Description
Book SynopsisEmpress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898), wife of Habsburg Emperor Francis Joseph I, was celebrated as the most beautiful woman in Europe. Glamorous painted portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and widely collected photographs spread news of her beauty, and the twentieth-century German-language film trilogy
Sissi (1955-57) cemented this legacy. Despite the enduring fascination with the empress, art historians have never considered Elisabeth’s role in producing her public portraiture or the influence of her creation.
The Celebrity Monarch reveals how portraits of Elisabeth transformed monarchs from divinely appointed sovereigns to public personalities whose daily lives were consumed by spectators. With resources ranging from the paintings of Gustav Klimt and Elisabeth’s private collection of celebrity photography to twenty-first century collages and films by T. J. Wilcox, this book positions Elisabeth herself as the primary engineer of her public image and argues for the widespread influence of her construction on both modern art and the emerging phenomenon of celebrity.
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One: Staging the State Portrait
Chapter Two: Styling Authenticity: The Boundless Hair of the Celebrity Monarch
Chapter Three: The Imaginary Empress: Photomontage and the Simulation of Intimacy
Chapter Four: Elisabeth and the Modernist Imagination of Anton Romako
Chapter Five: Sissi in New York: T. J. Wilcox and Elisabeth’s Descendants in the United States
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
