The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati
The Marchesa Luisa Casati was Europe's most notorious celebrity, and its most eccentric. For the first three decades of the twentieth century she astounded the continent. She travelled to Venice, Rome, Capri and Paris - collecting palaces and a menagerie of exotic animals. Artists painted and sculpted her, poets praised her strange beauty, and fashion designers fought for her patronage. Among those she captivated were Gabriele d'Annunzio, Man Ray, Augustus John, Erte, Jean Cocteau, Cecil Beaton and Jack Kerouac.
Then the extravagance ended. Her wealth gone, Casati fled to London, where she spent her last years, supported by family and friends. She has been played on stage by Vivien Leigh and on screen by Ingrid Bergman; and, recently, her flamboyant memory inspired a couture collection for Christian Dior. Explored in detail for the first time, this is the astonishing story of the Marchesa Luisa Casati.
