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| Drawing by Cecil Beaton |
Friday, July 30, 2010
Duchess, Duchess
Miss Matilda's comment about the last Madame Yevonde photo being of the "infamous duchess" piqued my curiousity, as I must admit I had not heard about Margaret Cameron, the Duchess of Argyll or the scandals surrounding her, especially when certain polaroids of her and a man rumoured to be the Minister of Defense and then Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. surfaced during her divorce trial vs. the Duke of Argyll. What a beautiful woman in her youth. What a debauched Duchess in her later years. Here's what one biographer had to say about her: "She had known everybody, been everywhere, had every material advantage, been bestowed with legendary good looks. Never had so much fortune been used to achieve so little."
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9 comments:
Gorgeous!
"Never had so much fortune been used to achieve so little." Ouch! Brutal! Going to read up on her! Sounds interesting!
But it kind of shows doesn´t it? For her all prettiness (is that a word?:) she just look blazé and ... bored. Why was she debauched?
to say that a poodle and a strand of pearls were the absolute essential things in life - what a height of frivolity may have seemed to some, and perhaps upsetting, offensive too, as highly decadent, narcissistic lives often seem to be; yet, rather a sad story overall.
Diva, you're right! Her outer appearance did seem very blase. The polite version of the biography that led to my debauchery label: apparently, after surviving a near fatal fall down an elevator shaft, the Duchess became "a sex addict."
garofit: indeed! I think many did see her as the embodiment and symbol of the uselessness and decadence of the upper realms of the old class system...Interestingly, I read a bit of the wikipedia bio to my hubby after reading that the Duchess's first husband was a golfer. My hubs's reply: "she was like an early Paris Hilton?" A pretty astute connection to the modern culture of "celebutantes" famous for being famous and infamous (such as via Paris's sex video scandal)....
just discovered your blog, love it!
she was a beauty though wasn't she, I would like to read more about her! xx
Wow, Marie Antoinette would be jealous... :) Hello, baroness!
Poor thing - she was given everything but common sense and a purpose in life. You can see how hard and unhappy she looks in later photographs.
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