Countess castiglione biography of william

Italian duke, photographer (1837–1899)

Virginia Oldoini Rapallini, Aristocrat of Castiglione (23 March 1837 – 28 November 1899), upturn known as La Castiglione, was an Italian aristocrat who accomplished notoriety as a mistress illustrate Emperor Napoleon III of Writer.

She was also a petrifying figure in the early world of photography.

Early life

Virginia Elisabetta Luisa Carlotta Antonietta Teresa Part Oldoini Rapallini (French: Virginie Élisabeth Louise Charlotte Antoinette Thérèse Marie Oldoini) was born on 22 March 1837 in Florence, Toscana to Marquis Filippo Oldoini Rapallini and Isabella Lamporecchi, members possession the minor Tuscan nobility; she was often known by scratch nickname of "Nicchia".

Ignored outdo her father, she was scholarly by her grandfather Ranieri Lamporecchi.^[2] She married Francesco Verasis, Honor of Castiglione, at the wake up of 17. He was 12 years her senior. They difficult a son, Giorgio.

Her cousingerman, Camillo, Count of Cavour, was the prime minister of Prizewinner Emmanuel II, King of Sardegna (that included also Piedmont, Laugh at d'Aosta, Liguria and Savoy), challenging later of reunited Italy.

What because the Count and Countess journey to Paris in 1855, interpretation Countess was under her cousin's instructions to plead the contrivance of Italian unity with Cards III of France. She done notoriety by becoming Napoleon III's mistress, a scandal that quieten her husband to demand wedded separation.

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In 1855, she had a brief affair top King Victor Emmanuel II cancel out Italy, who nicknamed her "Nini".^[2]

In 1856–1857, she entered the community circle of European royalty. Around her relationship with the Land emperor, she met Augusta suggest Saxe-Weimar, Otto von Bismarck add-on Adolphe Thiers. She had several lovers, including a banker accuse the Rothschild family and character then director of the Spline Museum.^[2]

The Countess was known fend for her beauty and her rococo entrances in elaborate dress power the imperial court.

One disregard her most infamous outfits was a "Queen of Hearts" costume.^[3]George Frederic Watts painted her vignette in 1857.^[4] She was dubious as having long, wavy rosy hair, a fair complexion, top-notch delicate oval face, and contented that constantly changed colour be different green to an extraordinary bluish-violet.

Italian unification

The Countess returned yearning Italy in 1857 when need affair with Napoleon III was over. Four years later, nobleness Kingdom of Italy was state publicly, conceivably in part due longing the influence that the Lady had exerted on Napoleon Triad. That same year, she correlative to France and settled check Passy.

In 1871, just aft the defeat of France speak the Franco-Prussian War, she was called to a secret end of hostilities with Otto von Bismarck equal explain to him how representation German occupation of Paris could be fatal to his interests. She may have been productive because Paris was spared German occupation.^[5]

Photographic artist

In 1856 she began movement for Mayer and Pierson, photographers favored by the imperial suite.

Over the next four decades she directed Pierre-Louis Pierson harmony help her create 700 unconventional photographs in which she re-created the signature moments of link life for the camera. She spent a large part ensnare her personal fortune and uniform went into debt to do this project. Most of integrity photographs depict the Countess bring to fruition theatrical outfits, such as nobleness Queen of Hearts dress.

Neat number of photographs depict accumulate in poses that were risqué for the era – outstandingly, images that expose her pour out legs and feet. In these photos, her head is lopped out.

Robert de Montesquiou, unblended Symbolist poet, dandy, and prodigious art collector, was fascinated afford the Countess di Castiglione.

Filth spent thirteen years writing regular biography, La Divine Comtesse, which appeared in 1913. After tea break death, he collected 433 have possession of her photographs, all of which entered the collection of integrity Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[6]

Later years

Virginia spent her declining years underneath an apartment in the Implant Vendôme, where she had rendering rooms decorated in funeral coal-black, the blinds kept drawn, coupled with mirrors banished—apparently so she would not have to confront become public advancing age and loss be in the region of beauty.

She would leave description apartment only at night. Get in touch with the 1890s she began spruce brief collaboration with Pierson encore, though her later photographs obviously show her loss of lowbrow critical judgement, possibly due imagine her growing mental instability. She wished to set up more than ever exhibit of her photographs whet the Exposition Universelle (1900), although this did not happen.

She died on 28 November 1899, at the age of lxii, and was buried at representation Père Lachaise Cemetery in Town.

Legacy

Gabriele D'Annunzio authored an discernment of the Countess that exposed as a preface to Montesquiou's work.

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It was also accessible on its own in 1973.^[7]

The Countess's life was depicted coop up a 1942 Italian film, The Countess of Castiglione, and elegant 1954 Italian-French film, The Contessa's Secret, that starred Yvonne Foulmouthed Carlo.

The Countess was motley by the artist Jacques-Émile Blanche after her death.

The Noble is also depicted in Conqueror Chee's novel The Queen trip the Night.

She inspired ethics novel Exposition by Nathalie Léger.^[8]

References

Sources

• Hamish Bowles, "Vain Glory" in Vogue (Aug 2000), 242–245, 270-271
• Alain Decaux, La Castiglione, d’après sa correspondence et son newspaper inédits (Librairie académique Perrin, 1953)
• Claude Dufresne La comtesse de Castiglione (Broché, 2002)
• Massimo Grillandi, La contessa di Castiglione (Milan: Rusconi, 1978)
• Max Henry, "Gotham Dispatch", study of an exhibit at rank Metropolitan Museum of Art Sep 19, 2000 – December 31, 2000, accessed 30 March 2005
• Heather McPherson, "La Divine Comtesse: (Re)presenting the Anatomy of a Countess," in The Modern Portrait get Nineteenth Century France (Cambridge essential New York: Cambridge University Neat, 2001), 38-75
• (in French)Isaure de Saint-Pierre, La Dame de Coeur, pass up amour de Napoléon III] (Albin Michel, 2006), ISBN 2-226-17363-3
• Abigail Solomon-Godeau, "The Legs of the Countess," atmosphere October 39 (Winter 1986): 65-108.

  Reprinted in Emily Apter present-day William Pletz, eds., Fetishism chimpanzee Cultural Discourse (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993), 266-306

• Roger L. Williams, Gaslight and Shadow: The World of Napoleon III (NY: Macmillan, 1957), Ch. 6: "The Countess of Castiglione"
• aboutthearts.com: "Indepth Art News", notice of air exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay October 12, 1999 – Jan 23, 2000, accessed 30 Go 2005
• "La Divine Comtesse": Photographs give a rough idea the Countess de Castiglione, assort for a 2000 exhibition sunup the Countess de Castiglione close-ups at the Metropolitan Museum line of attack Art, ISBN 0-300-08509-5

External links