Devastating Beauty V: Lady Gladys' Mirror

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Gladys* Deacon- wealthy in her own right ,

an American heiress brought up on the continent-

truly an independent woman in her youth. 

Gladys painted by Boldini for Marlborough

She was breaking hearts in London-while Consuelo Vanderbilt , Duchess of Marlborough, was suffering from her own broken heart at the hands of a Duke in a loveless marriage. At 14 Gladys' * diary reveals tears, regrets lamenting that she had not been of eligible age to land Sunny- Consuelo's dismal Duke of Marlborough. That dream never died. For many years-Gladys satisfied both parties in the irreconcilable marriage with her friendship. Consuelo recalled when meeting Gladys that she was “beautiful and alluring.”

Famed art critic Bernard Berensen said "she is radiant and sphinxlike... Enchanting, but tiring. A wonderful creature, but too much of a born actress to take quite seriously. But so beautiful, so graceful, so changeful in a hundred moods, so brilliant that it is enough to turn anyone's head,"

She had amassed a list of quite well heeled lovers, fawning over and pursuing her. A poet announced her to be

"something of a lascivious young god in girl's clothes."

Vain-
Heartless-
A perfectionist-
Gladys was obsessed with her less than perfect nose-
It kinked.

GLADYS

by Sargent

At the age of 40, after an almost 20 year divorce in the making -Gladys became the 9th Duchess of Marlborough- marrying her sunny Duke.
Imagine.
Alas,the marriage was not a happy one-ultimately-finding Gladys dining with a pistol at her side-once she quipped to a dinner partner that she might just shoot the Duke.

the Eye of Gladys, an incredible blue

Blenheim Palace North Portico ceiling

painted in1928 by Colin Gill for the Duchess

restored in 2008

In her ongoing quest for that perfect nose,Gladys injected wax into the bridge of her nose.Supposedly the injected wax collected in her chin and along the sides of her cheeks-marring her once fine features. At this point, Gladys, an eccentric, must have retreated into her unique world protected by the walls of Blenheim-allowing no mirrors to capture the face that had once been admired by so many.  She gardened, cultivated a garden of snakes and bred her beloved Blenheim spaniels to the point of the destruction of Blenheim carpets.Her likewise unsunny Duke-perhaps bored with his Duchess- vacated his ancestral Blenheim-leaving Gladys without electricity or funds- in residence. The two once in lovebirds parted but never divorced.
Our Duke died in 1934 and left his second Duchess.
She lived long but Not Well. Surviving the Duke by over 40 years.

In a very UNfairy tale- after a twenty year wait, her dream became reality. Lady Gladys married her Duke.
By then, her Youth fading,  her Beauty  lost,
Devastating INDEED.

She wrote of her marriage."like a black heavy cloud leaving such a disgusted pain that for years & even now I cannot bear to even brush by it in thought."

one of the sphinx at Blenheim- the likeness of Gladys
by W.Ward Willis

It must be difficult for beautiful women to accept what they perceive as their flaws. The emphasis the Edwardian era placed upon women to be Beautiful and certainly that emphasis today, moved many women to seek a different vision in the mirror. Gladys may have fared better in today's world of tidy nip and tuck cosmetic surgery- but she would likely never have acquired the perfect nose she sought-especially when it need not be perfected. Gladys had waited for something that did not exist. It haunted her mind the rest of her lonely life.

I recommend the book by Hugo Vickers Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough

* pronounced Glay-dus

One of a series of Episodes about Devastating Beauty previously published

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