Wonderful Women: Marchesa Luisa Casati

If ever there was a woman who wished to defy mortality it had to be Marchesa Casati and to some extent she managed this feat. She was born in 1881 and inherited a grand fourtune allowing her to become one of the brightest stars of society if not the most scandalous woman of the era. Casati threw the most lavish and sought after parties and balls in her opulent houses. But it wasn't just the promise of a wonderful event that drew in the masses of guests but the hostess herself.

"I want to be a living work of art"

This is something that Casati is quoted as saying and she truly meant it, she had an unconventional beauty with a mass of fiery red hair bundled on top of her head with her large green eyes and deep plum pout over her almost translucent skin had a very arresting affect on all that met her. As if her beauty was not enough she would wear outrageous outfits and accessories them often with her grand taste in animal companions; live snakes draped around her neck a cheater on a leash as she strolled the gardens in nothing  but a fur coat, live Beatles attached by chains and decorated with jewels as a necklace that crawled over her chest.

It is not hard to see why this woman made such an impact on society moreover that she was the muse of so many artists. It is said that she is the third most artistically represented woman of all time bested only by Cleopatra and the Virgin Mary. She would commission paintings, sculptures and photographed not only by the great artists of her day but also of new and longer artists who she deemed to have promise. She portraits commissioned by Giovanni Bolding, Augustus John and Kees Van Dongen. Sculptures by:Giacomo Balla, Catherine Barjansky and Jacob Epstein. Photographs by: Cecil Beaton, Man Ray and Baron Adolphe de Meyer. This is just a short list of many many artists, Casati was not like the usual people who would commission the art she would use her status to bring the artists into her social circles and was pivotal in their success in many cases. 

On finding out about this wonderfully eccentric yet deeply conflicted woman I was desperate to find out more about her, I was fascinated by her complete insistence of revolting against the norm in every aspect of her life. I love the fact that she had such control over men and used this power for not only her own means but to better those that helped her. I love her unashamed lavish lifestyle and the mythic quality to many of the stories surrounding her. She had the ability to inspire then and she still has a magnetic quality that inspires, some half a century after her death with artists such as Alexander McQueen, Tom Ford and John Galliano openly admitting to her influence. 

I like to think that this is what she wanted when she was living, to become immortal not in the flesh but through the art and ideas that she inspired, through the stories that people told and through a continued entrancement with the name Marchesa Luisa Casati.