Inscription: Printed in gold on inside cover of album, BL: "Maison Alph Giroux // 43 Boulevard de Capucines 43."; inscribed in red paint on photograph 1, recto CR: "Marck"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 1 under print, verso BC: "duchesse de Morny"; inscribed in red paint on photograph 2, recto CR: "Marck // d'apres la g... // Winterhal..."; inscribed in red paint on photograph 3, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 2 under print, verso BC: "Marie de Morny fille Duc de M"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 3 under print, recto BC: "La Castiglione en Reine d'Etrurie"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 3 under print, recto BC: "La Castiglione"; inscribed in red paint on photograph 6, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 4 under print, recto BC: "L'Impératrice"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 4, verso BC: "?"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 8, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 9, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 10, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 5, recto CR: "Duchesse de Morny"; inscribed in red paint on photograph 11, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in red paint on photograph 12, recto C: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 13, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 14, recto CL: "Marck"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 5, verso CL: "Pourtalés"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 5, verso CR: "Metternich"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 5, verso BL: "G de Duchesse de Mecklemboury"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 15, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 16, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 17, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 18, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 6, recto BL: "Anne Murat"; inscribed in red paint on photograph 20, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in red paint on photograph 21, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 22, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 6, verso CL: Comtesse Walewska.1."; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 6, verso CL: ".2."; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 6, verso BL: "Princesse Joachim Murat // .1."; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 6, verso BR: ".2."; inscribed in red paint on photograph 23, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 24, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 25, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 26, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 27, recto BL: "Marck"; inscribed in red paint on photograph 28, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 30, recto BR: "Marck"; inscribed in grey paint on photograph 32, recto C: "L Laurent P"; inscribed in grey paint on photograph 33, recto C: "L Laurent P"; inscribed in ink on photograph 35, recto BR: "[undecipherable]"; inscribed in white paint on photograph 36, recto CR: "Marck"; inscribed in ink on photograph 37, recto B: "Madame Demidoff. // [undecipherable] Jan Donato // [undecipherable] Princesse Marie [undecipherable]"; blindstamp on photograph 39, recto BR: "ED [encircled]"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 9, recto CL: "Duchesse d'Albe"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 9, recto BL: "Duchesse de M"; inscribed in pencil on album leaf 9, recto BR: "Duc de M"

Descendants of Adolphe Braun; [Galerie Texbraun, Paris]; [François Lepage]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, December 23, 1997

Album contains the following identified sitters:

Leaf 1, photo 1. Duchesse de Morny; Leaf 2, photo 3. Marie de Morny; Leaf 3, photo 4. Countess de Castiglione as the Queen of Etruria, photo 5. Countess de Castiglione as Anne Boleyn; Leaf 4, photo 6. Empress Eugénie as an Odalisque; Leaf 5, photo 8. Duchesse de Morny, photo 11. Pourtalès, photo 12. Metternich, photo 13. Duchesse de Mecklemboury; Leaf 6, photo 17. Anna Murat, photo 19-20. Comtesse Walewska, photo 21-22. Princesse Jaochim Murat; Leaf 8, photo 37. Madame Demidoff; Leaf 9, photo 38. Duchesse d'Albe, photo 40. Duchesse de Morny, photo 41. Duc de Morny. [ES]

This sumptuous album in quarto (37 x 8 x 29.7 cm) with gilt edges, bound in royal blue velvet, and adorned with the monogram of the Duke de Morny surmounted by a ducal coronet, contains forty-one photographs, of which six are album cards and the rest cartes-de-visite. The photographs are mounted to card. Apart from the final five photographs, all are painted in oil or in watercolor; twenty-six are signed "Marck" and two "Laurent." The name March is listed in the Didot-Bottin directory both as that of a painter and photographic artist (1865) and as a photographer (1868). His business address was 106, rue Neuve-des-Mathurins. F. or H. Laurent appears from 1867 to 1871 as both artist and photographer; his address is 30, rue de Grammont.

The album was commissioned by the Duke de Morny (1811-1865), who probably sent the photographs away to be painted. The Countess de Castiglione, a frequent guest of the Mornys, occupies a prominent position in the album. Her two album-card portraits are placed beside portraits of the Empress and the Duchess de Morny. Among the carte-de-visite photographs there are pictures of, among others, Mesdames de Persigny, Galliffet, Pourtalès, Metternich, Walewska, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Probably because the Duke died in 1865, the album was left unfinished. The last photographs are unpainted, and the windows in the last two pages unfilled. The cut-off year of 1865 allows the photographs of the Countess identified as being taken at the same sitting to be dated before that time.

Pierson's negative of the Countess's photograph (5/94) bears the title Anne Boleyn (1830), after Donizetti's opera about the wife of Henry VIII, unjustly condemned to death. The Countess is seen displaying her arms, one of which stands out pinkish white against the dark fabric of her clothes, while the other remains hidden behind a tranparent veil. The artist responsible for painting the photograph is almost certainly Marck, whose style can be recognized from the other portraits in the album signed by him. Unpainted prints of this photograph can be found in the Alinari and Gilman collections. Another painted version is known to have existed, as there is a negative in the Mayer & Pierson archive (206). Opposite the Countess's portrait is a photograph of the Empress dressed as an odalisque, daydreaming on the shores of the Bosphorus; it has the delicacy of a Persian miniature. The author of this photograph, painted and signed by Marck, is not known. Nor is it known on what occasion the Empress wore this costume -- perhaps it originated in the painter's imagination. There are a few photographs of the Empress affecting languid poses in oriental costumes, but they do not resemble the one she wears in the Morny album. [PA; "La Divine Comtesse," p. 175-6]