Ottoline Morrell

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lady Ottoline Morrell, 1902

Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (born June 16, 1873 in Tunbridge Wells , Kent as Ottoline Violet Anne Cavendish-Bentinck , † April 21, 1938 in London ) was an English aristocrat and art patron. She achieved fame mainly through her social role as hostess to a circle of writers and artists around the Bloomsbury circle , as well as through her affairs with several prominent contemporaries, including Bertrand Russell .

Life

She was the daughter of the British Lieutenant General Arthur Cavendish-Bentinck (1819–1877) from his second marriage to Augusta Browne, 1st Baroness Bolsover . Her father was a grandson of the 3rd Duke of Portland . The future Queen Consort Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was her second niece. After her half-brother Lord William Bentinck her cousin William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland on December 6, 1879, the Duke of Portland had inherited, on February 23, 1880 Ottoline was social rank a daughter of Dukes awarded and the Right to the courtesy form Lady .

She studied at Somerville College of Oxford University . In 1902 she married the liberal politician Philip Morrell , with whom she had twins. The son Hugh died in early childhood, only daughter Julian Ottoline (1906-1989) survived. She had an open relationship with her husband , both of whom had known different lovers over the years.

Bertrand Russell, whom she met when he was politically collaborating with her husband, was her lover from 1911 to 1916. She remained in close friendship with Russell until the end of her life, which is attested by numerous letters that have survived.

Ottoline Morrell later had other affairs, including with the artists Augustus John , Roger Fry and Dora Carrington and with the writer Dorothy Bussy . Polyamory and bisexuality were not uncommon among the members of the Bloomsbury Group.

Morrell's London home at 10 Gower Street, Bloomsbury

As a hostess, Ottoline brought together many prominent figures from the liberal artist and writer scene in her London home, which served as a drawing room , including DH Lawrence , TS Eliot , Henry Green , Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf, and Stephen Spender . In 1915, the Morrell couple bought Garsington Manor near Oxford , where Ottoline received the members of the Bloomsbury Circle. She also supported many of her guests financially.

Ottoline Morrell was caricatured in several literary works by her friends and guests. She inspired the characters of Mrs. Bidlake in Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley , Hermione Roddice in Liebende Frauen (Women in Love) by DH Lawrence, Lady Caroline Bury in It's a Battlefield by Graham Greene and Lady Sybilline Quarrell in Forty Years On by Alan Bennett . Some critics suspect that the figure of Lady Chatterley is also modeled on her.

literature

  • Miranda Seymour: Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale , Farrar Straus Giroux, New York 1993, ISBN 0-374-22818-3 .
  • Ursula Voss: Bertrand Russell and Lady Ottoline Morrell. A love against philosophy , Rowohlt, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-87134-310-2 .

Web links

Commons : Lady Ottoline Morrell  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jeremy Treglown: Romancing. The Life and Work of Henry Green . Random House, New York 2000, ISBN 0-679-43303-1 . P. 60
  2. ↑ Maev Kennedy: The real Lady Chatterley: society hostess loved and parodied by Bloomsbury group. October 10, 2006, accessed on August 14, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Morrell, Ottoline
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cavendish-Bentinck, Ottoline Violet Anne (maiden name); Morrell, Ottoline Violet Anne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English aristocrat and patron of the arts
DATE OF BIRTH June 16, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Tunbridge Wells , Kent
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1938
Place of death London