Kessler

Comtesse de Kessler

Paris society hostess of the early 1880s, repeatedly named «la comtesse (de) Kessler» or «Mme de Kessler», with a husband, «le comte Kessler». Marie goes to her soirée of 19 January 1882, where the German and Turkish ambassadors are present and «l'élément allemand dominait» (094.0189), and is invited to her Wednesdays (094.0190); on 6 June 1882 «Soirée chez la Kessler, je suis charmante et fais la connaissance de Cabanel» (095.0136); on 10 January 1883 the countess sends her opera box for Hamlet (097.0419); on 25 November 1883 the count and countess call: «La comtesse s'en va de la poitrine» (102.0319). On 27 May 1883 Marie calls her «une étrangère où il n'y a pas de gloire à être reçue» (100.0009); on 3 June 1884 she refuses to go to her (104.0505). She is also a guest at the Bashkirtseff soirée of 13 January 1882 (094.0159), and on 24 February 1884 «les Kessler» irritate Marie with their remarks on her portrait of Dina (103.0396). Mon Journal indexes: t.14 «Kessler (Mme, comtesse), 274, 278», t.15 «Kessler (comtesse de), 21, 153, 269», t.16 «Kessler (comte), 85, 150».

Identity uncertain

The setting (a foreign-born, German-linked household in Paris, the husband a count by the early 1880s) fits Alice Harriet Kessler, née Blosse-Lynch (1844-1919), wife of the Hamburg banker Adolf Wilhelm Kessler, who was ennobled in 1879 and made a count in 1881, and the mother of Harry Graf Kessler (Wikipedia, «Alice Harriet Blosse Lynch»). The diary never gives a first name, so this is a probable, unconfirmed identification. Readers' insights are welcome.