Marchesa Casati

The Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957), famous for her beauty, wealth, and eccentricity, lived in Paris, Venice and Capri. By 1900, she had become Italy's wealthiest heiress; but a life of excess found her living her final days in poverty in London. Epstein first met the Marchesa at a luncheon and asked her to sit for him, which she consented to do the next day. Later recalling the sitting, which began at two o'clock and continued into the night, the sculptor wrote: "The winter light had failed, and I had many candles brought in. They formed a circle round my weird sitter . . . The tireless Marchesa, with her over-large blood-veined eyes, sat with a basilisk stare . . . The Medusa-like mask was finished the next day."