Unidentified photographer / artist
1875, 11 September
Count von Bismark and Madame Lucca

Magazine page
Google Books
Appleton's Journal, Vol.XIV, No.338, September 11, 1875, p.347-348.
 
M. Julian Klaczko, in the current number of the Revue des Deux Mondes, continues his interesting sketch of Prince Bismarck. He gives an account of a little incident that occurred in 1865, and which created at the time much talk. The convention of Gastein had just been concluded, and the famous interview of Biarritz had not yet taken place, when, in the month of August of that year, happened what was called the Lucca affair. The great future prince-chancellor of the empire, then merely the Count von Bismarck, sat for a carte-de-visite photograph in company with Madame Lucca, then prima donna of the Royul Opera-House at Berlin. Our author says that they were taken in a romantic attitude, a story in which there is not a word of truth, as I possess a copy of the photograph in question, and the pair are seated as prosaically as possible, one on either side of a little table. M. von Bismarck, whose profile is turned toward the spectator, is indeed looking at the lady, but she is gazing forth into space in the most unsympathetic manner imaginable. The picture was taken, it is said, at the earnest solicitation of a poor photographer at whose rooms M. von Bismarck and Madame Lucca chanced to meet, and who saw in such an unusual combination of personages an opportunity for making a sensational picture. The picture did create a sensation not only a sensation but a scandal so much so that all the pictures and the negatives as well were bought up and destroyed by the police. Some stray copies, however, found their way into Austria, where the great Prussian was far from being very cordially beloved, and it was in Vienna that my copy was purchased. It must be remembered that Pauline Lucca in those days was far from being the scandalous personage that she afterward became, especially in these later days of many husbands and many divorces. A letter concerning the affair from the pen of M. von Bismarck himself is given at length, and it is rather amusing to see how he goes round and round the subject without giving any positive answer to the queries of his correspondent, who is evidently quite exercised about the matter.
 
LL/35780