Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria and Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria ("Sissi") 1854


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princess olga

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Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria and Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria ("Sissi") 1854

I found this link to a picture of Sisi/Sissi (aka the famous Empress Elisabeth of Austria) as a bride.

http://www.mindspring.com/~jlbarber/lisi/young.jpg

I had been looking for a while on the Web for a picture of the real Sissi on her wedding day, as everyone says her attire was so beautiful and, well, epic.

I have to say this particular picture seems a bit disappointing. There isn't even a veil!
Are there Sissi fans out there on the Forum who know whether:
-this is the indeed what Elisabeth wore on her big day
-whether she also had a veil
-there are better pictures out there in cyber space we could link to

By the way, the picture is titled: "sisi als Braut". Or: Sisi as a bride.
So it should be accurate..

Thanks
 
Fashion-wise it seems to fit to the period. I read a book about Sisi pictures and photographs, and the authors say it's hard to know what she looked like in real in her early years. It's even difficult to say what she wore because the artists did a lot of copy-and-pasting where they mixed drawings of Sisi's head and various stylish dresses. The picture above resembles others of "Sisi as a bride" that I've seen, so it might be accurate, unless the artists just copied from each other.
 
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Thanks, Smilla.

you are right that it is hard to know what she wore etc. in her early years.

I just spent a whole hour on the web, and found a ton of pictures, as in, photographs, of Kaiserin Elisabeth, or Empress Sissi, in the years <after> her marriage to Franz Joseph.

For example, this link
http://www.onb.ac.at/sammlungen/
bildarchiv/ba/praesentationen/ausstellungen/elisabeth/katalog02.html

has some great photographs of her.
It's interesting as I read somewhere during my search that Sissi would never let herself get photographed with her children, nor with her husband, after 1860.
So a lot of 'family' pictures from after that year are said to be doctored.

After 1860, she was hugely disappointed with her life: she had discovered after 6 years of marriage that Franz Joseph, her husband, was promiscuous. His extra-marital affairs, plus the pressure of court life in Vienna, not to mention her micro-managing mother in law, prompted her to flee Vienna for two long years, in which she traveled abroad and wrote melancholy poems..so much for the fairy tale we know from the Romy Schneider movies!

But again, if anyone has even a picture of Romy Schneider as Sissi in her capacity as a bride, please post it: perhaps the dress in the movie was accurate?!
 
There is only one picture that shows Elisabeth with the family and that has not been copy-and-pasted. I think this is part of the series of pictures in the 1860s where she looks sullen, unwell, and a bit bloated in the face. I think from the 1870s she didn't let people take pictures of here at all, so the fact that she was becoming older (and uglier, due to her excessive dieting) was lost to the public, who relied on the flattering pictures by artists who in turn had to rely on earlier photographs or paintings. There is another interesting bit, it seems that in drawings by English artists she doesn't look as pretty and "sweet" as in those done by Austrians. They seem to have respected her as an outstanding sportswoman rather than the "beauty" she was in Austrian imagination.
 
Interesting indeed. This explains one picture of her I came across today on the Web, (sorry can't remember where now as I looked at sooo many links regarding Sissi/Austria).

The picture is dated 1889, I remember that. It is a portrait of her face, and that year she was at least 50 years old, as she was born in 1837. But her face in the picture looked decidedly unwrinkled: if I'd had to guess her age, I'd have said she must have been in her twenties at the time the pic was taken!! Doctored, indeed!
 
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A bit off topic as this thread is about old wedding pictures, but I found this interesting site that has the picture Smilla is talking about: the SOLE photograph of Sissi with her family.

http://www.wien-vienna.at/geschichte.php?ID=317

Scroll down a bit until you see a black and white photograph of a group of people with the people in the first row sitting on a couch.

Elisabeth/Sissi is sitting on the left of the photo. She is the lady with her head tilted to the child standing next to her. On her lap is her son Rudolph, who famously committed suicide with his concubine.
Behind Sissi on the left is her husband, Franz joseph. Next to him is his brother who later became emperor of Mexico: next to that the brother's wife, Charlotte.
The older lady next to Sissi is her hated aunt/mother in law, sophie.
 
In a biography (I think by Joan Haslip) I read that at then end of her life she was spotted by a boy who was on a walk with his nanny or mom. His mom sais something along the lines of "Look! Here's our beautiful empress!" and the boy said "But she's all old and wrinkled!" and was slapped for lying. Well. So this shows that people believed in the myth and in reality she looked not too attractive. Have you seen her deathmask, too? She looks very, very severe and has sharp features.
 
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Empress Eugenie's Wedding

This is a picture of the Empress Eugenie’s wedding gown from an e-Bay add.

66_1.jpg
[/IMG]

This is a picture of the bodice from the New York Public Library.

EugenieWG.jpg


According to the Illustrated London News Imperial Wedding Supplement of February 5, 1853, "She wore a dress of white epiglé velvet, with rather large basque and demi-train. A veil of point d’Angleterre flowed from underneath a rich diadem sparkling with diamonds. The front of her dress and basque behind also shone with quantities of brilliants; and the spectators were evidently struck with the beuty and grace of the Empress."
 
