Lady Ottoline Morrell
Lady Ottoline Morrell | |
---|---|
Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England | |
Died | 21 April 1938 London, England | (aged 64)
Nationality | British |
Education | Somerville College, Oxford |
Occupation(s) | Aristocrat, society hostess and patron |
Spouse | Philip Morrell |
Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley, Siegfried Sassoon, T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence, and artists including Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington and Gilbert Spencer.
Early life
Born Ottoline Violet Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, she was the daughter of Lieutenant-General Arthur Cavendish-Bentinck (son of
Ottoline was granted the rank of a daughter of a duke with the courtesy title of "Lady" soon after her half-brother
In 1899, Ottoline began studying political economy and Roman history as an out-student at Somerville College, Oxford.[4]
Notable love affairs
Morrell was known to have had many lovers. Her first love affair was with an older man, the physician and writer Axel Munthe,[5] but she rejected his impulsive proposal of marriage because her spiritual beliefs were incompatible with his atheism. In February 1902, she married the MP Philip Morrell,[6] with whom she shared a passion for art and a strong interest in Liberal politics. They had what would now be known as an open marriage for the rest of their lives.[7]
Philip's extramarital affairs produced several children who were cared for by his wife, who also struggled to conceal evidence of his mental instability.[7] The Morrells themselves had two children (twins): a son, Hugh, who died in infancy; and a daughter, Julian,[7] whose first marriage was to Victor Goodman and second marriage was to Igor Vinogradoff.[8]
Morrell had a long affair with
In her later years she had a brief affair with a gardener, Lionel Gomme, who was employed at
Her circle of friends included many authors, artists, sculptors and poets.[10] Her work as a patron was enduring and influential, notably in her contribution to the Contemporary Art Society during its early years.
Hospitality
The Morrells maintained a townhouse in
During
The hospitality offered by the Morrells was such that most of their guests had no suspicion that they were in financial difficulties. Many of them assumed that Ottoline was a wealthy woman. This was far from being the case and during 1927, the Morrells were compelled to sell the manor house and its estate, and move to more modest quarters in Gower Street, London. In 1928 she was diagnosed with cancer, which resulted in a long hospitalisation and the removal of her lower teeth and part of her jaw.[18]
Later life
Later, Lady Ottoline remained a regular host to the adherents of the
In 1912 Lady Ottoline was Vice President of The Eugenics Society alongside writer and sexologist Henry Havelock Ellis while Major Leonard Darwin, son of Charles Darwin, was President.
Her work as a decorator, colourist, and garden designer remains undervalued, but it was for her great gift for friendship that she was mourned when she died in April 1938. She died from an experimental drug given by a doctor.[19]
The novelist Henry Green wrote to Philip Morrell of "her love for all things true and beautiful which she had more than anyone ... no one can ever know the immeasurable good she did".[20]
Monuments carved by Eric Gill are in St Winifred's Church, Holbeck and St Mary's Church, Garsington. A blue plaque in her honour was erected at her London home, 10 Gower Street, by the Greater London Council, in 1986.[21]
Literary legacy
This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2022) |
Morrell wrote two volumes of memoirs, but these were edited and revised after her death. She also maintained detailed journals, over a period of 20 years, which remain unpublished. But perhaps Lady Ottoline's most interesting literary legacy is the wealth of representations of her that appear in
She was the inspiration for Mrs Bidlake in
Huxley's roman à clef Crome Yellow depicts the life at a thinly veiled Garsington, with a caricature of Lady Ottoline Morrell for which she never forgave him. In Confidence, a short story by Katherine Mansfield, portrays the "wits of Garsington" some four years in advance of Crome Yellow, and with more wit than Huxley, according to Mansfield's biographer Antony Alpers. Published in The New Age of 24 May 1917, it was not reprinted until 1984 in Alpers' collection of her short stories.
Portrayals in the arts
Non-literary portraits are also part of this interesting legacy, as seen in the artistic photographs of her by Cecil Beaton. There are portraits by Henry Lamb, Duncan Grant, Augustus John, and others.
