Princess Pauline de Metternich

Princess Pauline Clémentine de Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein, née Countess Pauline Clémentine Marie Walburga Sándor de Szlavnicza, (February 25 1836 in Vienna - September 28 1921 in Vienna) was a famous Viennese and Parisian socialite of great charm and elegance. She was an important promoter of the work of the German composer Richard Wagner and the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana.

Life

Princess Pauline de Metternich was born into the Hungarian noble family of Sándor de Slawnitza. Her father Moritz Sándor, described as "a furious rider", was known throughout the Habsburg empire as a passionate horseman. Her mother Princess Leontine de Metternich was a daughter of the Austrian chancellor Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich (architect of the Concert of Europe). It was at his home in Vienna that Pauline spent almost her whole childhood.

In 1856 she married Prince Richard von Metternich, a son of chancellor Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich so they were a husband and a wife and an uncle and a niece simultaneously. They lived a happy conjugal life (despite his frequent love-affairs with actresses and opera prima donnas). They had three daughters.

Princess Pauline accompanied her husband, an Austrian diplomat, on his missions to the royal court in Dresden and then the imperial court in Paris where they lived for almost eleven years (1859 till 1870).

She played an important role in the social and cultural life of Dresden and Paris, and after 1870 Vienna. She was a close friend and confidante of French Empress Eugénie, and the Princess and her husband were dominant personalities at the court of Emperor Napoleon III. She introduced the fashion designer Charles Frederick Worth to the Empress and thus started his rise to fame.

Princess Metternich was an ardent patron of music, and became a leader of fashionable society. Whether in Paris or Vienna, she set the latest social trends. She taught French and Czech aristocrats to skate and ladies to smoke cigars without fear of their reputations. She was acquainted with many composers (e.g. Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt, Charles Gounod and Camille Saint-Saëns) and writers (e.g. Prosper Mérimée and Alexandre Dumas) and was in correspondence with them. She tried to popularise the music of Wagner in Paris and that of Czech music composer Bedřich Smetana in Vienna.

She organised amateur home performances of abridged versions of many famous operas, including Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen". She took part both as a stage director and singer.

As a child, Princess Metternich was an eye-witness to the revolution of 1848 in Vienna and later in 1870 she remained at the side of Empress Eugénie in Paris during the Franco-Prussian War . She later helped the Empress escape from Paris to Great Britain.

In her private life, Princess Metternich suffered several crises and disasters. Her second daughter Pascaline married a Czech aristocrat, insane and alcoholic count George of Waldstein who was said to have murdered her in delirium in Duchcov (today in the Czech Republic) in 1890. Her youngest daughter Clementine was badly injured by her dog when she was a child. She decided never to marry due to her scarred face.

She died in Vienna in 1921. She lived through the glory and fall of the Austrian and French Empire and was believed to be a living symbol of these two lost worlds.

Her most famous portrait was painted by French impressionist Edgar Degas In fact, they never met. Degas created it from a photograph. The portrait is hung in the National Gallery, London.

Legacy

Pauline de Metternich was a notable patron of temporary arts. She made friends with music composers Richard Wagner (he dedicated her a piano composition) and Franz Liszt and helped them. She organised the Parisian premiere of Wagner's opera "Tannhäuser" in 1861. The failure of the project (it closed after three performances) became a celebrated fiasco and one of the greatest music scandals of the 19th century. Nevertheless, she went on and spread the music of Wagner and other now-famous composers. One of her proteges was the leading Czech musician of that time, Bedřich Smetana whom she introduced to the music circles of Vienna and Paris. Thanks to her Smetana's comic opera "The Bartered Bride" was produced in Vienna in 1892, to popular acclaim.

Her regular stays in Paris and Vienna made her a transmitter of many cultural phenomena (sports, music, political ideas that she was very keen on).

She wrote two books of memoirs. The first, "Gesehenes, geschehenes, erlebtes", in German, in praise of her grandfather chancellor Metternich and father Count Moritz Sándor, the second one, "Éclairs du passé" in French, recollecting the times of the court of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugéne. Both were published posthumously in the 1920s.

Literature

* Pauline Clementine Marie Walburga (Sándor von Szlavnicza) Fürstin von Metternich-Winneburg. "The days that are no more: Some reminiscences". E. Nash & Grayson, London (1921). ASIN B000881512
* Pauline Clementine Marie Walburga (Sándor von Szlavnicza) Fürstin von Metternich-Winneburg. "My years in Paris". E. Nash & Grayson, London (1922). ASIN B00085ZS7W

External links

* [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/portrait/story/0,,740252,00.html The Guardian | Princess Pauline de Metternich] (analysis of her painting by Degas)