Colorized by me: Virginia Oldoïni, Countess of Castiglione, the selfie queen of Paris high society, 1865.
She was a significant figure in the early history of photography.
She was a significant figure in the early history of photography.
More here: marinamaral.com
In 1856, the Countess began sitting for Mayer and Pierson, photographers favored by the imperial court.
Over the next four decades, she directed Pierre-Louis Pierson to help her create 700 different photos in which she recreated the signature moments of her life for the camera.
Over the next four decades, she directed Pierre-Louis Pierson to help her create 700 different photos in which she recreated the signature moments of her life for the camera.
She spent a large part of her personal fortune and even went into debt to execute this project. Most of the photographs depict the Countess in her theatrical outfits, such as the Queen of Hearts dress.
A number of photographs depict her in poses risqué for the era — notably, images that expose her bare legs and feet. In these photos, her head is cropped out.
Robert de Montesquiou, an avid art collector, was fascinated by the Countess di Castiglione. He spent 13 years writing a biography, La Divine Comtesse. After her death, he collected 433 of her photographs, all of which entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Widely considered to be the most beautiful woman of her day, the countess was sent to Paris in 1856 to bolster the interest of Napoleon III in the cause of Italian unification. She caused a sensation at the French court and quickly—if briefly—became the emperor’s mistress.
After the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, the countess lived an increasingly reclusive and eccentric life in an apartment on the Place Vendôme, venturing out only at night, shrouded in veils.
Toward the end of her life, following a hiatus of some twenty-five years, the Countess da Castiglione resumed her sessions with Pierson. The pictures reveal her mental instability and loss of all critical sense.
Conscious of the earlier work she had accomplished with Pierson, she dreamed of showing their oeuvre at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in a retrospective titled “The Most Beautiful Woman of the Century.” This was not to be.
Virginia Oldoïni died on November 28, 1899, at the age of sixty-two.
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