Alfred d'Orsay
Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimaud, comte d' Orsay ( born September 4, 1801 in Paris; † August 4, 1852 in Chambourcy, Ile -de -France ) was a French caricaturist (pseudonym NB) and dandy.
Life
Alfred Guillaume Gabriel Grimaud was the second son of the Bonapartist general Jean -François -Louis -Marie -Albert Grimaud, comte d' Orsay (1772-1843) and his wife Eleanor, Baroness of Franquemont (1771-1833), an illegitimate daughter of the Duke Carl Eugen of Württemberg with the Italian adventuress Anna Eleonora Franchi.
In 1821, Grimaud joined the French army of the restored Bourbon monarchy, against his own Bonapartist tendencies. A year later, he took part in the elaborate coronation George IV in Westminster Abbey and served in the Garde du Corps of King Louis XVIII later. During his time station in Valence, he made the acquaintance of the English aristocrat Charles John Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington and his second wife, the novelist Marguerite, Countess of Blessington; on an invitation from the Count, he accompanied the couple on their Grand Tour through Italy. In the spring of 1823, he met the famous poet Lord Byron in Genoa. After his return, the Comte d' Orsay established names the darling of French and English society, particularly female.
On 1 December 1827 until 15 -year-old Lady Harriet Gardiner married (1812 -? ) Second husband, the man about Alfred d' Orsay. The marriage was not happy and as soon existed only on paper. Two years later his patron died and father. During the transfer of his remains, he accompanied his widow, with whom he led a romantic relationship, back to England.
In London townhouse Gore House, Kensington Road led Alfred d'Orsay and Lady Blessington a literary and artistic salon in which intellectuals, artists and fashion enthusiasts met. The visitors included, among others, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Thomas Lawrence, Alfred de Vigny, Alphonse de Lamartine, Prince Charles -Louis -Napoleon Bonaparte and Edward Bulwer- Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton - were excluded opponents of Lord Byron. Early 1838 Lady Harriet separated formally from her husband and paid his creditors £ 10,0000, in exchange for his waiver of all claims on the family estate Blessington Estate. After the income from the book sales of Lady Blessington declined and their inheritance was depleted for their common extravagant lifestyle; left the pair of England. Lady Blessington and the Count moved in 1849 to Paris, where she died a few weeks after their arrival.
In 1852, Alfred d' Orsay with its early -founded friendship with Napoleon III. , Proposed the post of Director at the École des Beaux -Arts. A few days after the official appointment - Alfred d'Orsay died from the effects of inflammation of the spine in his sister's house ( Ida, Duchesse de Gramont ).