A Collection of Vintage Photos featuring the Countess de Castiglione (La Divine Comtesse)

Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione (1837 – 1899), better known as La Castiglione, was an Italian aristocrat who was a special agent for the cause of Italian unification, the mistress of Napoleon III, and a mysterious recluse notorious for her numerous love affairs. She was born to a noble Florentine family and at 17 she married the Count di Castiglione. It was a bad match; she cheated on him shamelessly and eventually left him bankrupt. In 1857 they separated. She left Paris in 1858, due to the scandal surrounding her liaison with Napoléon III.

Before that, while still living in Paris, the Countess had created a sensation. The beautiful statuesque countess was both decadent and extravagant. Lavish balls where prevalent during the period and she became known for her flamboyant entrances in elaborate dress at the imperial court. One of her most infamous outfits was a “Queen of Hearts” costume. She was even considered the most beautiful woman of her time and was described as having long, wavy blonde hair, pale skin, a delicate oval face, and eyes that constantly changed colour from green to an extraordinary blue-violet. Her vanity was as famous as her beauty and she would send albums of her portraits to friends and admirers.

In 1865 she arrived in Paris again, to plead for Italian unity on behalf of her cousin, then a minister to the king of Sardinia. After the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, Oldoini led an increasingly secluded existence, which gave rise to fantastic speculation as to her affairs. Her declining years were spent in an apartment in 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.

Photographs

The Countess´s raging narcissism found in photography the perfect ally, and she was a significant figure in the early history of photography.

In 1856 she began sitting for the firm Mayer and Pierson, photographers favored by the imperial court. Over the next four decades she directed Pierre-Louis Pierson to help her create 700 different photographs in which she re-created the signature moments of her life for the camera. She spent a large part of her personal fortune and even went into debt to execute the project. Most of the photographs depict the Countess in her theatrical outfits, such as the Queen of Hearts dress. Many of the portraits record the countess’s triumphant moments in Parisian society, wearing the extravagant gowns and costumes in which she appeared at soirées and masked balls, in others she assumes roles drawn from the theater, opera, literature, and her own imagination.

A number of photographs depict her in poses risqué for the era—notably, images that expose her bare legs and feet. In these photos, her head is cropped out.

Robert de Montesquiou, a Symbolist poet, dandy, and avid art collector, was fascinated by the Countess. He spent thirteen years writing a biography, La Divine Comtesse, which appeared in 1913. After her death, he collected 433 of her photographs, all of which entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Scherzo di Follia by Pierre-Louis Pierson 1863–66, printed 1940s via

The Opera Ball by Pierre-Louis Pierson,1861–67, printed 1895–1910 via

The Gaze by Pierre-Louis Pierson, 1856–57 via

Countess de Castiglione by Pierre-Louis Pierson, ca. 1865 via

Countess de Castiglione as Elvira at the Cheval Glass by Pierre-Louis Pierson, 1861–67 via

Pierre-Louis Pierson, The Countess de Castiglione, 1860s via

Pierre-Louis Pierson, The Castiglione with Fan, c. 1861-1867 via

Girls in Front of Mirrors by Lady Clementina Hawarden

Clementina Maude, Viscountess Hawarden, née Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming (1822 – 1865) commonly known as Lady Clementina Hawarden, was a noted English amateur portrait photographer of the Victorian Era.

She turned to photography in late 1856 or, probably, in early 1857, whilst living on the family estate in Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. A move to London in 1859 allowed her to set up a studio in her elegant home in South Kensington. There she took many of the characteristic portraits for which she is principally remembered. Many include her adolescent daughters Isabella Grace, Clementina and Florence Elizabeth. The furniture and characteristic decor of an upper-class London home was removed in order to create mise-en-scene images and theatrical poses within the first floor of her home. Hawarden produced albumen prints from wet-plate collodion negatives, a method commonly used at the time

Lady Clementina Hawarden, unknown date via

Lady Clementina Hawarden, unknown date via

Lady Clementina Hawarden, unknown date via

Lady Clementina Hawarden, unknown date via

Lady Clementina Hawarden, unknown date via

Lady Clementina Hawarden, unknown date via

Lady Clementina Hawarden, unknown date via

Interior of Room (1862)

Viscountess Jocelyn, Interior of Room, circa 1862 via

Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’ Hara in “Gone with the Wind” (1939)

Unknown, Vivien Leigh “Gone with the Wind”, 1939 via

Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh for Gone With the Wind (1939)

Publicity photo of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind, 1939 via

Publicity photo of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind, 1939 via

Photo of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh from Gone With the Wind, 1939 via

Publicity photo of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind, 1939 via

Publicity photo of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind, 1939 via

 

Alicia Rhett for film Gone With the Wind (1939)

Studio publicity portrait of Alicia Rhett as India Wilkes for film Gone With the Wind, 1939 via

A Collection of Victorian Era Portraits by Lady Clementina Hawarden (1860s)

Clementina Maude, Viscountess Hawarden, née Clementina Elphinstone Fleeming (1822 – 1865), commonly known as Lady Clementina Hawarden, was a noted English portrait amateur photographer of the Victorian Era, producing over 800 photographs mostly of her adolescent daughter.

