Introduction
Or, How I discovered Rosario Guerrero I first discovered Rosario Guerrero in 1999 when I bought a large, framed chromo-lithograph of an unidentified Spanish beauty. The chromolith, circa 1903, was a reproduction of a painting by Friedrich August von Kaulbach, the pre-eminent portrait artist in Germany from the 1870s until his death in 1920. He painted everyone who was anyone — from the crown heads of Europe, including Tsar Nicholas and his family, to American society ladies, to the reigning performers of the day, including opera and screen star Geraldine Farrar and modern dance icon Isadora Duncan. This portrait was striking. A beautiful image I was at once curious. Who was this woman? Elegantly costumed, bejeweled and poised, this was not your generic gypsy! A famous diva posing as “Carmen” perhaps? A well-known dancer such as La Carmencita who was immortalized by John Singer Sargent? One look in the book Friedrich August von Kaulbach, 1850-1920: Monographie und Werkverzeichnis by Klaus Zimmermanns (Prestel, 1980) revealed not one but six portraits of this mystery woman, dancer Rosario Guerrero. Now the question is not “Who is this woman?” but “Who was Rosario Guerrero?” Who was this woman who had enough celebrity to warrant six portraits by one of the most famous artist of his day? And so I started by quest for the history of “La Belle Guerrero.” |
A bit of background . . .
There is next to no information on Rosario Guerrero. Most of the information I have gleaned from various contemporaneous newspaper articles and interviews. By her own account, whether true or not, Guerrero was born in Seville. In the 1905 article A Chat with La Guerrero Guerrero states, “When I was five years old, and that's just twenty years ago … I used to play on the banks of the Guadalquiver, the sweetest river in all Spain , and dance to the castanets of the shepherd-boys.” This would have made her twenty-five years old and being born in 1880. However, she later says in the same article, “…my life-history has been so short. At eighteen, when I had completed my education, I went on the stage as a dancer…” The earliest known published photograph is one that was included in a book of Reutlinger photographs called Le Panorama: Paris la nuit in 1896. If she was born in 1880, then she would have been 16, which would be impossible if she didn't dance until she was 18. However, I did find the record of her trans-Atlantic trip on the Kaiser Wilhelm in 1903, which puts her birth year at more or less 1872.
She made her debut at London's Alhambra Theatre in 1899 and returned there as a star in the very successful Carmen ballet. Florenz Zeigfeld brought her to New York in 1903 to co-star in “The Red Feather,” which opened on November 9, 1903 and ran for about 90 performances. Whether or not she completed the run is unknown, but doubtful since she and Zeigfeld had a falling out soon after she arrived because of her star billing, or lack thereof. She is not included in the cast list on various pieces of sheet music available for “The Red Feather.” She was not part of the regular plot of the opera, but an entr'acte, dancing "The Dagger and the Rose".
She danced throughout the United States in 1904 and was supposed to return in 1905 but cancelled her appearances. According to newspaper accounts, she spent part of 1906 in an asylum in Vienna and did not return to the United States until 1909. Between the appearances in 1903 and her return in 1909, she married her dancing partner Luigi Paglieri, who later appeared with Mistinguet in the 1920s.
She seems to have been rather popular with royal figures such as King Leopold of Belgium , but whether she had royal lovers or just admirers is not known. She does not have a reputation as a grand horizontale, or courtesan like Caroline Otero and Cleo de Merode.
As to her death, this remains somewhat of a mystery to me, though she was interviewed in the Spanish newspaper ABC in 1961, stating her age as 86. Last mention of her dancing was in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1918.
There is next to no information on Rosario Guerrero. Most of the information I have gleaned from various contemporaneous newspaper articles and interviews. By her own account, whether true or not, Guerrero was born in Seville. In the 1905 article A Chat with La Guerrero Guerrero states, “When I was five years old, and that's just twenty years ago … I used to play on the banks of the Guadalquiver, the sweetest river in all Spain , and dance to the castanets of the shepherd-boys.” This would have made her twenty-five years old and being born in 1880. However, she later says in the same article, “…my life-history has been so short. At eighteen, when I had completed my education, I went on the stage as a dancer…” The earliest known published photograph is one that was included in a book of Reutlinger photographs called Le Panorama: Paris la nuit in 1896. If she was born in 1880, then she would have been 16, which would be impossible if she didn't dance until she was 18. However, I did find the record of her trans-Atlantic trip on the Kaiser Wilhelm in 1903, which puts her birth year at more or less 1872.
She made her debut at London's Alhambra Theatre in 1899 and returned there as a star in the very successful Carmen ballet. Florenz Zeigfeld brought her to New York in 1903 to co-star in “The Red Feather,” which opened on November 9, 1903 and ran for about 90 performances. Whether or not she completed the run is unknown, but doubtful since she and Zeigfeld had a falling out soon after she arrived because of her star billing, or lack thereof. She is not included in the cast list on various pieces of sheet music available for “The Red Feather.” She was not part of the regular plot of the opera, but an entr'acte, dancing "The Dagger and the Rose".
She danced throughout the United States in 1904 and was supposed to return in 1905 but cancelled her appearances. According to newspaper accounts, she spent part of 1906 in an asylum in Vienna and did not return to the United States until 1909. Between the appearances in 1903 and her return in 1909, she married her dancing partner Luigi Paglieri, who later appeared with Mistinguet in the 1920s.
She seems to have been rather popular with royal figures such as King Leopold of Belgium , but whether she had royal lovers or just admirers is not known. She does not have a reputation as a grand horizontale, or courtesan like Caroline Otero and Cleo de Merode.
As to her death, this remains somewhat of a mystery to me, though she was interviewed in the Spanish newspaper ABC in 1961, stating her age as 86. Last mention of her dancing was in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1918.