She is portrayed by Tilda Swinton in Derek Jarman's film Wittgenstein, by Roberta Taylor in Brian Gilbert's film Tom & Viv, by Penelope Wilton in Christopher Hampton's film Carrington and by Suzanne Bertish in Terence Davies' film Benediction.
The first production of a biographical play, Ottoline by Janet Bolam, took place in the gardens of Garsington Manor in July 2021.[23]
Photography
Morrell took hundreds of photographs of the people in her circle.
-
Lytton Strachey, 1911–12
-
D.H. Lawrence, 1915
-
Katherine Mansfield, 1916–17
-
John Middleton Murry, 1917
-
Duncan Grant, 1922
-
Virginia Woolf and T. S. Eliot, 1924
See also
- Headington Hill Hall, Oxford
- Joseph Conrad (Lady Ottoline's impression)
References
- Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
- ^ a b c Burke's Peerage (102nd Ed., 1959), p. 1820
- ^ "No. 24810". The London Gazette. 10 February 1880. p. 622.
- ^ Ottoline Morrell – Spartacus Educational
- ^ Rolphe, Katie. Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Marriages Random House Digital, Inc.: New York, 2008 p. 190
- ^ "Court circular". The Times. No. 36687. London. 10 February 1902. p. 6.
- ^ a b c d Rolphe, Katie. Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Marriages Random House Digital, Inc.: New York, 2008
- ^ "Julian Ottoline Vinogradoff (née Morrell) – Person – National Portrait Gallery". Npg.org.uk. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
- ^ Moran, Margaret (1991). "Bertrand Russell Meets His Muse: The Impact of Lady Ottoline Morrell (1911–12)". McMaster University Library Press. Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Caws, Mary Ann and Wright, Sarah Bird. Bloomsbury and France: Art and Friends New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
- ^ "BRACERS". bracers.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
- ^ "Lady Ottoline Morrell". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
- ^ Felix, David. Keynes: A Critical Life, Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 1999. p. 129.
- ^ Kennedy, Maev (10 October 2006), "The real Lady Chatterley: society hostess loved and parodied by Bloomsbury group", The Guardian, London, retrieved 19 June 2008.
- ^ Plaque #1089 on Open Plaques
- ^ "The Life of D.H. Lawrence". Perso.wanadoo.fr. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
- ^ Haycock, David Boyd (2009). A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War. London: Old Street Publishing.
- ISBN 0-299-18340-8
- )
- ^ Miranda Seymour, Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale, p. 416.
- ^ "MORRELL, LADY OTTOLINE (1873–1938)". English Heritage. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
- ^ Kennedy, Maev (10 October 2006). "The real Lady Chatterley: society hostess loved and parodied by Bloomsbury group", The Guardian. Accessed December 30, 2022.
- ^ Pawsey, Jan. "Lady Morrell and her bohemians amok in Garsington Manor". Retrieved 8 July 2021.
Further reading
- Seymour, Miranda (1993). Ottoline Morrell: Life on a Grand Scale. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. ISBN 0-374-22818-3.
- Darroch, Sandra Jobson (1975). Ottoline: The life of Lady Ottoline Morrell. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. ISBN 978-0698106345.
- Fraser, Inga (2013) "Body, Room, Photograph: negotiating identity in the self-portraits of Lady Ottoline Morrell", Biography and the Modern Interior, edited by Anne Massey and Penny Sparke, pp. 69-85
External links
- Photographs of Ottoline Morrell at the National Portrait Gallery
- "Archival material relating to Lady Ottoline Morrell". UK National Archives.
- Ottoline Morrell's Collection Archived 18 February 2012 at the The University of Texas at Austin
- Journal of Lady Ottoline Morrell, June 1926, with photographs of Virginia Woolf and TS Eliot via Discovering Literature at the British Library
- Journal of Lady Ottoline Morrell, June 1923, with photographs and accounts of Virginia Woolf via Discovering Literature at the British Library
- Journal of Lady Ottoline Morrell, 1917, with accounts of Virginia Woolf and Siegfried Sassoon via Discovering Literature at the British Library
- Pictures by Lady Ottoline Morrell
- Lady Ottoline Morrell papers, at the University of Maryland Libraries