CASTIGLIONE, Virginia Oldoini Rapallini, Countess of - MONTESQUIOU, Robert de.

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La Divine Comtesse. Étude d'après Madame de Castiglione. First edition of the Parisian aesthete's sumptuously illustrated biography. Castiglione (1837-1899) was a self-fashioned icon of high society whose extensive portfolio as a photographic model made her a major figure in the medium's early history. "La Castiglione was one of the first celebrated women to realize the iconic potential of the camera in this first period of photography... She was aware of the necessity for control, a concern to use the camera rather than let the camera use her. Her chosen studio, Mayer and Pierson, made over seven hundred images of her, an enterprise that, in photography's earliest years, represented a considerable investment in time and effort" (Badger, p. 51). She performed a wide variety of identities in her highly staged portraits, including mythical, historical, seductive, and grotesque. The fame resulting from her enigmatic images earned her significant political influence: her affair with Napoleon III likely contributed to Italian unification, and Otto von Bismarck met with her to discuss the strategic importance of Paris following the Franco-Prussian war.Although he never met Castiglione, Montesquiou (1855-1921) was enraptured by her reputation and collected hundreds of her photographs, the majority of which are now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A fellow photography enthusiast - he aspired to be the most photographed person in the world - he was also a Symbolist poet, painte

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