FAROUK I

(King of Egypt, 1920-1965, reigned 1936-1952) Fine large portrait photograph, by Basile of Rome, signed, inscribed and dated,

showing him half length in a suit, nearly full face with clear glasses, signed and inscribed on theimage in Italian to his mistress ‘Cara Irma Farouk R’ and dated, 9¼” x 7” on cream mount 13¾” x 9¾”, no place, 19th March 1957 Accompanying the photo is a photocopy from L’Unità, 20th April 1994, of a long interview with Irma, daughter of Neapolitan Prince Augusto Minutolo Capece, Prince of Canosa, illustrated with separate photos of Farouk and Irma. According to the interview, she first met Farouk when she was chosen, aged ten, to present him with a bouquet at the Italian Canoe Club. “I did not see him again till I was 16, in the summer of ’58 ... He saw me bathing at Capri, and from then on never left me”. However, the present photograph shows that Farouk was already close to her in March 1957. She had won various beauty competitions, and had had a part in De Filippo’s ‘Neapolitans in Milan’. “In my family there have been cardinals and a pope, and Pope John refused to let me marry into another rite. So in 1960 we were married in Paris under the muslim rite, with four people present”. She describes her life then as a ‘fiaba’ or fairytale. After Farouk died in 1965 she withdrew for two years, then resumed her singing. She won the Verdi Competition in 1967, completed her training at La Scala where she appeared in ‘Trovatore’ in 1968, was later in films directed by Zeffirelli and D’Agostini, and continued her singing career. However, it seems that Irma was born on 6th August, probably in 1935. In 1954 ‘Time’ described her as “his current travelling companion”, giving her age as 18, and the marriage has never been substantiated.

• GBP 775.00 > 其他币种价格
• 订书号：: 53575

• 书商: Sophie Dupré (GREAT BRITAIN)