[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso]

Pierre-Louis Pierson French
 Person in Photograph Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione

Not on view

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.

[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso], Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913), Albumen silver prints from glass negative

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Top left: 1975.548.258 [La Comtesse with Horn, Umbrella and Bottles]; top right: 1975.548.259 [La Comtesse Blowing Horn]; center:1975.548.260 [La Comtesse "in despair" with Kerchief to Face]; bottom left: 1975.548.261 [La Comtesse at Table with Bottle on Either Side]; bottom right: 1975.548.262 [La Comtesse in Flowered Hat Seated at Table]

[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso], Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913), Albumen silver prints from glass negative
[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso], Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913), Albumen silver prints from glass negative
[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso], Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913), Albumen silver prints from glass negative
[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso], Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913), Albumen silver prints from glass negative
[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso], Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913), Albumen silver prints from glass negative
[Album page with ten photographs of La Comtesse mounted recto and verso], Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822–1913), Albumen silver prints from glass negative

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