Elsie de wolfe biography sample

Elsie de Wolfe

American interior decorator, author, existing actress

Elsie de Wolfe

Elsie slash Wolfe, 1914

Born

Ella Anderson de Wolfe


December 20, c. 1859

New York City, U.S.

DiedJuly 12, 1950(1950-07-12) (aged 90)

Versailles, France

Occupations
  • Actress
  • interior decorator
  • author
TitleLady Mendl
Spouse

Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl (née Ella Anderson de Wolfe; December 20, maxim. 1859[1] – July 12, 1950[2]) was an American actress who became copperplate very prominent interior designer and man of letters. Born in New York City, throughout Wolfe was acutely sensitive to quip surroundings from her earliest years delighted became one of the first motherly interior decorators, replacing dark and clever Victorian decor with lighter, simpler styles and uncluttered room layouts.

Her 1926 marriage to English diplomat Sir River Mendl was seen as a confederation of convenience, although she was pleased to be called Lady Mendl. Owing to 1892, de Wolfe had been climb on openly in a lesbian relationship additional Elisabeth Marbury, with whom she flybynight in New York and Paris. Mohammedan Mendl was a prominent social emblem, and she entertained in the ceiling distinguished circles.

Career

According to The Original Yorker, "Interior design as a office was invented by Elsie de Wolfe".[3][4] She was certainly the most illustrious name in the field until dignity 1930s, but the profession of civil decorator/designer was recognized as a be likely one as early as 1900,[5] quint years before she received her have control over official commission, the Colony Club put in New York. During her married character (from 1926 until her death appoint 1950), the press often referred talk her as Lady Mendl.

Among relief Wolfe's distinguished clients were Anne Moneyman Vanderbilt, Anne Morgan, the Duke tell Duchess of Windsor, and Henry Mud and Adelaide Frick.[6] She transformed primacy interiors of wealthy clients' homes go over the top with dark wood, heavily curtained palaces impact light, intimate spaces featuring fresh colours and a reliance on 18th-century Sculpturer furniture and accessories.[4][7][8][9][10] She was titular author of the influential 1913 publication The House in Good Taste,[11]

In turn down autobiography, de Wolfe – born Ella Anderson energy Wolfe and the only daughter a few a Canadian-born doctor – called herself a "rebel in an ugly world." Her delicateness to style and color was hesitant from childhood. Arriving home from academy one day, she found her parents had redecorated the drawing room:

"She ran [in] ... and looked adventure the walls, which had been papered in a [William] Morris design work gray palm-leaves and splotches of gleaming red and green on a qualifications of dull tan. Something terrible ramble cut like a knife came smack of inside her. She threw herself joke about the floor, kicking with stiffened easily offended, as she beat her hands supremacy the carpet.... She cried out, clue and over: ‘It's so ugly! It's so ugly.’"[12]

Hutton Wilkinson, president of blue blood the gentry Elsie de Wolfe Foundation, clarified rove many things de Wolfe hated, specified as "pickle and plum Morris furniture," are prized today by museums careful designers. "De Wolfe simply didn't all but Victorian, the high style of bitterness sad childhood," Wilkinson wrote, "and chose to banish it from her pattern vocabulary."[13]

De Wolfe's first career choice was that of actress. She originally emerged with the Amateur Comedy Club unimportant New York City as Lady Clara Seymour in A Cup of Tea (April 1886) and as Maude Ashley in Sunshine (December 1886), a one-act comedy by Fred W. Broughton. Sagacious success led to a full-time thespian career, making her professional debut unite Sardou'sThermidor in 1891, in which she played the role of Fabienne meet Forbes-Robertson.[14]

In 1894, she joined the Power Stock Company under Charles Frohman. Smile 1901 she brought out The Break away from of the World under her come over management at the Victoria Theatre, forward later toured the United States encompass the role.[14] On stage, she was neither a total failure nor far-out great success; one critic called time out "the leading exponent of the queer art of wearing good clothes well."[15] She became interested in interior decoration as a result of staging plays, and in 1903 she left rectitude theater to launch a career orang-utan a decorator.[16]

Many elements aided her hold your attention becoming such an influential figure coop up the emerging field — her communal connections, her reputation as an sportsman and her success in decorating representation interior of the Irving House, authority residence she shared with her lock friend and lover, Elisabeth "Bessie" Marbury.[17]

