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STOECKL.
BARONESS DE
Neg.
No: 3364
Neg.
Size: 15"x12"
Neg.
Date: 11-08-1902
Sitter:
Agnes, Baroness de Stoeckl (1874-1968), née Barron.
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Baroness de Stoeckl (1874-1968), née Agnes Barron, in 1892 married Baron Alexander de Stoeckl, a Russian diplomat and gentleman-in-waiting to Grand Duchess George of Russia and then to Grand Duke Michael. Baron de Stoeckl’s father is credited with the 1867 sale of Alaska to the United States for £7,200,000.
The Baroness is seen here in the Russian-style court gown she wore to the coronation of King Edward VII. She also wears an archaic kokoshnik-style diamond hair ornament, and in addition to a copious number of Russian-style bracelets and rings, her corsage is heavily ornamented with strings of pearls, a large diamond swallow brooch and an assortment of diamond brooches.
When she was 78 she was persuaded to write her memoirs, which she claims she did in order to escape the “ennui of embroidery”. In the mock obituary she added to the front of her autobiography, Baroness de Stoeckl wrote: ‘She spent the greater part of her life amidst the courts of Europe, and she was called ‘Aunty Ag’ by half the royal personages.’ In fact, she was known as a witty conversationalist.
Born to Irish parents, her father’s vast wealth was derived from Mexico and he lived in Paris and entertained the fashionable world “on a princely scale.” According to her autobiography Baroness de Stoeckl found that it was necessary to do “much hard work resting” to look fresh, a sentiment picked up later by Queen Marie of Rumania who devoted a month each year “to her beauty”.
On her first visit to Russia Tsar Nicholas II gave her land in the Crimea on which he intended to build her a country home.
In her old age, she kept ‘a colony of cats’ at her home but was forced to build a cattery at the end of her garden: “I have given them their own establishment so that they can…. conduct their amours not too near the house.”
Biog:
m. (1892) Baron Alexander de Stoeckl, Russian diplomat and gentleman-in-waiting
to Grand Duchess George (Princess Marie of Greece). In the mock obituary
she added to the front of her autobiography, she wrote: 'She spent the
greater part of her life amidst the courts of Europe, and she was called
'Aunty Ag' by half the royal personages.'
The Spectator, 12 JANUARY 1951, Page 22
Not All Vanity. By Baroness de Stoeckl. (John Murray.. IRS.) IN 1892 Agnes Barron, aged eighteen, married Sacha de Stoeckl. Attachd at the Russian Embassy in London, who later became Equerry to the Grand Duke Michael and finally Comptroller to the Grand Duchess George.
Her parents were Irish; her father's vast wealth was derived from Mexico, but he made his home in Paris and entertained the fashionable world on a princely scale. At the start of her diplomatic life in London, Baroness de Stoeckl found that it was necessary to do 'much hard work resting' to look fresh. She would begin the exhausting process of dressing at four o'clock, whether the party was a dinner at eight-thirty or a ball at eleven. Sleeves were so enormous at that time that her husband could not sit beside her in the brougham ; he had to follow in a hansom.
The Grand Duke Michael, who lived permanently outside Russia. regarded himself, like the other Grand Dukes, as a being apart. Lunching once in public with the authoress [i.e. Baroness de Stoeckl], he insisted on sitting on a large soufflé, roaring with laughter as he did so. Agnes de Stoeckl visited Russia for the first time after her husband had joined the Grand Duchess George. She and her daughter, Zola, were made much of by Tzar Nicholas, who, in 1914, gave her land in the Crimea on which he intended to build her a house.
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/
12th-january-1951/22/edwardian-sunset |
Date:
CK
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| Image published in Cool, published by The Fan Museum, Greenwich |
Occasion:
-
Location:
The Lafayette Studio, 179, New Bond Street, London.
Descr:
FL standing.
Costume:
Russian Court Dress.
Costume
Supplier: -
Jewellery:
-
Furniture
& Props: Painted backdrop.
Photographer:
Lafayette Ltd., 179 New Bond Street, London.
Evidence
of photographer at work: -
No
of poses: 2.
Copyright:
V&A
All
images on this site are copyright V&A. For further information
on using or requesting copies of any images
please contact the V&A Picture Library: vaimages@vam.ac.uk
including the URL of the relevant page Provenance: Pinewood Studios; acquired 1989.
References:
Biog:
Baroness de Stoeckl, Not all Vanity, London, 1950; Baroness de
Stoeckl, My Dear Marquis, London, 1952. Date of death: The Montreal Gazette - Feb 1, 1968, p. 37, col. f
Occasion:
-
Costume:
-
Costume
Supplier: -
Jewellery:
-
Reproduced:
(Version) Baroness de Stoeckl, My Dear Marquis, London, 1952,
opp. p. 38.
Acknowledgements:
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