526. French School ( 20th Century ) Elsie de Wolf, Lady Mendl, bust-length portrait with feather boa, gouache on paper, 260 x 200mm., indistinctly inscribed with date of 7 fevrier, lower right, mid 20th century.
est. £80 – £120
Elsie de Wolf, Lady Mendl (1865-1950), actress, interior designer and society hostess, was born in New York, educated in Scotland, and lived in Paris, where she shared the Villa Trianon in a lesbian ménage à trois with the theatrical agent Elizabeth Marbury and the American heiress Anne Morgan. She later married the British diplomat Lord Mendl for social convenience. She famously said of the Parthenon, ‘It’s my colour, beige!’ This portrait was made towards the end of her life, apparently at Honfleur. She died in Paris.
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