[Countess de Castiglione]
![[Countess de Castiglione] by Pierre-Louis Pierson|Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/countess-de-castiglione-286850.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 15.1 x 10.1 cm (5 15/16 x 4 in.) Mount: 15.2 x 10.2 cm (6 x 4 in.) Mat: 35.6 x 27.9 cm (14 x 11 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
2005.100.429
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking albumen silver print from a glass negative captures the Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione, a legendary 19th-century Italian noblewoman renowned for her beauty and intrigue at the court of Napoleon III. Photographed by Pierre-Louis Pierson of the prestigious Mayer & Pierson studio in 1895, when the Countess was in her late 50s, the image exemplifies her lifelong obsession with self-presentation. She often directed her own portraits, transforming photography into a tool for glamour and fantasy, predating modern celebrity culture. The albumen process, popular from th...
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...