[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso]
The photographs laid out by the countess on this page illustrate different stages in a busy day. Midday (top left) shows her in street clothes, ready to partake of a country picnic. In Ernani (top right), a reference to Verdi's opera, she is blowing a small hunting horn. Nightlife scenes show her enjoying herself in a private room of a big restaurant on the boulevard or sitting forlorn in the back room of a brasserie or dance hall. The photograph at the center may have been inspired by Greuze's widely reproduced painting Young Girl Weeping over Her Dead Bird. This album page is emblematic of the countess's personal world, with its tug-of-war between joy and sadness.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso]
- Artist: Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913)
- Person in Photograph: Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione (1835–1899)
- Date: 1861–67
- Medium: Albumen silver prints from glass negative
- Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.6 cm (4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.) to 2.5 x 3.5 cm (1 x 1 3/8 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1975
- Object Number: 1975.548.258–.262
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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Pierre-Louis Pierson
Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione
1861–67
Pierre-Louis Pierson
1860s
Pierre-Louis Pierson
1860s
Pierre-Louis Pierson
1860s
Pierre-Louis Pierson
1860s
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