Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine "Tilly" Losch,
Countess of Carnarvon
(15 November 1903 ? 24 December 1975) was an
Austrian
-born
dancer
,
choreographer
,
actress
and
painter
who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom.
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Early life
Born in Vienna as
Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine Losch
, Tilly Losch studied ballet from childhood at the Vienna Opera, making her student debut in 1913 in Louis Frappart's 1885
Wiener Walzer
. She became a member of the corps de ballet on 1 March 1918 and a coryphee three years later. Her first solo role was the Chinese Lady Doll in Josef Hassreiter's
Die Puppenfee
. Ballet master Heinrich Kroeller and the Opera's co-director, composer Richard Strauss, promoted her to soloist on 1 January 1924. She danced prominently in new ballets by Kroeller, Georgi Kyaksht and Nicola Guerra. Outside the Opera, Losch took modern dance class with Grete Wiesenthal and Mary Wigman, and performed dramatic and movement roles in Viennese theaters, at the Salzburg Festival and in
Max Reinhardt
's 1924 Berlin production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream
, also choreographing for the Shakespeare play. Losch resigned from the Vienna Opera on 31 August 1927 in order to work more with Reinhardt at the Salzburg Festival and in New York. She also choreographed Reinhardt's
Everyman
and
Danton's Death
.
Losch made her London debut in 1928 in Cochran's production of
Noel Coward
's musical review
The Year of Grace
, and over the course of the next few years, worked in London and New York as both a dancer and choreographer. In New York she danced in
The Band Wagon
with
Fred
and
Adele Astaire
in 1931. Reinhardt encouraged her to extend herself and believed she could also act; casting her in a 1932 London production of
The Miracle
, Losch's part was rewritten to provide her with the only spoken dialogue in the production (
The Lord's Prayer
) which she recited to dramatic effect.
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First marriage
Losch's first husband, the Anglo-American millionaire and surrealist arts patron
Edward James
, had a ballet company founded for her - Les Ballets 1933, which performed in London and Paris.
George Balanchine
, whom she had met in Berlin in 1924 and who helped her with some of her choreography, was artistic director and the entire repertory was choreographed by him. Its most popular work was
The 7 Deadly Sins
with
Kurt Weill
's music and Brecht's text. Losch danced the leading role (a dual figure) and
Lotte Lenya
sang it. Tom Mitford (the Hon Thomas Mitford, brother of the
Mitford sisters
) was described as Tilly's regular lover during this marriage. Losch was divorced by James in 1934, after being accused by him of adultery with
Prince Serge Obolensky
, an American hotel executive; her countersuit, in which she made it clear that her husband was homosexual, failed.
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A permanent reminder of Tilly Losch could be seen at
Edward James
' former home at Monkton, on his
West Dean estate
. Her "wet" footprints were woven into the carpet on the spiral staircase. As Tilly emerged from the bath, leaving behind a trail of wet footprints as she ascended the spiral stairs, Edward subsequently commissioned the carpet with the motif woven into it as a token of his love for her. After their divorce Edward moved the carpet to West Dean House (Now West Dean College, where it can still be seen)replacing it at Monkton with a similar carpet made with his dog's footprint.
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Drama and film
She extended her work into drama, and achieved her greatest popularity in England. Her stage success led her into Hollywood films. She appeared in several screen productions including
Limelight
(1936),
The Garden of Allah
(1936),
The Good Earth
(1937) and
Duel in the Sun
(1946). Her choreography was seen in
Song of Scheherazade
(1947). Dissatisfied with supporting film roles, she continued working as a dancer and choreographer and acted on Broadway. Losch guested with the New York Ballet in a work by
Antony Tudor
and in London she had danced to
Leonide Massine
's choreography. Her best known conception was "The Hand Dance" (a collaboration with her Viennese colleague, Hedy Pfundmayr) which featured in a short dance film by
Norman Bel Geddes
.
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Second marriage
A severe
clinical depression
caused Losch to spend time in a sanatorium in
Switzerland
and abandon dance. It was during this time that she married
Henry Herbert, 6th Earl of Carnarvon
. Losch began painting, first in watercolors and then later in oils. Her earliest works were self portraits, but she later created portraits of friends such as
Anita Loos
,
Lotte Lenya
, and
Kurt Weill
, and she received encouragement from
Cecil Beaton
. Carnarvon, aware of Losch's delicate health, sent her to the United States, where he perceived she would be safe from the growing danger of the war in Europe. She mounted her first exhibition in New York in 1944, and was well received by critics; the prominent collector and museum founder
Albert C. Barnes
bought one of Losch's works from her American debut show.
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She later combined visual elements of dance into her paintings, and often placed her subjects on a backdrop that evoked scenes of the war in Europe. As her style of painting developed she won acclaim. Her works were eventually purchased by London's
Tate and other galleries
.
Losch's marriage to Carnarvon ended in divorce in 1947 and she commuted between London and New York for the remainder of her life.
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Death
She died from
cancer
in New York on 24 December 1975. Carnarvon was among the many mourners at her funeral. She bequeathed many of her personal documents, sketches, painting and photographs to the
Max Reinhardt Archives
at
Binghamton University, State University of New York
.
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References
- ^
a
b
Coleby, Nicola,
A Surreal Life: Edward James, 1907-1984
, Exhibition Catalogue, Royal Pavilion (Brighton, 1998).
- ^
Time
article on Losch
Star of George Balanchine's Ballets 1933 company. Biography by Ann Marie Koller - so far unpublished
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Sources
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External links