Amélie Rives
1 portrait of
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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Amélie Rives
by Lafayette
whole-plate nitrate negative, 11 July 1930
Given by Pinewood Studios via Victoria and Albert Museum, 1989
Photographs Collection
NPG x70543
Sitterback to top
- Amélie Louise (née Rives), Princess Troubetskoy (1863-1945), Novelist and playwright; former wife of John Armstrong Chanler, and later wife of Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy. Sitter in 5 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Lafayette (Lafayette Ltd) (active 1880-1962), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 6908 portraits.
Events of 1930back to top
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Noel Coward's play, Private Lives is first performed. The original run starred Gertrude Lawrence and Laurence Olivier as well as Coward himself. Private Lives became Coward's most enduringly successful play.International
Gandhi leads the Salt March. The march to the coast was a direct protest against the British monopoly on the sale of salt and inspired hordes of Indians to follow him and adopt his methods of Satyagraha (non-violent resistance to the British rule of India).Stalin orders the 'liquidation of the kulaks (wealthy farmers) as a class' in a violent attempt to centralise control of agriculture and collectivise farming.
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txtrix
02 June 2020, 03:31
Born in Richmond in 1863, Amelie Rives was a lineal descendant of Colonial Virginia explorer, patriot and guardian of Thomas Jefferson, Dr Thomas Walker and other First Families of Virginia. She was the last familial owner of Castle Hill, the home Walker built that still stands on the first patent granted near Charlottesville. Exhibiting both writing and graphic talents at an early age, she delighted readers with her first publication A Brother to Dragons, at about age 20. Initially published anonymously, according to Amazon it has been "selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it." She soon scandalized and titulated readers with The Quick or the Dead? which was viewed as erotic and unacceptable especially for a young, unmarried FFV girl, of her time. She continued to produce books, poems and plays that were well received. Her first husband John Armstrong Chaloner, an Astor descendant, was also known for his eccentricities and at first viewed as a good match. But both being temperamental, they soon grew apart. After their uncontested divorce, he was institutionalized for a time, by his family. He escaped and was successful in establishing his sanity. Her second husband Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy was a Russian aristocrat and a talented portrait painter. He was much sought after, especially by the aristocratic set, for his realistic and flattering portraits which included one of President Roosevelt. Oscar Wilde introduced them at a party in London saying that, as they were the most attractive people in the room, they must meet. They made their primary home at Castle Hill, but traveled internationally. He maintained a studio in Washington and often traveled where his subjects were. Sensitive from childhood, her health was a recurring problem and she was periodically reclusive, always returning to her beloved Castle Hill. Multitalented, eccentric, a singular beauty, from an aristocratic family, she proved from an early age that she could out run, out ride, out jump and out write most men, so she was frequently in the news and a subject of gossip and speculation. This picture was taken 15 years before she died in 1945. She and the Prince are both buried in the family plot at Grace Episcopalian Church across from Castle Hill.