More Dead People

More dead people 

A dysfunctional austrian family

Hi! I recently saw my drawing of Klemens, Schwarzenberg and L'Aiglon on Twitter, and I thought it's been a while since that, so I saw myself forced to do an update :D

(the drawing itself)

(reference)

So, today is the 🎃 day 🦇, thus I simply can’t resist the urge to post some thematic cringe due to the occasion!

Watch at your own risk, ahem…

*yes, I make history TikToks from time to time, good Lord, I have sinned…*

*but it’s so much fun, I swear!!! 😩🤌*

Sexy and undressed VS Undressed and depressed 🇦🇹🇨🇿

Sometimes I forget that I’m dealing with the grown-men in their 40s most of the time… Felt a need to improve my perception of them a little bit with the help of particular busts.

*for God’s sake, Schwarzenberg looks like a huge unhappy Saint Bernard, I just can’t get over it 😩💔*

100th Anniversary celebration on the occasion of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig on Vienna's Schwarzenbergplatz 🥀

The 20th of October is here as well as the aftermath of the Völkerschacht: 209 years ago field-marshal Schwarzenberg had finished a letter to his beloved wife where he recited to her the events of the past four days and announced the decisive victory of the allied forces in the Battle of Leipzig. Then - exactly a hundred years later - people in Vienna celebrated one more anniversary of the Battle of the Nations. And since it was a round date, there exists a thorough photographic recording of that illustrious commemoration. 🎥🎞️

That’s what I’d love to present to you today. :)

At first, when I found those photos and looked through them all, I sensed some kind of a deja-vu. Probably because of how much documentary sources is left after the 100th anniversary celebration of the year of 1812 in Russia. We’ve seen a bunch of photo- and video reportages about it in various museums - with tsar Nicolas II and all of his relatives being present there, obviously. That’s probably why I felt an incredible joy while looking at this new chronicle I was able to discover.

It’s truly amazing - not only to learn about a historical epoch but also to see what impact it had on the times which followed. I can say with some amount of confidence: Napoleonic experience wasn’t always used for good - especially in the beginning of the 20th century. However, it’s part of the history to the same extent now and I’m inclined to perceive it in those forms that are available to us.

Especially when we can observe something - or someone - extraordinary in a very-very-very close proximity! 👁️👁️

You probably already know what I mean from the photos above, since they depict one of the most recognisable figures in Austrian history - of flesh and blood! 🇦🇹

But there’s one more important person who was officially present at a such formal and meaningful event! He also deserves recognition, undoubtedly, especially when we remember that the anniversary took place in October 1913. And - oh boy - what is coming catastrophically soon…

This, let me finally introduce you to these honourable (or maybe not so) gentlemen - here are one of the most renowned emperors in the modern European history, Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria, who had actually celebrated his 83rd Birthday two months ago, and an equally infamous Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este, who was murdered 9 months later in one world-famous Serbian city.

What can I say? Well, it’s… fascinating. Unbelievably fascinating to look at them both having a stroll through the capital city on an anniversary event which connected the distant Napoleonic past with their own present so tightly.

In my opinion, Franz Joseph could have definitely “felt the feels” at that time: after all, he was the one who stood at the opening ceremony of the same exact field-marshal Schwarzenberg’s monument in the year 1867. He was also an emperor whom three of prince Karl’s sons - Friedrich, Karl and Edmund - served faithfully until their dying breaths. Helped him secure his positions on an Austrian throne in the turbulent years of 1848 - 1849, for example.

And that’s the sort of ancestral aristocratic continuity that sometimes makes the head spin. 🏛️

The Imperial Family Around the Duc de Reichstadt in a Gazebo by Leopold Fertbauer, 1926.

From left to right: Caroline Augusta of Bavaria, Empress of Austria; Francis I, Emperor of Austria; Napoleon II of France, Duke of Reichstadt; Princess Sophie of Bavaria, Archduchess of Austria; Marie-Louise of Austria, Duchess of Parma; Ferdinand I of Austria; and Archduke Franz Karl of Austria.

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