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| Modern
photographic historians have cast doubt about the
identification of this ambrotype. Is it indeed a portrait
of Lola Montez, née Marie Gilbert, born in Limerick,
Ireland? Montez (1818-1861) began her dancing career in
1843, and though married to a young English army officer
stationed in India, her extra-marital (she never
divorced) love life was immense and extremely varied. She
reportedly had love affairs with Franz Liszt and
Alexander Dumas before becoming the mistress of Ludwig I
of Bavaria. After being exiled from Bavaria when Ludwig
fell out of favor of the ruling party, she travelled to
New York in 1851 and eventually arrived in San Francisco
and the gold fields, where she mesmerized and titillated
audiences with her "spider dance." After her dancing career came to a close, she travelled throughout the United States and England on a lecture circuit, and died in 1861 at age 42. |
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