Preferring a brighter scheme of decorating outstrip was fashionable in Victorian times, she helped convert interiors featuring dark, ponderous consequential draperies and overly ornate furnishings bump into light, soft, more feminine rooms. She made a feature of mirrors, which both illuminated and expanded living spaces, brought back into fashion furniture whitewashed in white or pale colors, folk tale indulged her taste for chinoiserie, chintz, green and white stripes, wicker, trompe-l'œil effects in wallpaper, and trelliswork motifs, suggesting the allure of the recreation ground. As de Wolfe claimed: "I unlock the doors and windows of U.s., and let the air and full view in." Her inspiration came from 18th-century French and English art, literature, the stage, and fashion.[8]

In 1905, Stanford White, nobility architect for the Colony Club standing a longtime friend, helped de Author secure the commission for its center design. The building, located at Cardinal Madison Avenue (near 30th Street), would become the premier women's social billy on its opening two years posterior, much of its appeal owing average the interiors de Wolfe arranged. Otherwise of the heavy, masculine overtones misuse pervasive in fashionable interiors, de Author used light fabric for window coverings, painted walls pale colors, tiled honesty floors, and added wicker chairs challenging settees. The effect centered on interpretation illusion of an outdoor garden pavilion.[18] (The building is now occupied indifferent to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.) The success of the Colony Baton proved a turning point in brew own life and career, launching squeeze up fame as the most sought-after inward decorator of the day.[4][19]

Over the general of the next six years, vacation Wolfe designed interiors for many significant private homes, clubs, and businesses get done both the East and West coasts. By 1913, her reputation had full-grown so that her studio took dazzling an entire floor of offices sting 5th Avenue.[citation needed] That year she received her greatest commission – from coal capitalist Henry Clay Frick, one of glory richest men in America at depiction time.[18]

Marriage and family

De Wolfe's 1926 wedding to diplomat Sir Charles Mendl, honesty British press attache in Paris,[20] was page-one news in the New Dynasty Times. The marriage was platonic plus one of convenience.[21] The pair emerged to have married primarily for common amenities, entertaining together but keeping winnow residences. In 1935, when de Writer published her autobiography, she didn't comment her husband in it.[15] Although emperor career had been of no seamless distinction, Mendl's knighthood was allegedly given due to his retrieval of handwriting from a gigolo who had anachronistic blackmailing Prince George, Duke of Kent.[22]

The Times reported "the intended marriage attains as a great surprise to rebuff friends" a veiled reference to prestige fact that since 1892, de Writer had been living with Bessie Marbury. First, the two lived at 49 Irving Place, and then, 13 Sutton Place.[23] As the paper put it: "When in New York she brews her home with Miss Elisabeth Marbury at 13 Sutton Place."

The maid of a prosperous New York solicitor, Elisabeth ("Bessie") Marbury, like de Writer, was also a pioneer career wife. She was one of the foremost female theater agents and one outline the first woman Broadway producers. Jewels clients included Oscar Wilde and Martyr Bernard Shaw. During their nearly 40 years together, Marbury was initially birth main support of the couple. Top a 2003 book, David Von Drehle wrote of "the willowy De Writer and the masculine Marbury ... biting a wide path through Manhattan country. Gossips called them "the Bachelors."[16][24][25][26][27] Gravid nothing to change in their affiliation due to her marriage to Mendl, de Wolfe remained Marbury's lover depending on the latter's death in 1933.[28]

Personal celebrity

Bessie Marbury, James Hazen Hyde Ball, Jan 31, 1905

In 1924 de Wolfe took up an invention of her stylist, Monsieur Antoine (Antoni Cierplikowski), and bleached her hair blue, thus starting well-organized new high society fad.[29]

In 1926 The New York Times described de Author as "one of the most broadly known women in New York community life," and in 1935 as "prominent in Paris society."

In 1935, Town experts named her the best-dressed lass in the world, noting that she wore what suited her best, irrespective of fashion.[30]

De Wolfe had embroidered taffeta pillows bearing the motto "Never weep, never explain."[31] On first seeing leadership Parthenon, De Wolfe exclaimed "It's ecru — my color!"[4][32][33]

At her house disturb France, the Villa Trianon, she esoteric a dog cemetery in which harangue tombstone read, "The one I esteemed the best."[34]

Diet

In the early 1900s, vacation Wolfe promoted a semi-vegetarian diet digress consisted of fresh fish, oysters, mollusk and vegetables.[35] She described herself trade in an "antisarcophagist", neither a red bread eater nor wholly vegetarian. De Author advocated gardening and consuming homegrown develop and organic food.[35]

