5 LOLA MONTEZ 1821–1861 (Co. Sligo, Ireland; New York City, USA) ALICE PURKISS
Born Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert in Ireland, Lola Montez was a performer famed for her Spanish dances, scandalous behaviour and her controversial relationship with King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Following an early marriage and swift divorce to an army officer with whom she had eloped, Gilbert set her sights on a stage career and travelled to Cadiz where she learned the basics of Spanish dance and language. In 1843, she returned to England as Lola Montez, a noble Spanish dancer. Critical responses to her performances were sharply divided, however, her unorthodox behaviour became legendry and she performed across the world.
Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Lola Montez (detail from Famous Women), 23.5cm diameter, ceramic. Copyright the Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett and Duncan Grant Estate, DACS 2017. Digital image courtesy of Piano Nobile (Robert Travers Works of Art Limited).
Joseph Karl Stieler, Lola Montez, 1847. Oil on canvas, 72 x 58.6 cm. Nymphenburg Palace ‘Gallery of Beauties’, Munich. Digital image courtesy of Kaho Mitsuki.
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In the late 1840s, Montez began a notorious liaison with King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who promised to grant her citizenship and make her a countess, much to the dismay of his cabinet.Their affair ultimately led to the cabinet’s resignation in 1847, bringing an end to nearly ten years of conservative Catholic government.1 Her subsequent notoriety persisted in part through references in popular culture, in particular via films depicting her life made in 1922 and 1955.2 Montez may have been suggested as a subject for the dinner service by Virginia Woolf. Woolf was deeply interested in the writings of Gustave Flaubert,3 in whose 1869 novel, Sentimental Education, Montez is referenced.4 1 Bruce Seymour, ‘Lola Montez’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10697. 2 See Willi Wolff, dir. Lola Montez: The King’s Dancer (Germany: UFA, 1922), and Max Ophüls, dir. Lola Montès (France: Gamma Films, 1955) 3 Woolf references Flaubert a number of times in her diary. See Virginia Woolf, The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 5, 1936–41, ed. A.O. Bell (London: Penguin Books, 1985), 24, 240. 4 Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education: The Story of A Young Man, 1869, trans. Helen Constantine, notes Patrick Coleman (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2006), 422.