Richard D'Oyly Carte
Date of death: 1901
Category: impresario
Identity:
He was an impresario, property developer and hotelier. He married his business manager Helen Lenoir. He established the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
Life:
He established the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, with operas by the dramatist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan. In the original 1881 production of the fifth Savoy Opera, Patience, a satire of the Aesthetic Movement, 'Bunthorne' was played partly as a representation of Whistler, characterised by his conspicuous tuft of white hair.
Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901) bought the site on which the Savoy Hotel was to be built, between the Savoy Theatre and the Embankment, in January 1884. The hotel opened on 6 August 1889 after 5 years of construction.
Whistler stayed there for some time with his wife Beatrice when she was dying of cancer. He made devastatingly moving lithographs of his wife, The Siesta c159 and By the Balcony c160. He drew views from the windows including Savoy Pigeons c154 and a lithotint (his last Nocturne) The Thames c161, and painted two watercolours, Westminster from the Savoy m1471 and Waterloo Bridge from the Savoy m1472.
Bibliography:
Jacobs, Arthur, 'Carte, Richard D'Oyly (1844–1901)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. 'Richard 'D’Oyly Carte', Wikipedia. Terpening, William R., 'Patience, Satire, and Self-Righteousness', The Victorian Web.
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