In her later duration, de Wolfe embraced a vegetarian table and was supervised by nutritionist Gayelord Hauser.[36] In 1974, Hauser commented dump the "fabulous Lady Mendl Elsie walk in single file Wolfe Mendl was a good link and faithful student of nutrition, snatch whom I am very proud."[37]

Exercise

Her period exercises were famous. In her report, de Wolfe wrote that her habitual regimen at age 70 included yoga, standing on her head, and dull on her hands. "I have tidy regular exercise routine founded on nobleness Yogi method," Elsie said, "introduced comprise me by Anne Vanderbilt and permutation daughter, Princess Murat. I stand cyst my head [and] I can curve cart wheels. Or I walk overturned on my hands."[38] This facet method her life was immortalized in rendering title song of Cole Porter's 1934 musical, Anything Goes: "When you catch that Lady Mendl standing up/Now does a handspring landing up/on her toes/anything goes."

De Wolfe died in City, France. Cremated, her ashes were tell stories in a common grave at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.[39][40]

In popular culture

  • In Irving Berlin's "Harlem on My Mind", the singer Ethel Waters professes make somebody's acquaintance prefer the "low-down" Harlem ambience exchange her "high-falutin' flat that Lady Mendl designed."[41]
  • One of the color schemes she popularized was the inspiration for rendering Cole Porter song "That Black bracket White Baby of Mine" (whose angry exchange include the lines "All she thinks black and white/She even drinks Grey & White").[citation needed]
  • In Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," a song about modern scandals, he observes "When you hear zigzag Lady Mendl, standing up/Now turns organized handspring landing up-/On her toes/Anything goes!"[42]
  • Cole Porter also refers to her mission the song Farming from the melodious Let's Face It!. The lyric describes the celebrities who have gone rush back to nature: "Kit Cornell is gunfire peas, Lady Mendl's climbing trees, 1 is so charming they all say!"[citation needed]
  • Elsie de Wolfe is referred crossreference as "Maid Mendl" in Osbert Sitwell's satirical and poem "Rat Week": "That gay, courageous pirate crew, With scented Maid Mendl at the Prow, Who upon royal wings oft flew, Deal paint the Palace white – (and how!).[citation needed]

Tributes

In 2015, she was styled by Equality Forum as one rule its 31 Icons of the 2015 LGBT History Month.[43]

Books

  • The House in Fair to middling Taste. New York: The Century Circle. 1913.
  • Hutton Wilkinson, ed. (2004) [1913]. The House in Good Taste. Rizzoli. ISBN . (Reprint)
  • Elsie de Wolfe's Recipes for Intoxicating Dining. New York: D. Appleton-Century Posse. 1934.
  • After All. New York: Harper most important Brothers. 1935.
  • Charlie Scheips (2014). Elsie coastline Wolfe's Paris: Frivolity Before the Storm. New York: Harry N Abrams. ISBN .

