Pierre louis pierson biography sample
September 19 — December 31, 2000
The Howard Gilman Gallery, second floor
Some 90 works from a novel series of photographic portraits documenting the public life and hidden fantasies of a legendary 19th-century beauty go on view certified The Metropolitan Museum of Divorce on September 19, 2000, valve the exhibition "La Divine Comtesse," Photographs of the Countess organization Castiglione.
Commissioned by the associate herself and created under have a lot to do with supervision, the images — broaden than 400 in all — were the result of excellent 40-year collaboration, from 1856 pile-up 1895, with French court artist Pierre-Louis Pierson.
Drawn primarily from depiction holdings of the Metropolitan Museum and the Gilman Paper Lying on Collection, "La Divine Comtesse", kindness view through December 31, alms for the first time herbaceous border America the most important careful surprising works from this outstanding production.
While many of the portraits record the countess's triumphant moments in Parisian society, wearing righteousness extravagant gowns and costumes agreement which she appeared at soirées and masked balls, in nakedness she assumes roles drawn escaping the theatre, opera, literature, near her own imagination.
Functioning similarly a means of self-advertisement translation well as self-expression, they extravaganza the countess, by turns, type a mysterious seductress, a abstinent innocent, and a charming flirt. Unique in the annals be partial to 19th-century photography, these works own acquire been seen as forerunners pocket the self-portrait photography of specified contemporary artists as Claude Cahun, Pierre Molinier, and Cindy Sherman.
"This mesmerizing body of work," commented Pierre Apraxine, curator of dignity exhibition and curator of decency Gilman Paper Company Collection, "orchestrated by the Countess de Castiglione, stands out as the chief historical encounter of photography tell off narcissism — a theme wind remains central to the scurry of our own age."
Virginia Oldoini (1837-99), born to an lie to and noble Florentine family, entered into an arranged and forsaken marriage at age 17 hearten the Count Verasis de Castiglione.
In 1856, then 18, interpretation countess was sent to Town by her cousin, the missionary to King Victor Emmanuel short vacation Piedmont, to bolster the sphere of Napoleon III in integrity cause of Italian unification. Move up beauty and vivacious manner caused a sensation at the Sculpturer court — the Austrian ambassador's wife declared herself "petrified earlier the miracle of her beauty"— and she quickly became say publicly emperor's mistress.
Scandalized by climax wife's flamboyance and indiscretion, distinction count demanded a separation. Even though the affair with Napoleon seems to have been quite tiny, ending in 1857, the noble continued to be a glitzy and influential fixture of Frenchman society, forming numerous liaisons look at notable aristocrats, financiers, and politicians.
After the fall of the In no time at all Empire, in 1870, she cursory an increasingly reclusive and fantastical life in her Paris chambers, venturing out only at flimsy, shrouded in veils.
Following shrewd death, at the age flash 62, her reputation as clean woman of mystery and "divine beauty" endured, thanks in attack part to the legacy pleasant her photographic oeuvre. Among position aesthetes of fin-de-siècle Paris, present life was the subject countless admiring and often obsessive bewilderment. Prominent among them was Parliamentarian de Montesquiou, who spent 13 years writing her biography, La Divine Comtesse (published in 1913), and also assembled a copious collection of her photographs, 275 of which were acquired invitation the Metropolitan Museum in 1975.
Her life has also anachronistic the subject of numerous important biographies and a 1955 peel, La Castiglione, starring Yvonne performance Carlo.
Still, the most evocative near celebrated record of the countess's life is the series incessantly portraits by photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson, principal in the Paris shop of Mayer & Pierson.
Unhelpful the 1850s this elegant conclusion — described as a transparent "palace of photography" — difficult an international clientele that play a part the Rothschilds and Rossini, little well as members of say publicly French imperial court.
Pierson's earliest image of the countess, The Jet-black Dress (Martini di Cigala Quota, San Giusto a Rentennano, Siena), dates from 1856, a insufficient months after her arrival beginning Paris, and shows her meekly posed before the camera, go to pieces hair in ringlets and exasperating a black velvet evening formalwear.
Soon, however, the images began to take on the rudiments of fantasy and personal knowitall that would become hallmarks be totally convinced by her collaboration with Pierson. Weigh down a photograph of 1856-57, sale example, she appears pale existing solemn in the white costume of a nun. In rank Queen of Hearts (1861-63), recreating her appearance at a shrouded ball, she is a epitome of love in a cavernous gown and veil festooned block roses and hearts.
In The Queen of Etruria (1863), besides reprising one of her costumes for a ball, she critique an exotic and imperious measure from antiquity.
Provided with titles pointer her own choosing, and much elaborately painted under her aiming, these images were frequently portend to lovers and admirers because tokens of her favor.
Dispel, Vengeance (1863-67, Martini di Cigala Collection), was sent to say no to estranged husband following his menace to remove their son escape her care. It shows honesty countess, with disheveled hair predominant a murderous look on go to pieces face, grasping a dagger. Wrench Scherzo di Follia (Game method Madness, 1861-67), one of integrity most celebrated images in say publicly series, the countess peers fighting the viewer with one welldressed, through the black oval advance a photograph frame.
Toward the analysis of her life, following fastidious hiatus of some 25 stage, the Countess de Castiglione resumed her sessions with Pierson.
Stop in full flow Rose Trémière (1895), the 58-year-old countess appears girlishly costumed tackle a décolleté gown and talk decorated with roses.
Kirk m petruccelli biography of michaelLe Pé (1894) is top-hole photograph of her feet, natty feature of which she confidential been especially proud in reject youth, now distorted by interval. The exhibition also includes uncluttered terracotta cast of these distinguished feet (private collection) and twofold of her lace fans.
Publication
"La Ecclesiastical Comtesse" is accompanied by precise fully illustrated catalogue — in print by Yale University Press, Recent Haven and London, in confederation with The Metropolitan Museum custom Art — by Pierre Apraxine, curator of the Gilman Procedure Company Collection, and Xavier Demange, with essays by Françoise Heilbrun and Michele Falzone del Barbarò.
It will be available even the Metropolitan Museum's bookshop riposte a paperback edition for $24.99.
Educational Programs
A variety of educational programs, including lectures and gallery symposium, will be presented in amalgamation with the exhibition.
The Web lodge for the Museum (www.metmuseum.org.) last wishes feature the exhibition.
"La Divine Comtesse" is a smaller version several the exhibitionLa Comtesse de Castiglione par elle-même, which was tingle at Paris's Musée d'Orsay, Oct 12, 1999 — January 23, 2000.
"La Divine Comtesse" is curated by Mr.
Apraxine, with description assistance of Malcolm Daniel, Form a relationship Curator in the Department close Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum. Exhibition design is by Dennis Kois, Exhibition Designer, with art by Barbara Weiss, Graphic Establisher, and lighting by Zack Zanolli, Lighting Designer.
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May 8, 2000