Marchesa Casati
|
Marchesa Luisa Casati |
|
|---|---|
Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati by Adolf de Meyer
|
|
| Born |
Luisa Adele Rosa Maria Amman 23 January 1881 Milan, Italy |
| Died | 1 June 1957 (aged 76) Knightsbridge, London, England |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Resting place | Brompton Cemetery, London |
| Nationality | Italian |
| Other names | Luisa, Marchesa Casati Stampa di Soncino |
| Occupation | Socialite, artists' model, art patroness |
| Spouse(s) | Camillo, Marchese Casati Stampa di Soncino (m. 1900; d. 1946) |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | www |
Luisa, Marchesa Casati Stampa di Soncino (23 January 1881 – 1 June 1957), was an Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th-century Europe.
Luisa Adele Rosa Maria Amman was born in Milan, the younger of two daughters of Alberto Amman and his wife Lucia (née Bressi). Her father was of Austrian descent, while her mother was Italian and Austrian. Her father was made a count by King Umberto I. Her mother died when Luisa was 13, and her father died two years later, making his daughters, Luisa and her older sister, Francesca (1880–1919, married Giulio Padulli), reportedly the wealthiest women in Italy.
In 1900, she married Camillo, Marchese Casati Stampa di Soncino (Muggiò, 12 August 1877 – Roma, 18 September 1946). The couple's only child, Cristina Casati Stampa di Soncino, was born the following year. The Casatis maintained separate residences for the duration of their marriage. They were legally separated in 1914. They remained married until Marchese Casati's death in 1946.
In 1925, the couple's daughter Cristina (1901–1953), married Francis John Clarence Westenra Plantagenet Hastings, known as Viscount Hastings and later the 16th Earl of Huntingdon; they had one child, Lady Moorea Hastings (4 March 1928 – 21 October 2011), and divorced in 1943. The following year the Viscountess Hastings married Wogan Philipps; that marriage produced no children.
Luisa Casati's only grandchild, Lady Moorea Hastings, was the wife of politician and diarist Woodrow Wyatt from 1957 to 1966, and later married the adman Brinsley Black, named as one of the best-dressed Englishmen in the inaugural issue of Men in Vogue in 1965. She had a son with each husband:
Moorea Hastings was so unmaternal that, on learning she was pregnant, she arranged with her first husband that childless cousins of his would care for the baby. When Wyatt later sued for divorce on grounds of her adultery, he was, unusually, given full custody of the child.
Casati was known for her eccentricities that delighted European society for nearly three decades. The beautiful and extravagant hostess to the Ballets Russes was something of a legend among her contemporaries. She astonished society by parading with a pair of leashed cheetahs and wearing live snakes as jewellery.
...
Wikipedia