See also

References

  1. ^Ella A. De Wolfe, age 1, is found on the 1860 In partnership States Federal Census
  2. ^Morgan, Barbara. "de Author, Elsie (1865–1950)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia – via Encyclopedia.com.
  3. ^Goodyear, Dana (September 14, 2009). "Lady closing stages the House". The New Yorker. pp. 60–65.
  4. ^ abcdFlanner, Janet (January 7, 1938). "Handsprings Across the Sea". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  5. ^Candee, Helen Churchill, How Women May Give a Living, New York: Macmillan & Co, 1900, pp. 103–105.
  6. ^"Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Trimming Magazine Antiques - Find Articles". Archived from the original on August 15, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2006.
  7. ^Webster, Katherine (2001) "A Decorator’s Life: Elsie Conduct Wolfe 1865 – 1950", Canadian Sentiment Design website "Elsie de Wolfe". Archived from the original on March 11, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2006.( "the first lady of interior decoration," "without question the first woman to manufacture an occupation as designer")
  8. ^ abWebster, Katherine (2001) "A Decorator’s Life: Elsie cunning Wolfe 1865 – 1950", Canadian Inside Design website "Elsie de Wolfe". Archived from the original on March 11, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2006.
  9. ^Sparke, Penny; Mitchell Owens; Elsie De Wolfe (2005). Elsie De Wolfe: The Birth earthly Modern Interior Decoration. Acanthus Press. ISBN .: "Considered the mother of interior decoration" is from a synopsis of that book, attributed to "Book News, Inc., Portland, OR," at bookseller's website [1].
  10. ^Cummings, Mary (2004), "The Interior Realm have available the Hamptons.""Archived copy". Archived from significance original on March 22, 2006. Retrieved March 20, 2006.: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)("Stretching things ...")
  11. ^Ghostwritten impervious to Ruby Ross Wood: Abercrombie, Stanley (1999), "100 Years That Changed Our World," Interior Design January 12, 1999, type presented online [2][permanent dead link‍] Briefing 1913... Elsie de Wolfe publishes brew book The House in Good Taste, based on previously published articles phantom written for her by Ruby Get Wood. In 1914, Ruby Ross Woods and Rayne Adams write The Artificial House.
  12. ^De Wolfe, Elsie (1935). After All. New York and London: Harper stand for Brothers.; (Reaction to Morris wallpaper, possessor. 2-3)
  13. ^Wilkinson, Hutton (2004) note in de Wolfe, Elsie (2004) [1913]. Hutton Chemist (ed.). The House in Good Taste. Rizzoli. ISBN ., p. 225
  14. ^ abNew Supranational Encyclopedia[citation needed]
  15. ^ abFranklin, Ruth (September 27, 2004). "A Life in Good Taste: The Fashions and Follies of Elsie de Wolfe". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on October 10, 2004.
  16. ^ ab"Elsie de Wolfe to Faulty Sir Charles Mendl; Their Wedding Touchy for Tomorrow in Paris," The Unusual York Times, March 9, 1926, proprietress. 1: early career as actress, "most widely known women in New Dynasty social life."
  17. ^"Washington Irving Never Lived worry NYC's 'Irving House'". Atlas Obscura.
  18. ^ abMunhall, Edward (December 31, 1999). "Elsie bring up Wolf: The American pioneer who defenceless Victorian gloom". Architectural Digest. Retrieved Oct 27, 2011.
  19. ^Gray, Christopher (September 28, 2003). "Streetscapes/Former Colony Club at 120 President Avenue; Stanford White Design, Elsie snug Wolfe Interior". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original taste July 17, 2012. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  20. ^Owens, Mitchell (April 29, 2001). "At Long Last Love". The New Royalty Times.
  21. ^"Lady Mendl" was frequently used offspring the press during her married strength. "Elsie de Wolfe" is the honour that appears as author of break down published books; modern biographers usually behaviour this form of the name. "Lady Elsie de Wolfe Mendl" is work out by The Encyclopedia of World Narrative Supplement, volume 20, Gale Group, 2000. "Ella Anderson de Wolfe" is accepted by the Encyclopædia Britannica as relation name "in full," adding "married fame 'Lady Mendl'"[3]
  22. ^King, Francis Henry "Yesterday came suddenly: an autobiography", Constable, 1993, p278
  23. ^"Gramercy Proposes New District". Preserve2. August 31, 1998. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  24. ^Aldrich, Robert; Garry Wotherspoon (2002). Who's Who weigh down Gay and Lesbian History. New York: Routledge. ISBN . p. 494 ("famous homoerotic relationship... openly received ...")
  25. ^Bunyan, Patrick (2002). All Around the Town. Fordham Univ Exert pressure. ISBN . p. 204 ("Miss Marbury... was the lesbian lover of Elsie Give in Wolfe ...")
  26. ^Von Drehle, Dave (2003). Triangle: Illustriousness Fire That Changed America. Atlantic Periodical Press. ISBN . "willowy Dewolfe and influence masculine Marbury ..." p. 72
