66 SEPTEMBER 2019 | TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM
JOSIAHW/BACKGRID^(BALDWIN);©JEANPIGOZZI(“MICK^JAGGER&ARNOLD^SCHWARZENEGGER,^ANTIBES”1990 );^THOMASCOEX/AFP/GETTY^IMAGES(LAGERFELD);^RON^GALELLA/WIREIMAGE/GETTY^IMAGES(MADONNAANDSEAN^PENN,^ JACKIE^ONASSIS);^GETTY^IMAGES(SISION^HORSEBACK);^UIG^VIA^GETTY^IMAGES(PAINTING)OUT&ABOUT
DON’T
LOOK!
We think we spotted
paparazzi history.BY DAVID NETTO
W
hat’s going on here? Why
is the image in the mid-
dle of this page so famil-
iar yet completely of another time?
What may truly be called the first
paparazzi photo was taken not by
Ron Galella on Fifth Avenue, nor by
Benno Graziani on the Via Veneto,
but by a fellow called Baader stand-
ing on a heath in England or Ire-
land. The date is perhaps 1879, or 1881,
the subject the elusive Empress Elisa-
beth of Austria, pursued while foxhunting and
caught, creating the archetype for all paparazzi
targets to come: the tormented beauty.
It rings familiar, right? In her long and
reluctant reign, Elisabeth, known as Sisi,
became, like Princess Diana or Robert Muel-
ler, the object of collective obsession the more
she sought to avoid it. Quick sketch artists
from European newspapers were dispatched
to follow her travels, and reams of words were
written describing her unpredictable behav-
ior and penchant for black but extremely chic
clothes. But it was the photographer here who
caught the gesture and got the real story.
Elisabeth had what today would be
diagnosed as severe depression, likely com-
pounded by an eating disorder. Ironically, asshe was based in Vienna, she and Sigmund
Freud missed each other by a few years—
although, given the protocols of the most
backward court in Europe, he would never
have been allowed near her.
Spiritual therapy was unavailable to the
Hapsburgs, so her battle against melancholy
became physical. She developed a regimen
of extreme exercise consisting of hikes, gym-
nastics (the rings and wall bars she set up in
the Hofburg are still there), and riding. Her
aptitude for this last pursuit was rooted in her
childhood in Bavaria, where her father built
the family a miniature circus. Sisi and her sis-
ter Helene trained as acrobatic horsewomen;
anything you’ve seen at Ringling Bros., they
likely could do.Being empress, she found
an outlet for this passion only
in riding to hounds, and
when Sisi pronounced the
hunting in Hungary “bor-
ing,” it was suggested she try
Ireland, where the wildest
steeplechases took place. She
visited Ireland and England
several times between 1874 and
1882 to take part, and despite the
public scrutiny, these may have been
the happiest times of her adult life.
But then sciatica became an issue;
Sisi’s last hunt was in 1882.
Worse was to come. After the
death of her son Rudolf in 1889
she was never psychologically
sound, and her reclusive tenden-
cies became a mania. The guards
at Schönbrunn were forbidden to
present arms and were instructed to
look at the ground when her carriage passed.
The empress became, in the words of his-
torian Gordon Brook-Shepherd, “a ghost in
her own life.”
If we could ask this ghost to linger a
moment to talk to us, what would we hear?
This is the subtext of all paparazzi photos,
a form here perfected on the first try. The
unfathomable gods are about to reveal some-
thing to us, but the words remain unspoken,
and what it is we can never know. What we
do know is that Karl Lagerfeld, who left us
this year but knew his history and his glam-
our better than anyone—not to mention the
value of mystery—took note of this picture
as the inspiration for his own use of the fan a
century later. The once and future queen. Camera-shy Empress Elisabeth of Austria, seen here in the 1880s,
might have been the first famous face to be ambushed by paparazzi,
but she wouldn’t be the last (see above).Alec Baldwin
Madonna and
Sean Penn
Mick Jagger and Arnold SchwarzeneggerJackie Onassis
Karl Lagerfeld