Sylvia Guirey (born Princess Sylvia Obolensky; 18 May 1931 – 27 June 1997) was an heiress, artist and art patron.

Life

Guirey was born in 1931. Her mother was

Ava Alice Muriel Astor Ava Alice Muriel Astor (July 7, 1902 – July 19, 1956) was an American heiress, socialite, and member of the Astor family. She was the daughter of John Jacob Astor IV and Ava Lowle Willing, and sister of Vincent Astor and half-sister of John J ...

and her father was Raimund von Hofmannsthal. Her parents would marry quietly in January 1933 after her mother divorced in 1932, but at the time of her birth her mother was in Austria and still married to Prince

Serge Obolensky Prince Sergei Platonovich Obolensky Neledinsky-Meletzky (November 3, 1890 – September 29, 1978), known as Serge Obolensky, was a Russian-born aristocrat then American citizen, U.S. Army colonel, socialite and publicist. He served as vice chair ...

, a former

Tsarist Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states ...

officer. During the Second World War, her mother was in London and she was in New York. She did not see her mother until 1946. She had been educated at home and then went onto the

Brearley School The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9 ...

. On 1 November 1950, she married at the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York to Jean Louis Ganshof van der Meersch, who was a Belgian financier. In 1957, her husband obtained a divorce based on their separation and her friendship with Prince Guirey. At the time of her divorce, she was working with

Eugene Berman Eugène Berman (russian: Евгений Густавович Берман, links=no; 4 November 1899, Saint Petersburg, Russia – 14 December 1972, Rome) and his brother Leonid Berman (1896 – 1976) were Russian Neo-romantic painters and the ...

as she had become interested in stage design. She worked in with Berman on the new production for the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

of Don Giovanni. She married again to Prince Azamat Kadir Sultan Guirey ( Giray) in 1957. They moved to London and they had three children together before they divorced in 1963. In 1958, her grandmother died and left her a substantial sum that enabled her to take an interest in contemporary art. She began to buy pop-art pieces and at the same time her home at Elm Place became popular with artists and dealers. She also took a studio on her own account and created enough paintings to start exhibiting. Her work was at the Sao Paolo Biennale in 1973, and three years later she was in the

Betty Parsons Gallery Betty Parsons (born Betty Bierne Pierson, January 31, 1900 – July 23, 1982) was an American artist, art dealer, and collector known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She is regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic f ...

. She continued to exhibit in the US and the UK at the Hester van Royen Gallery and the Benjamin Rhodes Gallery. Guirey died in Fulham in England in 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guirey, Sylvia American women painters Women art collectors 1931 births 1997 deaths Astor family Brearley School alumni Princesses by marriage