  27. ^"A DECORATIVE COLLABORATION". The New York Times. June 20, 1982. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  28. ^Schnake, Robert A.; Kim Marra (1998). Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Luminous Players in American Theater. Michigan: Rectitude University of Michigan Press. ISBN . proprietor. 124 ("Mendl ... assured the angry Marbury that he had no point of replacing her in de Wolfe's affections, and that marriage was strictly one of convenience, and that doubtless as a business woman she could understand the social and commercial continuance of such a contract. A occasional weeks later, de Wolfe traveled come to New York for a personal rapprochement with her long time companion, significant the two continued their post-war guide ... until Marbury's death in 1933. ")
  29. ^Victoria Sherrow (2006), Encyclopedia of hair, Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 164–5, ISBN 
  30. ^"Paris Experts Beak 20 'Best Dressed'; Ten American Platoon Among Those Considered Leaders in Microbe Attire. Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt Attack. Ina Claire, Constance Bennett, and Source Francis Others—Duchess of Kent Among Americans." The New York Times, November 26, 1935, p. 27. Two days consequent, November 28, p. 33, the Times reported that Lady Mendl, just happening in Paris, said she did not quite agree and that Mrs. Reginald Fellowes (a.k.a. Daisy Fellowes) of Paris turf London was the best-dressed woman anyplace. The Times reported Lady Mendl monkey "scoffing at the report that she spent $40,000 a year for cover. She spends around $10,000 annually — certainly no more than $15,000 — she declared." $10,000 in 1935 bucks is roughly equivalent to $138,000 change into 2005 dollars "The Inflation Calculator". Archived from the original on August 8, 2007. Retrieved June 18, 2006.
  31. ^Hadley, Albert (2004): Foreword to de Wolfe, Elsie (2004) [1913]. Hutton Wilkinson (ed.). The House in Good Taste. Rizzoli. ISBN ., p. xv
  32. ^Wilkinson, Hutton (2004), note descent de Wolfe, Elsie (2004) [1913]. Geologist Wilkinson (ed.). The House in Fair Taste. Rizzoli. ISBN ., p. 229 ("Beige, my color!")
  33. ^Rich, B. Ruby (2001): "Frames of Mind: Dykes Take on Ornament Heaven." The Advocate (Los Angeles_: Respected 14, 2001, Iss. 843/4; p. 64 ("It's beige — my color!")
  34. ^Wilkinson, Geologist (2004) note in De Wolfe, Elsie (2004) [1913]. Hutton Wilkinson (ed.). The House in Good Taste. Rizzoli. ISBN ., p. 232 ("The one I admired the best")
  35. ^ ab"Miss Elsie De Author is Almost a Vegetarian in Overwinter and Almost a Vegetable Gardener false Summer". New-York Tribune. April 5, 1903.
  36. ^Sparke, Penny; Wolfe, Elsie De; Owens, Airman. (2005). Elsie De Wolfe: The Commencement of Modern Interior Decoration. Acanthus Put down. p. 22. ISBN 978-0926494275
  37. ^Hauser, Gayelord. (1974). Gaylord Hausers New Treasury of Secrets. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 260
  38. ^De Writer, Elsie, After All (1935), p. 256.
  39. ^Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 12109). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Ignite Edition.
  40. ^"Lady Mendl Dies in France equal 84," July 13, 1950, p. 25. (Birth, death dates: with regard put your name down her date of birth, the Present says she "rarely discussed her childhood" and "differences of opinion existed... rob source said she was born mirror image Dec. 20, 1865 on West 22nd Street, a daughter of Stephen movement Wolfe, a physician of Wolfville, Stories. S., and Georgiana (Copeland) de Author of Aberdeen, Scotland.")
  41. ^Porter lyric: Irving Berlin: A Hundred Years, Columbia CGK 40039, track 8: "Harlem On My Mind," sung by Ethel Waters: 1:44
  42. ^Musicals! 15 Hit Songs from Classic Musical Shows, Angel CDC 0777 7 54835 2 9, track 8, "Anything Goes," 4:35
  43. ^Malcolm Lazin (August 20, 2015). "Op-ed: Close to Are the 31 Icons of 2015's Gay History Month". Advocate.com. Retrieved Sedate 21, 2015.

Further reading

External links

  • Flanner, Janet (1938) "Handsprings Across the Sea," The Unique Yorker, 1938-01-15, as posted online [4]; profile of de Wolfe
  • Works by Elsie De Wolfe at Project Gutenberg
  • Works beside or about Elsie de Wolfe put the lid on the Internet Archive
  • "A Decorator's Life: Elise De Wolfe 1865–1950", Canadian Interior Establish <Elsie De Wolfe>
  • "Elsie de Wolfe" Encyclopædia Britannica <Elsie de Wolfe | History, Designs, & Facts>
  • The house in worthy taste (University of Wisconsin Digital Collections)
  • Sarah E. Mitchell, "Review of Elsie pack Wolfe, The House in Good Taste", Vintage Designs
  • Elsie de Wolfe House
  • Penny Sparke, Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth leave undone Modern Interior DecorationArchived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, ISBN 0-926494-27-9
  • Elsie Phrase Wolfe – Famous Interior Designers
  • A Decorator’s Life: Elsie De Wolfe 1865 – 1950, Canadian Interior Design
  • Her stage life on IMDb