A photograph of a young woman in a dancing costume, possibly Isabella Hawarden (b. 1846), taken by Clementina, Lady Hawarden, in about 1863 © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via

A photograph of Isabella Grace Hawarden (b. 1846) taken by her mother, Clementina, Lady Hawarden, in about 1862 © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via

Two women by window, one standing and one kneeling. A photograph of two young girls, probably Clementina (b. 1847) and Florence Hawarden (b. 1849), taken by Clementina, Lady Hawarden, in about 1860 © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via

Portrait of ‘Clementina Maude’ by Lady Clementina Hawarden, albumen print, 1863, woman reading seated beside window © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via

Woman on balcony. A photograph of Clementina Hawarden (b. 1847), taken by her mother, Viscountess Clementina Hawarden in about 1862 © The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via

Amazing Victorian Photography by Julia Margaret Cameron

The Gardener’s Daughter by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867 via

Magdalene Brookfield by Julia Margaret, 1865 via

Mary Ann Hillier by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1873 via

Lionel Tennyson with bow & arrow by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1863 via

The Rosebud Garden of Girls by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868 via

Gretchen by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1870 via

 

A Collection of Victorian “Carte de Visites”

The carte de visite was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854.  It was a small, cheap portrait format which made photography available to the masses.

It was usually made of an albumen print, which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card.

The Carte de Visite was slow to gain widespread use until 1859, when Disdéri published Emperor Napoleon III’s photos in this format. This made the format an overnight success.

The new invention was so popular it was known as “cardomania”and it spread throughout Europe and then quickly to America and the rest of the world.

The immense popularity of these card photographs led to the publication and collection of photographs of prominent persons.

Each photograph was the size of a visiting card, and such photograph cards were traded among friends and visitors.

Albums for the collection and display of cards became a common fixture in Victorian parlors.

By the early 1870s, cartes de visite were supplanted by “cabinet cards,” which were also usually albumen prints, but larger, mounted on cardboard backs.

Contemporary carte de visite, 1860s via

Victorian carte de visite circa 1880s via

One of the first cartes de visite of Queen Victoria taken by photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall via

Napoléon III and his wife Eugenie, cartes de visite by Disderi, circa 1865 via

Carte de visite photograph of Ella Wesner, circa 1872, the most celebrated male impersonator of the Gilded Age Vaudeville circuit. via

 1860s original/vintage albumen carte de visite of a lovely young California bride in her flowing white wedding dress taken by the pioneer daguerreotypist from San Francisco, William Shew via

Beautiful Victorian Portraits by Lady Clementina Hawarden

Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822 – 1865) was a noted portrait photographer of the Victorian Era.

She turned to photography in late 1857 or early 1858, whilst living on the estate of her husband’s family in Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, Ireland. A move to London in 1859 allowed her to set up a studio in her elegant home in South Kensington.

The furniture and characteristic decor of an upper-class London home was removed in order to create mise-en-scène images and theatrical poses within the first floor of her home – Hawarden’s characteristic portraits include her daughters Isabella Grace, Clementina, and Florence Elizabeth.

Hawarden produced albumen prints from wet-plate collodion negatives, a method commonly used at the time. Her work was widely acclaimed for its “artistic excellence”. Hawarden was considered an amateur photographer and while appreciated for her work, never became widely known as a photographer. Her photographic years were brief but prolific. Hawarden produced over eight hundred photographs from 1857-1864 before her sudden death. she died after suffering from pneumonia for one week, aged 42. It has been suggested that her immune system was weakened by constant contact with the photographic chemicals.

Her work is likened to Julia Margaret Cameron, another Victorian female photographer.

A photograph that is possibly a self-portrait of Clementina, Lady Hawarden, taken in about 1862 via

Isabella by Clementina, Lady Hawarden via

Isabella by Lady Clementina Hawarden via

Clementina reading while sitting at the window wearing some kind of fancy dress or theatrical costume, ca. 1862-63 by Lady Clementina Hawarden via

Clementina, reading a book by Clementina, Lady Hawarden via