B008AITH44 EBOK (85 page)

28

Sisi as Queen of Hungary

29

Sisi put great emphasis on a truly Hungarian court. Seated from the left: Franz Joseph with Gyula Andrássy, the Hungarian nurse with Marie Valerie, Sisi, and Rudolf. Standing from the left: Sisi’s dear friend and reader, Ida Ferenczy; Gisela; and lady-in-waiting Countess Marie Festetics with Sisi’s chamberlain, Baron Franz Nopcsa.

30

Sisi’s “cavaliers”; from the left: Imre Hunyady, Rudolf Liechtenstein, and László Szápáry.

31

Count Nikolaus Esterházy, Sisi’s riding friend,

32

Esterházy’s rival, Bay Middleton

33a

Elisabeth’s passion for riding (she was one of the finest horsewomen of her day) was a favorite subject of the artists and photographers who recorded her life.

As a young bride in Bad Ischl with her husband and his adjutant Graf Grünne

33b

1870 (Photograph by Angerer of Vienna)

33c

Elisabeth built a riding school at Gödöllö in Hungary, where she trained with the famous circus riders of the time. (Painting by Wilhelm Richter, 1876)

33d

Hunting with the Emperor (Painting by Julius von Blaas, 1860)

33e

A cartoon of Sisi being piloted by Captain Bay Middleton when hunting in the English shires with the Earl of Harrington’s Hounds (Reproduced by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen)

33f

Even when hunting, Sisi shielded herself from curious bystanders.

34

During the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, the Imperial couple were hosts to the Shah of Persia (seated right). Behind him are the Russian foreign minister Count Gorchakov, the German Crown Prince, Bismarck, and Gyula Andrássy, the foreign minister. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany stands between the Emperor and Crown Prince Rudolf.