and pastimes to fill the hours. She read and wrote
poetry, she traveled, and she studied the culture
of her people, especially Hungary.
Elisabeth’s life played out against the dramatic
upheavals of 19th-century Europe. Elisabeth en-
tered the Austrian court as Prussia and Germany
were gaining power, and the Habsburg monar-
chy sought to maintain control of Austria and
Hungary in the face of popular opposition. Un-
sure of her role in a world where old certainties
were being upended, the empress embarked on
a lifelong search for a larger purpose outside of
the roles traditionally ascribed to women. Her
search brought her both great joy and sorrow,
until it ended, with an assassin’s knife, in 1898.T
he life of Elisabeth of Austria sounds
like a romantic novel: A vivacious
Bavarian princess captures the heart
of the Austrian emperor. They marry
and return to his palace in Vienna,
where she confronts not only the stifling, iron-
clad rules of court but also her domineering
mother-in-law.
While the overarching themes may sound
like fiction, they were very much the realities
of Elisabeth’s life. Struggling to fit into court life,
she clashed with Archduchess Sophie, her aunt
and mother-in-law. Her husband’s civic duties
kept the couple apart, which further isolated the
young empress. She turned to many interestsSIMPLE
PLEASURES
Karl von Piloty’s
portrait of
Sisi, age 16, on
horseback shows
the comfortable,
Bavarian castle of
Possenhofen, the
adored childhood
home of the
empress-to-be.A
TROUBLED
LIFEELISABETH of Bavaria (Sisi),
age 16, marries Emperor Franz
Josef in Vienna. She is unhappy
at court, where she feels bullied
by her aunt and mother-in-law,
Archduchess Sophie.1854
SISI’S daughters, infant
Gisela and Sophie (age two),
contract dysentery in Hungary.
Sophie dies. Stricken with
grief, Sisi entrusts Gisela to
the care of her mother-in-law.1857
SISI and Franz Josef are crowned
constitutional monarchs of
Hungary following lobbying by Sisi,
an admirer of Hungarian culture.
Thanks to Sisi, the empire is now
known as Austria-Hungary.1867
FINE ART/ALBUM58 MAY/JUNE 2019