A Court Birthday

Elisabet Ney's Birthday in the Court of King George V. of Hannover, 1860

Elisabet Ney, Hannover, circa 1860 Courtesy of Historisches Museum Hannover	Hannover, circa 1860

While in residence in the Court of King Georg V. of Hannover in 1860, Elisabet Ney, at the age of twenty seven, was given a surprise birthday by the Royal Family.

In honor of Elisabet Ney's birthday on January 26, the Elisabet Ney Museum is pleased to offer a recounting of that celebration excerpted from a speech about Elisabet Ney that was donated to the museum by the family of  F.T. Ramsey.  Owner of Ramsey Nurseries in Austin, Ramsey and his family were dear friends and neighbors of Elisabet Ney's.

 . . .  While the young artist was at work upon the statue of George V. of Hanover, the illustrious Kaulbach painted her portrait, which now hangs in the gallery at Hanover . . . . While doing this piece of art Miss Ney was of course often at the castle.  One day the King asked her when her birthday was, to which Miss Ney replied, "Your Majesty, I have no birthday."  The King said nothing, but secretly sent to the town of her birth and found the date - from the church record.  Miss Ney never noticed her birthdays.  She had forgotten the day when she received a summons to the castle.  As a rule Miss Ney was received in the private apartments, and therefore she was surprised on this evening to be escorted to the halls used for large entertainments,  there she found the King and Queen waiting to receive her. There was a table of flowers and a magnificent gold bracelet which Miss Ney always wore and greatly  prized; - and Joachim - the great violinist, who shortly before had played for the King's birthday, was there with his orchestra to do her honor."

Photographs from the Historisches Museum Hannover 

The Elisabet Ney Museum is also pleased to be able to share a previously unknown carte-de-visite of Elisabet Ney's, while in residence in Hannover, featured above.  The digital reproduction, together with other photographic reproductions of  Elisabet Ney's time in the Royal Court, were donated to the Elisabet Ney Museum by the Historisches Museum Hannover through Anna Fay (Mrs. Thomas R.) Williams, PhD of Houston, Texas.  Mrs. Williams discovered the photographs while researching her coming novel, "The Sculptress  Spy," based on the life of Elisabet Ney, at the Historisches Museum Hannover.

Biographical Note

King Georg V. of Hannover personally requested Elisabet Ney model his portrait.  While Ney was in Hannover, the King also commissioned her to model busts of the noted singer Julius Stockhausen and, later, of renowned violinist Joseph Joachim, who was then in residence in the Court.   In addition to the gold bracelet so prized by Elisabet Ney, and the life-size painting of Ney the King commissioned for the Court, King George and Queen Marie gave Elisabet Ney an engraved silver chalice that is now in the holdings of the Elisabet Ney and Edmund Montgomery family. 

On Elisabet Ney's first return trip to Europe in 1896 following her and her husband's emigration to America in 1871, she presented the  King's widow, Queen Marie, a portrait medallion of the deceased King.

Birthday Exhibit

"A Court Birthday Elisabet Ney's Birthday in the Court of King George V. of Hannover, 1860" including copies of the images from the Historisches Museum Hannover, the speech on Elisabet Ney from the Ramsey Family and Ney's study for her portrait medallion of King George V. will be on display in the Elisabet Ney Museum beginning February 4, 2012.

Thanks and Appreciation

The Elisabet Ney Museum wishes to thank Anna Fay Williams and the Historisches Museum Hannover, including, in particular, Dr. Wolf-Dieter Mechler and Dr. Thomas Andratschke, for the kind and generous gift of historic images relating to Elisabet Ney's life in the Royal Court of Hannover.  The Museum also wishes to express its appreciation, again,  to the family of F.T. Ramsey for so generously donating the inspiring remembrances of their friend, Elisabet Ney.

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