The Celebrity Monarch: Empress Elisabeth and the Modern Female Portrait (Performing Celebrity)

By: Olivia Gruber Florek

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Synopsis: Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898), wife of Habsburg Emperor Francis Joseph I, was celebrated as the most beautiful woman in Europe. Glamorous painted portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter and widely collected photographs spread news of her beauty, and the twentieth-century German-language film trilogy Sissi (1955-57) cemented this legacy. Despite the enduring fascination with the empress, art historians have never considered Elisabeth’s role in producing her public portraiture or the influence of her creation. The Celebrity Monarch reveals how portraits of Elisabeth transformed monarchs from divinely appointed sovereigns to public personalities whose daily lives were consumed by spectators. With resources ranging from the paintings of Gustav Klimt and Elisabeth’s private collection of celebrity photography to twenty-first century collages and films by T. J. Wilcox, this book positions Elisabeth herself as the primary engineer of her public image and argues for the widespread influence of her construction on both modern art and the emerging phenomenon of celebrity.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 248 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9781644532874
Related ISBNs:: 9781644532867, 9781644532850
Publisher:: University of Delaware Press
Date of Addition:: 11/18/22
Copyrighted By:: Olivia Gruber Florek
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Biographies and Memoirs, Drama, Plays and Theater, Politics and Government
Grade Levels:: College Freshman
Reading Age:: 18 and up
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.