Arrivo
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 14.7 x 9.8 cm (5 13/16 x 3 7/8 in.) Mount: 14.7 x 9.8 cm (5 13/16 x 3 7/8 in.) Mat: 35.6 x 27.9 cm (14 x 11 in.) Frame: 37.3 x 30 cm (14 11/16 x 11 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.428
Tags
Art Historical Context
"Arrivo" (Arrival), an 1893 albumen silver print by Pierre-Louis Pierson, the enigmatic Countess Virginia Oldoini Ver di Castiglione in a moment of poised elegance. This intimate portrait, measuring just 14.7 x 9.8 cm, belongs to the renowned series of over 400 photographs Pierson created at the Countess's direction. A 19th-century Italian noblewoman infamous for her beauty and scandals—including rumored espionage for Napoleon III—the Countess transformed photography into a tool for self-mythologizing, staging herself in lavish costumes and dramatic tableaux drawn from literature, history, and...
About the Artist
Pierre-Louis Pierson|Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione · 1822–1913
Pierre-Louis Pierson (1822–1913) was a pioneering French portrait photographer whose career spanned the formative years of the medium. Born on December 13, 1822, in Hinckange in the Moselle department, Pierson developed an early fascination with photography during the 1840s, as the daguerreotype was still in its infancy. His early life and formal training remain sparsely documented, but by 1844, h...