Smilla said:
In a biography (I think by Joan Haslip) I read that at then end of her life she was spotted by a boy who was on a walk with his nanny or mom. His mom sais something along the lines of "Look! Here's our beautiful empress!" and the boy said "But she's all old and wrinkled!" and was slapped for lying. Well. So this shows that people believed in the myth and in reality she looked not too attractive. Have you seen her deathmask, too? She looks very, very severe and has sharp features.
Click to expand...

that's hilarious! :p
 
magnik said:
I found this picture #29 - Oilpainting of the young princess in 1954) on http://www.kaiserin-elisabeth.net/english/eneuebilderseite.htm
Maybe this is Elisabeth on her wedding gown?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links, Magnik. And as for the wedding picture mystery, yes, that particular portrait seems a good candidate. But on the other hand, it doesn't state anywhere that that is a wedding portrait of her. Sure she is wearing a veil, but she does so as well in other portraits in her capacity as empress of Austria and queen of Hungary.
But you have a point in that the date seems to be correct: that was the year I believe she married.

It is confusing..the link to "Sissi as a bride" seems to be an entirely different portrait. Also, somewhere I saw a picture of what was said to be her "wedding crown" and it looked like a sort of gilded crown of flowers, and not like a real crown or tiara..


gogm said:
There's a Dutch language group about Sisi at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/empress_elisabeth/?yguid=211522409
Click to expand...
Thanks, Gogm. Do you happen to know if it's a decent and informative forum like this one? THe Dutch Sisi link group is not accessible as a guest, so I can't really check em out first and then sign up later if I like em.. (guess I'm a bit picky where I sign up..)
 
Princess Olga's Question About the Dutch Group

It's a Yahoo! group rather than a forum like this. It has some good pics in it. I believe you have to join to access pics in Yahoo! groups.

(I wouldn't be surprised if the master tracks and participates in TRF.)
 
Hi princess olga!
If have seen some time ago on the Austrian TV a reportage about Sisi and the wedding and it was said, that the wedding was private and the public has never seen the bridal couple. An as a tradition the wedding gown was given to a monastery and they made a vesper mantle of the gown.
The whole thing you can read here: Hofburg - Kaiserappartements - Silberkammer- Vespermantel
Hope this answers your question.
 
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Elisabeth's viewpoint on marriage: "Marriage is an absurd institution. One is sold as a fifteen-year-old child and makes a vow one does not understand and then rues for thirty years or more and cannot undo."
Source: Hamann, Brigitte: Elisabeth. Kaiserin wider Willen, Munchen 1981 page 85.
 
And I'm sure her husband (who adored her) felt really complimented if he heard/read that comment. In spite of the romantic image that has always surrounded her I've never been a big fan of Sisi. Self-absorbed to the nth degree, IMHO.
 
Franz Joseph and Elisabeth were married in St. Augustine's Church in Vienna. Imperial weddings were traditionally held in that church near the Viennese imperial court.
 
Curryong said:
And I'm sure her husband (who adored her) felt really complimented if he heard/read that comment. In spite of the romantic image that has always surrounded her I've never been a big fan of Sisi. Self-absorbed to the nth degree, IMHO.
Click to expand...

Well, given that he had mistresses all of the time, I don't think that he was all that willing to hold on the marriage vows either.
 
I wondered if things could have been different if Franz hadn't married Sissi; she wasn't as bad as Alexandria but she definitely did not help the situation in her adopted country. Then again I don't know much about the countries circumstances that lead to WWI.


IMO, Sissi's wedding dress isnt cute.
 
I think Sissi was simply a very melancholic person. That was usual for upper-class ladies of the 19th century.

Too much privilege and too much time on their hands.
 
Kronprinz said:
I think Sissi was simply a very melancholic person. That was usual for upper-class ladies of the 19th century.

Too much privilege and too much time on their hands.
Click to expand...
To much privilege, to much time on their hands, no real sense of purpose besides having sons and being totally subservient to a patriarchal society...
I've read theories about the constant fainting being a product of, in addition to the corset, the fact that it was the only time a woman was at the centre of attention, the only time she wasn't seen as a womb or a dowry. Queen Lovisa of Sweden-Norway quite famously had breakdowns quite often because that was the only time her philandering husband King Carl XV ever noticed or cared about her.
 
CyrilVladisla said:
Reception after the wedding of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Elisabeth of Wittlesbach
http://www.maryevans.com/history/Wedding-of-Emperor-Franz-Joseph-I-und-Empress-Elisabeth-10249859
Click to expand...

The couple were married on the 24th of April 1854 at St. Augustine's Church in Vienna.
There were 70 prelates present at the Wedding Mass and the ceremony was presided over by Cardinal Joseph Othmar von Rauscher who was the Archbishop of Vienna.

Cardinal Joseph Othmar Ritter von Rauscher
Friedrich_von_Amerling_021.jpg
 
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