Countess di Castiglione

Virginia Oldoini, Countess de Castiglione (1837-1899), better known as La Castiglione, was an Italian courtesan who achieved notoriety as a mistress of Emperor Napoleon III of France. She was also a significant figure in the early history of photography as a model and collaborator of photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson.

The Countess in a photo
by Pierre-Louise Pierson
(c. 1863/66)
The Gaze, 1856-57
Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822-1913)
Albumen silver print
Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York

Biography

Born Virginia Oldoini on March 22, 1837 in Florence, Tuscany, she married Count Francesco Verasis de Castiglione at a young age. They had a son, Giorgio.

Her cousin, Count di Cavour, was a minister to Victor Emmanuel II, king of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia.

When the Castigliones traveled to Paris in 1855, the Countess was under her cousin's instructions to plead the cause of Italian unity with Napoleon III of France.

She achieved notoriety by becoming Napoleon III's mistress, a scandal that led her husband to demand a marital separation.

During her two years relationship with the French emperor (1856-1857), she was invited inside the very close circle of European royalty.

Among others she met Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, Otto von Bismarck and Adolphe Thiers.

The Queen of Hearts, 1861-63
Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822-1913)
Salted paper print overpainted with gouache by Aquilin Schad (French?, 1817-1866)
Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris

The Countess was known for her "divine beauty" and flamboyant entrances in elaborate dress at the imperial court. One of her most infamous outfits was a "Queen of Hearts" costume. A portrait of the Countess was painted by George Frederic Watts in 1857.

In 1856 she began sitting for Mayer and Pierson, the favoured photographers of the imperial court. Over the next four decades she would collaborate with Pierre-Louis Pierson on over 400 photographs in which she re-created the signature moments of her life for the camera.

Most of the photographs depicted the Countess in her theatrical outfits, such as the Queen of Hearts dress. A number of photographs depicted the Countess in ways that were undoubtedly risque for the era -- notably, images that expose her bare legs or feet. In these photos, her head has been cropped out.

By 1857 the brief affair with Napoleon III was over, inducing her to return to Italy. Four years later, the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, conceivably in part due to the influence that the Countess had exerted on Napoleon III. That same year, she returned to France and settled in Passy.

Roses, 1895
Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822-1913)
Booklet of albumen silver prints
Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York






Just after the defeat of France during the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, she has been called by France to meet, in secret, Otto von Bismarck to explain to him how fatal could be the German occupation of Paris. She may have succeeded, as Paris stayed free of Prussian occupation.

Virginia spent her declining years in an apartment on the Place Vendôme, where she had the rooms decorated in funereal black, the blinds kept drawn, and mirrors banished -- apparently so she would not have to confront her advancing age and loss of beauty. She would only leave the apartment at night. On November 28, 1899, she died at age sixty two, and was buried at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Rachel, September 1, 1893
Pierre-Louis Pierson (French, 1822-1913)
Albumen silver print
Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York

~From Wikipedia