Introduction

The photographic project of Virginia Verasis, the Countess de Castiglione (1837–1899) can be deemed a form of exhibition, both in its proclivity towards display and in its ambition to present its creator as an extraordinary work of art. Described by those who knew her as a striking beauty, the Countess arrived in Paris from her native Italy in 1855, newly wedded to Francesco Verasis, the Count de Castiglione. Immediately, she made a grand entrance onto the stage of French imperial society, her story punctuated by an alleged affair with Emperor Napoleon III in 1856, and, later, a rumored diplomatic intervention on France's behalf leading to the end of the Prussian siege of Paris.

In the intervening years, the Countess, estranged from her husband and fallen from the court's favor, began frequenting the Parisian photography studio of Mayer and Pierson. Over a period of five decades, she arranged for Pierre-Louis Pierson to take more than 400 photographs of her in elaborately costumed and staged tableaus, mises en scène that the Countess herself had a strong hand in designing. Towards the end of her life, she sequestered herself in her apartment at the Place Vendôme, reportedly emerging mainly at night or to attend photography sessions with Pierson where she modeled extravagant, fantastical outfits and set herself within psychologically complex, occasionally dark, and frequently surprising spatial compositions.