A Rebel Pioneer of Female Self-Portraiture
The Countess de Castiglione, One-Time Mistress of Napoleon III, Spent Her Life Challenging Norms
19th-century photographic representations of women tend to reflect societal constraints subservience, commodification, piousness and maternalism. But for Virginia Oldoini, the Countess de Castiglione, challenging norms became her life’s work. Considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, the countess collaborated on hundreds of self-portraits made between 1856 and 1895. Unique in the history of the medium, her photographic pursuits are now seen as precursors to the self-portraiture exploration of photographers like Cindy Sherman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recognized the novelty of this work beginning in 1975 and now has one of the most extensive collections in the country.