The Gilded Age: Inside the Real-Life Southampton Home of Consuelo Vanderbilt, as Seen in Vogue
In the February 1963 issue of Vogue, an extensive spread features Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan—formerly the Duchess of Marlborough—at her Southampton home. She had moved into Garden Side, as the house was named, at the age of 80, after spending much of her young and middle-aged life abroad.
“The long neck is justly famous; so are the straight back, the high-arched eyebrow, the smile half shy and half flirtatious, and the characteristic tip tilt of the nose. Seeing that face and figure even now, many will at once think of Sargent, Helleu, Boldini, Carolus Duran,” writer Valentine Lawford wrote of the Gilded Age heiress. “Hearing one of another of her successive name, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Consuelo Marlborough, and Consuelo Balsan, many will inevitably recall the familiar, almost classic story of her youth and middle years: the Anglo-American marriage of convenience, set against a background of Fifth Avenue at Fifty-second street, Marble House, Idlehour, Blenheim Palace, and Sunderland House, and the Franco-American marriage of love, woven into gardens of her own creation—gentle, Tudor Crowhurst; Eze overhanging the Mediterranean, rustic luxurious, Saint-Georges-Motel in Normandy.” Yet the war years had brought her and her second husband, Jacques Balsan, back to America. They split time between Southampton and Palm Beach.
Photographs taken by Horst P. Horst show an elegant woman amid even more elegant surroundings: lacquered Chinoiserie cabinets, 18th-century rugs, baroque paintings, and arrangements of gladiolas. “All sorrows notwithstanding, here is admittedly one on whom life has lavished the best it has to give. But how beautiful she returns to the compliment,” Lawford writes.
With The Gilded Age season 3 currently airing, Consuelo Vanderbilt—the inspiration for the fictional character of Gladys Russell—is once again a topic of fascination. Here, see just how she lived. And while the palace at Blenheim and mansion on Fifth Avenue were gilded cages, in Southampton, she could live exactly how she pleased. Which was undoubtedly lavish.
Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, February 19631/8The drawing room of the Southampton home of socialite Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, seen through a curtained doorway. Yellow curtains frame the windows. A crystal chandelier from the Maison Bagues hangs at the center of the room. A large woven rug from the Savonnerie manufactory covers much of the floor. On either side of one window is an oval-framed Rococo “season” painting of the school of Nicolas Lancret. Below each painting is a lacquered Chinoiserie cabinet on a Louis XIV table, next to a low-backed chair with white embroidered cushioning. Ceramic urns sit atop each of the Chinoiserie cabinets. 19th-century armchairs are arrayed on the rug.
Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, February 19632/8Consuelo Vanderbilt seated in a yellow and white chair. She wears a white dress and pearls.
Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, February 19633/8A mirrored wall, broken by Doric pilasters. Between the pilasters, in a rococo oval frame, is an illuminated painting of a seated figure by Giovanni Batista Tiepolo. Below the painting is an 18th-century sofa upholstered in red-embroidered fabric. On a small shelf is a porcelain bird sculpture from the workshops of Meissen. To one side, in the immediate foreground, is a Louis XIV folding silk screen, embroidered with flowers and vines.
Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, February 19634/8A rug in the study. The rug, from the tapestry workshops of Aubusson in the Cruese region of France, is woven with baroque flowers, vines, and birds on a black background. Atop the rug is a small table, whose top is painted with baroque flowers and vines on a white background.
Photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, February 19635/8Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan’s dining room with roses on a small table.
