Just as I thought I could take a break from working on some blog posts – I have had to take a break for a while – I received an email from eagle eyed Ian Dunkin who thinks the Balasha picture I just posted may actually be of her sister Helene.
I leave the debate to you but it is a good excuse to put up a slide show of some pictures of the two beauties.
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- Princess Helene Cantacuzène by Bassano
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- Princess Balasha Cantacuzène by Lafayette, 9 June 1920
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- Princess Balasha Cantacuzène by Bassano
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- Princess Balasha Cantacuzène by Bassano
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- Princess Balasha Cantacuzène by Bassano
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- Balasha or Helene?
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- Princess Helene Cantacuzène by Lafyette
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- Princess Helene Cantacuzène by Bassano
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- Princess Helene Cantacuzène by Bassano
Patrick Leigh Fermor 
Just finished Mihail Sebastian’s “Journal 1935-1944 The Fascist Years”. On pages 85 and 91 of the 2000 hardcover edition, he mentions a Princess Maruca Cantacuzino (var. of Cantacuzene). Could be a relative I assume. The diary provides an interesting take on Romanian anti-semitism and its spiral into Iron Guard fascism.
There are many Cantacuzene in Romania, a hangover from the Phanariots who admininstered much of what is now Romania. They are said to be descended from the Byzantine emperor John VI Kantakouzenos (reigned 1347–1354) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantacuzino_family
This is definitely Elena Cantacuzino Donici. Mrs. Donici, as we (all her pupils in the small provincial town of Pucioasa/Romania) called her. She and Balasa were the bright stars of my childhood and young adult years spent in a very dark communist country. I knew them pretty well.
Camelia R.
Hello Camelia. Thank you for your comment, and very helpful too. If you have any memories that you would like to share by writing an article for the website, we would all be very grateful. Thank you. Tom
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http://ow.ly/gYmkV Just saw a photo of old Orsova before progress produced the catastrophe described in the appendix to Between the Woods & Water. The above is the link given. Please excuse the incompetence of an almost nonagerian computer illiterate
It is Helene-note the nose and short upper lip-very different from her sister.
It’s obviously Helene, if the one following it is of her, for the clothes, hat, hairstyle etc are exactly the same in every minute detail, it’s the same woman anyway facially. Must have been taken in the same session. No argument possible!