Determined, daring and desired for her beauty, Ganna Walska was an opera singer, socialite, jewelry collector and gardener. Despite a not so great voice, Ganna was undeterred and pursued her dream to be an opera singer, she married six times and eventually created Lotusland one of the world’s top ten gardens and along the way, she acquired an enviable collection of jewels.
Madame Ganna Walska was born in 1887 in Poland. Originally named Hanna Puacz, she changed her name to sound more like a glamorous opera singer. Ganna is the Russian version of Hanna and she made up Walska as it sounded like waltz, her favorite dance. Ganna performed opera in the U.S. and Europe, pursuing stardom from the early 1920s into the 1940s.
The Belle of the Ball
Ganna’s infamy began at a very young age when she attended a royal ball in St. Petersburg, Russia and was selected as the most beautiful woman there. Soon after, Ganna married Count Arcadie d’Eingorn. There are two accounts of how her marriage ended. One says that the Count was a heavy drinker so she divorced him. The other story is that the Count, who was quite a bit older than Ganna, developed tuberculosis, with the couple going to Switzerland for his treatment where he died. Either way, Ganna, now single, made a brief move to Paris, fleeing for the U.S. in 1915 when World War I exploded in Europe.
Soon after arriving in New York, Ganna went to see the very wealthy Dr. Joseph Fraenkel about strained vocal cords. They married ten days after meeting in 1916. Two years later she had a big break in her career when she performed with famed tenor Enrico Caruso. This led to a stint at the Chicago Opera, where she met Harold McCormick, patron of the Chicago Opera, chairman of the International Harvest Company and multi-millionaire. In 1920, Dr. Fraenkel died and a grieving Ganna headed to Paris.
Two Millionaires
On the ship to Paris, Ganna ran into Harold McCormick, who was quite smitten with her. McCormick introduced Ganna to the world’s richest man, carpet tycoon, Alexander Smith Cochran, who was immediately enchanted by Ganna and allegedly proposed just a few days after they met. He gave her a pearl ring to seal his intentions telling her that if she decided not to marry him to return the ring. A reluctant Ganna eventually agreed to marry Cochran in Paris in 1920. In her 1943 autobiography, Always Room at the Top, Ganna says of Cochran, “…he was the most miserable man I ever met.”
According to the book Famous Jewelry Collectors by Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes, Cochran’s wedding present to Ganna was “to go with carte blanche to Cartier and choose anything.” It’s uncertain as to what Ganna chose for her wedding gift, but Papi and Rhodes speculate that it was the 95-carat yellow briolette diamond that she later sold.
Building a Jewelry Collection
After the couple returned to the U.S. Ganna was eager to continue her operatic career with Cochran’s blessing, but he had a change of heart and made it nearly impossible for Ganna to perform. They divorced and a mere ten days later, Ganna married Harold McCormick in Paris. McCormick was everything Ganna needed in a husband. He supported her career, despite terrible reviews for her singing, and gifted her with incredible jewelry. Ganna loved exotic jewels and McCormick’s gifts included a sapphire and emerald bead necklace that showcased a 256.60-carat Mogul engraved emerald and a chimera bangle, both from Cartier. The couple split in 1931 because Ganna wanted to live in Paris and McCormick wanted to be in Chicago.
Ganna returned to Paris and continued to collect jewelry from Cartier. Allegedly, acquiring a Cartier Tutti Frutti necklace during this time. The opera singer loved big jewelry and big stones adding jewels from Van Cleef & Arpels and Seaman Schepps as well as vintage pieces to her collection.
While in Europe, Ganna met and married British inventor Harry Grindell Matthews, but left him after a couple of years due to his jealous nature and headed back to New York City. Ganna had always been interested in spirituality so she began taking yoga lessons and fell in love again. This time with the 20-years younger Theos Bernard, a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism and yoga. In 1941 Ganna was notified of Matthews death via telegram, clearing the way for her to marry Bernard. They eloped to Las Vegas and then settled in Montecito, California in 1941, where Ganna purchased the 37-acre Cuesta Lindo Estate.
Making Lotusland
The estate was renamed Tibetland and was supposed to be a spiritual center for Tibetan monks. The estate never became a retreat as was intended because World War II broke out and the monks couldn’t travel. Ganna had a large collection of Tibetan art and books which she displayed in the library. Meanwhile, Bernard took off and sued Ganna for divorce and spousal support. Luckily, Ganna had a solid pre-nup and Bernard was caught committing perjury so he got nothing. He was her last husband. Tibetland was renamed Lotusland, a tribute to the lotus flowers growing in a pond.
In the 1940s Ganna gave up her singing career, turning her creative talents to building Lotusland into a world class garden. On April 1, 1971 she sold 146 pieces of her jewelry through an auction at Parke-Bernet in New York City to raise money for Lotusland. It was the auction of the season, with socialites, including Doris Duke, vying for Ganna’s jewels alongside representatives from Van Cleef & Arpels and Harry Winston. Despite the 1971 U.S. recession, everything sold and the sale totaled $916,000, about double what was expected. She invested the money into Lotusland, working with landscapers to create a fantasy garden that now ranks as one of the top ten gardens in the world. She established the Ganna Walska Foundation in 1958 to care for the gardens before passing away in 1984.
A larger than life personality who pursued her desires with passion, Ganna Walska wore her jewelry well, then sold it to fund Lotusland, a lasting legacy from a woman with a life well lived.
Top of Page: Ganna Walska, Public Domain, George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress), WikiCommons. Page 28 from Parke-Bernet auction catalog, April 1, 1971, Mogul emerald and diamond pendant with necklace from a suite of South Indian Thali jewelry; Page 45 from the Parke-Bernet auction catalog, April 1, 1971, Emerald and diamond clasp, heart shaped diamond ring, pair of natural pearl and diamond pendant earclips, black pearl and diamond ring, carved diamond and ruby en tremblant butterfly brooch, sapphire and diamond ring, briolette diamond pendant, cabochon sapphire and diamond ring; Buddha on lotus in Japanese Garden, Lotusland, WikiCommons, photo by Brewbooks.
Authored by Amber Michelle