Empress Elisabeth, Part IV

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Well, looks like this is Italy and Miramare was the home of Charlotte and Maximillian. Why would the artist go to the trouble and paint/sketch a lady in waiting?

If I only could see well the caption, I see "Die Kaiserfamilie in --- (Mai, 1862), but for the background it deffinitively looks like Italy, it sounds totally reasonable so I join you at thinking that the woman must be Charlotte still as vice reine.

Sissi at the christening of ? (perhaps one of her grandchildren)

[aor]

Strange thing is that the print shows Venice and I think the title could be 'Kaiserfamilie in Venedig mai 1862'
Miramar Castle was in Trieste and Max was relieved of his duties as Governor of Venice and Lombardy in 1859 so it maybe portrays the gardens at the Palace in Venice.

[Eric_Lowe]

Most likely child of Gisela. Sisi did not look too excited at the christening.

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Is possible that the baby is Elisabeth, eldest daughter of Gisela?
Sissi and Ludwig

From the ONB, found it as the visit of Tsar AIII, I don't see FJ but is possible that the two ladies are Sissi and Marie Feodorovna

Click for bigger!!

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. It could be Elisabeth, her namesake. Maybe that is why she had to attend the christening. She wrote that "the baby is ugly and looks just like Gisela".

Indeed. Sisi did not think much of Minny and wrote to her son that "she looked like a monkey". She had more praise for Minny's prettier sister Alix of Wales. Who she declared were the only royals who knew how to dress !

[timfromengland]

Considering Elizabeths eccentric father was such a keen player of the zither,  Elizabeth must
have grown up  listening to the  sound  of the  zither   .... a folk instrument !
wonder if she ever tried to learn this unusual instrument ?
go here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1FlDdNLkD4


.

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Was Sissi godmother of any of her granddaughters? Perhaps of one of her three namesake granddaughters....
What cruel of Sissi calling MF "monkey", deffinitively she didn't like her very much. Any idea if she liked Empress Maria Alexandrovna? I knew that her cousin Ludwig was much fond of her but about Sissi I don't know...
Not new at all but in color

Source: artnet

[Eric_Lowe]

Well...Sisi was only interested in lovely women like Alexandra of Wales and Empress Eugenie, so I am not surprised that she did not care for Dagmar. She also called Empress Augusta "old foghorn"...

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Found this on a czech site, the Empress of Austria visits the King of Italy at Venice
...she doesn't look very much as Sissi but here it goes...

[timfromengland]

Just got my hot little hands on ... The Lonely Empress... by Joan Haslip.....
seems like a really good biog so far.
Interesting that  Sophia  ( Elizabeth's aunt )  was at one time trying to  marry off her
son Francis ( the young Emperor )  into the Prussian Royal family... but  Bismark was
having none of it.
     Archduchess Sopia then turned her eyes to the attractive young daughters of her sister Ludovica
over in Bavaria.
They were of course the children of a mere  Duke....
and it  would be a marriage of  first  cousins...... but then.....

[Eric_Lowe]

Not really. Francis Josef fell in love with Princess Anna of Prussia on a visit to Berlin. He tried to enlist his mother (Archduchess Sophie) and his Aunt (Queen Elise of Prussia) for assistance, but Anna was already promised to the Landgraf of Hesse (brother-in-law of King Christian IX of Denmark). So nothing came out of it.

[timfromengland]

quote
in a   secret confidential letter   to her sister the Queen of  Prussia,  Sophia begged the  Queen to do all in her power to help towards marriage   which was dear to her sons heart
and would also help eliminate rivalries between the two countries
end quote
I rest my case

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. Sophie did try to help matters, but it was Franz Josef who made the request. It wasn't a pure political marriage. Also if you look at Langrifine Anna's features, she did resemble Franz Josef's first love, Archduchess Elisabeth of Hungary. I rest my case too.

[timfromengland]

It seems  that the Empress  was quite a linguist too...
 By the time she was 28 she was
speaking English very well,  French, (German of course ) and she was becoming proficient
in  Hungarian  !
  That  25 year old Hungarian  young lady became her ... "reader"... when Eliz was  28  and it seems
 she became an  intimate friend also !   as the idea that  Franz and Eliz should be crowned King and Queen of Hungary  was being mooted  at that time.
Apparantly  Elizabeth  never quite mastered Italian .... but then the Italians never  took
her to their heart  did they !

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed. Yet both of her sisters were wedded to Italian Royals (Queen Maria Sofia of Naples & Countess Mathilde Trani).