D'Orsay (Illustrated Edition)

D'Orsay (1801-52) was a French amateur artist, dandy and man of fashion in the early to mid-19th century. During a visit to London in 1821 he formed a close bond with Charles Gardiner, 1st Earl of Blessington and his wife Marguerite, Lady Blessington. After Lord Blessington's death in 1829 he continued to be a close companion to the widowed Countess whose London home hosted the most prominent members of fashionable literary and artitic society. D'Orsay had married Harriet Gardiner, Blessington's daughter by his first wife, in 1827 although it was not a happy union and a legal separation took place in 1838. This biography by W Teignmouth Shore (1865-1932) was first published in 1911 and includes 17 full-page illustrations.