Vintage Photos of Dandy, Muse and Celebrity Luisa Casati

Luisa Casati  (1881 – 1957) was an Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th-century Europe. A celebrity and femme fatale, the marchesa’s famous eccentricities dominated and delighted European society for nearly three decades. She dramatically altered her appearance to become a bewitchingly beautiful figure from some bizarre fairy tale. She wore live snakes as jewellery and was infamous for her evening strolls; naked beneath her furs whilst parading cheetahs on diamond-studded leads.  Nude servants gilded in gold leaf attended her.  Bizarre wax mannequins sat as guests at her dining table, some of them rumoured to contain the ashes of past lovers. Without question, the Marchesa was the most scandalous woman of her day.

She became a muse to Italian Futurists , captivated artists and literary figures and had numerous portraits painted and sculpted by various artists. She posed for photographs by Man Ray, Cecil Beaton and Baron Adolph de Meyer. Many of them she paid for, as a wish to “commission her own immortality”.  She is famous for saying “I want to be a living work of art”.

Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati by unknown photographer, (ca. 1903) via

“Luisa Casati” by Alberto Martini ca. 1906. Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati on one of her night strolls along the Grand Canal in Venice

Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati by Adolf Demeyer, 1913

Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati by Man Ray, 1922

Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati by Cecil Beaton, 1954

Photographs by Man Ray (1890-1976)

Man Ray was one of the most famous and original artists of the 20th century; his importance and influence have many aspects. He revolutionised photography through his experiments and then popularised these through his work as a portrait and fashion photographer. Born Emmanuel Rudnitsky in Philadelphia, Man Ray studied painting in New York at the Ferrer Center and early developed an interest in European avant garde art. In 1915 he collaborated with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia in founding the New York Dada movement. His interest in photography was stimulated through friendship with Alfred Stieglitz.

Moving to Paris in 1921 he became one of the leading figures in the European Dadaist and Surrealist movements as a painter, sculptor, maker of objects, photographer, film-maker and writer. Man Ray is associated particularly with experiments in solarization and with the invention of ‘rayographs’, a form of camera-less photography. Iconic images such as Noire et Blanche, Le Violon d’Ingres and haunting portraits of his many friends and colleagues are now embedded within popular consciousness.

 

Man Ray Prou del Pilar dansant, 1934 via

Man Ray, Meret Oppenheim, 1935 via

Man Ray, Untitled, Paris, c. 1930 via

Man Ray, Mannequin on Staircase, ca. 1930 via

Man Ray, Untitled, 1931 via

Lee Miller Man Ray, 1929 via

Photos of the Amazing Artist Romaine Brooks

Romaine Brooks, born Beatrice Romaine Goddard (1874 – 1970), was an American painter specialized in portraiture who used a subdued palette dominated by the color gray.

She is best known for her images of women in androgynous or masculine dress, including her self-portrait of 1923, which is her most widely reproduced work. Her conservative style led many art critics to dismiss her, and by the 1960s her work was largely forgotten. The revival of figurative painting since the 1980s, and new interest in the exploration of gender and sexuality through art have led to a reassessment of her work. She is now seen as a precursor of present-day artists whose works depict cross-dressing and transgender themes.

In 1902 Brooks had inheritated a huge family fortune, which granted her independence. She studied in Rome, meeting an avant-garde group of artists, writers, and intellectuals with whom she associated in Capri, Paris, and the French Riviera. Her subjects ranged from anonymous models to titled aristocrats.

She often painted people close to her, such as the Italian writer and politician Gabriele D’Annunzio, the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein, and her partner of more than 50 years, the writer Natalie Barney.

Although she lived until 1970, she painted very little after 1925. She made a series of line drawings during the early 1930s, using an “unpremeditated” technique resembling automatic drawing, then virtually abandoned art, completing only a single portrait after World War II.

Romaine Brooks

Romaine Brooks by Man Ray, 1925 via

Natalie Clifford Barney and Romaine Brooks via

Romaine Brooks by Man Ray, 1925 via

Romaine Brooks by Carl Van Vechten, 1935 via

 

Artist Andree Sikorska by Man Ray (1928)

 Andree Sikorska by Man Ray (1928). She lived and worked in Paris in the 1920s via

 Andree Sikorska by Man Ray (1928). She lived and worked in Paris in the 1920s via