected - her first cousin was Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, the future Queen Mother - and her friendships and affairs were legendary in her day and since. Her unmistakable figure, six foot tall with flaming red hair and usually dressed as flamboyantly as a parrot, stalks through books and works of art of the period. The archive - which includes hundreds of books, many rare first editions, letters, photographs and paintings including a grim series of first world war scenes by the poet Siegfried Sassoon - has remained in her family since her death in , but is to be sold next month at a Christie's auction. She kept open house in London and at Garsington, her Jacobean mansion in Oxfordshire, and many treated her homes almost as a club. Among the letters to be sold is one to her from Woolf. Woolf wondered: "How on earth does Ottoline suck enough nourishment out of the solitary male?

Lady ottoline morrell

Adolf de Meyer American, born France. Not on view. Adolph de Meyer's portrait of Lady Ottoline Morrell, eccentric hostess to Bloomsbury, is a stunning summation of the character of this aristocratic lady who aspired to live "on the same plane as poetry and as music. Yeats, D. Lawrence, T. Tall, wearing fantastic, scented, vaguely Elizabethan clothes, Lady Ottoline made an unforgettable impression. With her dyed red hair, patrician nose, and jutting jaw, she could look, according to Lord David Cecil, at one and the same moment beautiful and grotesque. Henry James saw her as "some gorgeous heraldic creature--a Gryphon perhaps or a Dragon Volant. None went as far as this one in conjuring up the sitter's flamboyant persona, capturing, through dramatic lighting and Pre-Raphaelite design, her untamed, baroque quality. Lawrence's inspired description of the character based on Lady Ottoline in "Women in Love" finds a vivid counterpart in the photographer's art. Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded. As part of the Met's Open Access policy , you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes. Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item.

A curious friendship : the story of a bluestocking and a bright young thing. As time went on, they became less so.

Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley , Siegfried Sassoon , T. Eliot and D. Lady Ottoline's great-great-uncle through her paternal grandmother, Lady Charles Bentinck was the 1st Duke of Wellington. Through her father, Arthur, she was a first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother , and thus a first cousin twice removed of Queen Elizabeth II , both of whom descended from Arthur's brother Charles Cavendish-Bentinck. Ottoline was granted the rank of a daughter of a duke with the courtesy title of "Lady" soon after her half-brother William succeeded to the Dukedom of Portland in , [2] [3] at which time the family moved into Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire. The dukedom was a title which belonged to the head of the Cavendish-Bentinck family and which passed to Lady Ottoline's branch upon the death of their cousin, the 5th Duke of Portland , in December

A century and eight years ago, an aristocrat and her middle class husband moved into number 44 Bedford Square. Lady Ottoline Morrell was what modern jargon would call a facilitator, and the Edwardians called a patroness. In Bedford Square, and at her country house in Oxfordshire, she hosted artists of many kinds — introducing them to each other, giving them presents, and offering her friendship. Moore, John Singer Sergeant, G. Lawrence, Duncan Grant, W. Yeats, L. After reading the novel Ottoline broke off relations with D. Lawrence for a decade. Why did they ridicule her? Miranda Seymour, in her excellent biography, suggests that they placed a premium on a kind of integrity which was violated by her attempted discretion about her affairs notably that with Bertrand Russell.

Lady ottoline morrell

Art UK has updated its cookies policy. By using this website you are agreeing to the use of cookies. To find out more read our updated Use of Cookies policy and our updated Privacy policy. By signing up you agree to terms and conditions and privacy policy. I agree to the Art UK terms and conditions and privacy policy. Sign up to the Art UK newsletter , a weekly edit of insightful art stories. Photo credit: National Portrait Gallery, London. This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act , as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder s.

Metracritic

Her marriage meant too much to her, and Philip had started suffering from periods of mental instability, which meant that he had a greater need for his wife's love and support. Morrice, Jane —. On reading it she was extremely upset at the unflattering portrayal of herself that was thinly disguised in the character of Hermione Roddice. During the s, Morrell continued to travel on the Continent, and in , she and Philip went to India where they received a royal reception. Most viewed. Morphological Basis of Learning and Memory. Lawrence who she helped with his writing by supporting him emotionally and financially. Lawrence in Women in Love portrayed her cruelly in their works. As she grew older, Morrell became less extreme; returning home from George V's Jubilee celebrations in , she told her friend Robert Gathorne-Hardy brightly, "Did you know? Her shoes and stockings were of brownish grey, like the feathers on her hat; her hair was heavy; she drifted along with a peculiar fixity of the hips, a strange unwilling motion. As a married woman, Morrell was free to begin her "real life," in a world revolving around the arts and peopled by many of the most famous artists and writers of the 20th century.

Adolf de Meyer American, born France.

She was in pain for much of her life and died of cancer in , but dealt with grace with both this and the financial problems which forced her to downsize from Bedford Square to Gower Street in Ottoline was a consummate stylist and Lawrence understood that her inspiration was from a romantic past: "So to the steps up the porch Mother Julian became her mentor and confidante, assuring Ottoline "that to love beautiful things and enjoy life was not evil. Some years before her birth, the Duchess of Newcastle, as Virginia Woolf wrote in The Common Reader, had been a believer in fairies, pondered the nature of the universe, worried about cruelty to animals, placed intelligence over fashion. Mansfield, Katherine — But her early life was not restricted to Welbeck; in London, Ottoline and her mother frequented the theater, opera, and art galleries. Following a divorce, Russell had married Dora Russell some years earlier, had two children, and left Dora after she had had two children with another man. The novelist Henry Green commented that "to literally hundreds of young men like myself who were not worth her little finger, but she took trouble over them and they went out into the world very different from what they would have been if they had not known her. There are now no intervals between the weekends - the flux and the reflux is endless - and I sit quivering among a surging mesh of pugs, peacocks, pianolas, and humans - if humans they can be called - the inhabitants of Circe's cave. On her return to London she became friendly with the married Herbert Asquith. With her courage, her dragonfly yellows and kingfisher greens, Ottoline was never a mere fashion victim. Ottoline, The Early Memoirs — However the archive suggests that Ottoline herself, notoriously the kindest heart and the softest touch in Bloomsbury, had already forgiven Lawrence. In , Ottoline was uncertain about the future; civilization itself was threatened with destruction, and although Philip, and she and "Bertie," were happier together now, she confessed that she was "beginning to feel, if not old, certainly weary.