Robert de Montesquiou was fascinated by this character, who was not unlike himself in her narcissism. An Italian aristocrat living in Paris, a glittering lioness of the Second Empire, mistress of Napoleon III, the "divine countess" later lived as a recluse, coming out only at night, veiled in black. With the help of Pierre Louis Pierson, she was her own photographer until her decline: over four hundred shots celebrate her image, her costumes, her body, her attitudes, according to a ritual that she entirely determined, and with a formal invention of astonishing modernity.
Published by Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1999
21.9 cm x 28 cm, 189 pages, good condition
ISBN 9782729117573
Robert de Montesquiou was fascinated by this character, who was not unlike himself in her narcissism. An Italian aristocrat living in Paris, a glittering lioness of the Second Empire, mistress of Napoleon III, the "divine countess" later lived as a recluse, coming out only at night, veiled in black. With the help of Pierre Louis Pierson, she was her own photographer until her decline: over four hundred shots celebrate her image, her costumes, her body, her attitudes, according to a ritual that she entirely determined, and with a formal invention of astonishing modernity.
Published by Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1999
21.9 cm x 28 cm, 189 pages, good condition
ISBN 9782729117573
