The Bavarian Rose — Empress Sissi. Ceremonial Portraits, Drama, Life

View of Possenhofen, where Sissi spent her childhood

The status and capital of the parents allowed them to deny their children nothing: since childhood, Elizabeth adored walks in nature and animals — a personal menagerie was created for her in the Possenhofen estate, located on the shore of Lake Starnberger.

A personal drawing of the young princess.
Image of a boy with a dog. Signed and dated by Elizabeth.

Karl Theodor von Piloty and Franz Adam.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria on horseback in Possenhofen

The painting depicts 15-year-old Duchess Elisabeth of Bavaria on horseback against the backdrop of the Lake Starnberg and Possenhofen castle, which belonged to her father, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. The portrait was presented by the young Duchess to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria at Christmas, shortly after the announcement of their engagement in 1853. The painting hung in the emperor’s bedroom at the winter Habsburg residence in Vienna for 60 years — until the death of Franz Joseph. And in 2017, the canvas was sold for 1.5 million euros at the Dorotheum auction in Vienna. Its estimated value was 300,000—350,000 euros.

A drawing from the imperial wedding.

The wedding ceremony took place in Vienna on 24 April 1854. The Austrians heard about the fabulous beauty of the emperor’s bride and wanted to know what she looked like. Therefore, the court made miniatures with images of the couple and replicated them in advance.

Miklós Barabás.
Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, 1853
This is what Franz Joseph looked like in the year he engaged to Sissi

To his credit, despite the burden of the statesman’s duties, he always treated his wife with trepidation, trying to fulfil her desires and whims, even if they seemed strange and incomprehensible to him. And, to the best of his ability, he served as a buffer in a tough confrontation between two women he loved — his mother and wife, which turned into a real Cold War over the years. Sophie did not want to give up positions, and Elizabeth did not know how to forgive insults.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
Self-Portrait,
1868

But in 1864, and then in 1865, the most popular and demanded painter of Europe, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, was invited to paint the empress. His brush painted portraits of almost all the crowned heads and the first beauties of the 19th century. He was born in Germany, and although he was never fully appreciated in his homeland, the royal families of England, France and Belgium were happy to instruct him to portray them. His monumental canvases created a solid reputation for Franz Xaver, and lithographic copies of his portraits helped spread his fame.

Ferdinand von Piloty.
Ludwig of Bavaria in coronation robes, 1865

One of the few people with whom she made friends after meeting in her adulthood was her second cousin Ludwig of Bavaria, in who she had found a kindred spirit. For his unusual behaviour, not inherent in monarchs, he was called the "fairy king", and after his early (at 40) mysterious death — the most tragic figure of the 19th century. He, like Sissi, loved solitude, adored painting and music. Love for the works of Richard Wagner and friendship with the composer himself prompted him to decorate the interior of the newly built Neuschwanstein Castle with scenes from his friend’s favourite Lohengrin opera. On the basis of his passion for Wagner, he became close to Elizabeth’s younger sister Sophie Charlotte, with whom he carried on a romantic correspondence and was even engaged for some time, but suddenly broke off the engagement in 1867.

Christian Jank.
Neuschwanstein Castle, 1883

Most likely, Sissi was not mistaken: in the last years of his life, he increasingly avoided people, retiring to Neuschwanstein. His ministers had to find the king in the mountains in order to get documents signed. And in the country, rumours spread about his mental illness (there were enough reasons for such judgments) and close "friendly" relations with men: even specific names were called.

Édouard Manet.
Execution of Emperor Maximilian, 1867

In June of the same year, another event happened in the family, a dramatic one: the rebels shot Franz Joseph’s brother, Maximilian I, the Emperor of Mexico. This moment was captured in The Execution of Emperor Maximilian painting by Édouard Manet. The sad story of his wife, Charlotte of Belgium, who was painted by the same Winterhalter more than once, is a story that deserves a separate essay.

Franz Schrotzberg.
Marie Valerie of Austria (daughter of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth) as a child, 1870

A year later, a daughter, Marie Valerie, was born in the imperial family, who immediately became Elizabeth’s favourite. It happened during Sissi’s stay in her beloved Hungary: later there were rumours that the girl’s father was a Hungarian count. This time, Elizabeth defended the right to raise her daughter independently and instilled love for this country and its culture in her. It is possible that she herself was imbued with sympathy for Hungary already for the fact that her mother-in-law hated her so much.

Bertalan Székely. Portrait of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, 1869

Besides her love of travel, Sissi had another passion — the desire to keep her beautiful appearance, face and figure, in perfect condition as long as possible. "Auntie worships her beauty as a pagan worships an idol. Contemplation of the perfection of her body brings her a feeling of unspeakable satisfaction," wrote the Empress’s niece, Countess Larisch. Over the years, the cult of her own beauty, which she supported and protected with all her might, turned into a phobia: Sissi was afraid of old age. Perhaps that is why the empress’s favourite delicacy was the candied petals of violets.

Charles Atamian.
Archduke Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria (1858−1889), kills himself and his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, in his hunting lodge at Mayerling 1889
1906

"He was ruined by my Bavarian-Palatinate blood," Sissi allegedly said, suggesting that there is a definite connection between Rudolph’s suicide and the frequent cases of mental illness in her Bavarian relatives.

On 28 June 1914, in Sarajevo, the Serbian high school student Gavrilo Princip killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Duchess Sophie von Hohenberg.