Virginia Oldoïni Rapallini, Countess of Castiglione (22 March 1837 – 28 November 1899), better known as La Castiglione, was an Italian
aristocrat who achieved notoriety as a mistress of Emperor
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
of France. She was also a significant figure in the early history of
photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...
.
Early life
Virginia Elisabetta Luisa Carlotta Antonietta Teresa Maria Oldoïni Rapallini (french: Virginie Élisabeth Louise Charlotte Antoinette Thérèse Marie Oldoïni) was born on 22 March 1837 in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
,
Tuscany
it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman)
, population_note =
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, demogra ...
to Marquis Filippo Oldoïni Rapallini and Isabella Lamporecchi, members of the minor Tuscan nobility; she was often known by her nickname of "Nicchia". Ignored by her father, she was educated by her grandfather Ranieri Lamporecchi.
She married Francesco Verasis, Count of Castiglione, at the age of 17. He was twelve years her senior. They had a son, Giorgio.
Her cousin,
Camillo, Count of Cavour, was a minister of
Victor Emmanuel II
Victor Emmanuel II ( it, Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 March 1861, when he assumed the title o ...
,
King of Sardinia (that included also
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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,
Val d'Aosta
, Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title = Official languages
, population_blank1 = Italian French
...
,
Liguria
it, Ligure
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and
Savoy). When the Count and Countess traveled to
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in 1855, the Countess was under her cousin's instructions to plead the cause of
Italian unity
The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...
with
Napoleon III of France
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...
. She achieved notoriety by becoming Napoleon III's mistress, a scandal that led her husband to demand
marital separation
Marital separation occurs when spouses in a marriage stop living together without getting divorced. Married couples may separate as an initial step in the divorce process or to gain perspective on the marriage and determine whether divorce is warra ...
. In 1855, she had a brief affair with King
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
en, Victor Emmanuel Maria Albert Eugene Ferdinand Thomas
, house = Savoy
, father = Charles Albert of Sardinia
, mother = Maria Theresa of Austria
, religion = Roman Catholicism
, image_size = 252px
, succession1 ...
, who nicknamed her "Nini".
In 1856–1857, she entered the social circle of European royalty. During her relationship with the French emperor, she met
Augusta of Saxe-Weimar,
Otto von Bismarck and
Adolphe Thiers. She had many lovers, including a banker of the
Rothschild family and the then director of the Louvre Museum.
The Countess was known for her beauty and her flamboyant entrances in elaborate dress at the imperial court. One of her most infamous outfits was a "Queen of Hearts" costume.
George Frederic Watts
George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical work ...
painted her portrait in 1857. She was described as having long, wavy blonde hair, a fair complexion, a delicate oval face, and eyes that constantly changed colour from green to an extraordinary blue-violet.
Italian unification
The Countess returned to Italy in 1857 when her affair with Napoleon III was over. Four years later, the
Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia was proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to an institutional referendum to abandon the monarchy and f ...
was proclaimed, conceivably in part due to the influence that the Countess had exerted on Napoleon III. That same year, she returned to France and settled in
Passy.
In 1871, just after the
defeat of France in the
Franco-Prussian War, she was called to a secret meeting with
Otto von Bismarck to explain to him how the German occupation of Paris could be fatal to his interests. She may have been persuasive because Paris was spared Prussian occupation.
Photographic artist
In 1856 she began sitting for 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 this project. Most of the photographs depict the Countess in theatrical outfits, such as the Queen of Hearts dress. A number of photographs depict her in poses that were risqué for the era – notably, images that expose her bare legs and feet. In these photos, her head is cropped out.
Robert de Montesquiou
Marie Joseph Robert Anatole, comte de Montesquiou-Fézensac (7 March 1855, Paris – 11 December 1921, Menton) was a French aesthete, Symbolist poet, painter, art collector, art interpreter, and dandy. He is reputed to have been the inspira ...
, a Symbolist poet,
dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle des ...
, and avid art collector, was fascinated by the Countess di Castiglione. 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
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
Later years
Virginia spent her declining years in an apartment in the
Place Vendôme
The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It i ...
, where she had the rooms decorated in funeral 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. In the 1890s she began a brief collaboration with Pierson again, though her later photographs clearly show her loss of any critical judgement, possibly due to her growing mental instability. She wished to set up an exhibit of her photographs at the
Exposition Universelle (1900), though this did not happen. She died on November 28, 1899, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried at the
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery (french: Cimetière du Père-Lachaise ; formerly , "East Cemetery") is the largest cemetery in Paris, France (). With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, it is the most visited necropolis in the world. Notable figure ...
in Paris.
Legacy
Gabriele D'Annunzio authored an appreciation of the Countess that appeared as a preface to Montesquiou's work. It was also published on its own in 1973.
The Countess's life was depicted in a 1942 Italian film, ''
The Countess of Castiglione
''The Countess of Castiglione'' (Italian: ''La contessa Castiglione'') is a 1942 Italian historical film directed by Flavio Calzavara and starring Doris Duranti, Andrea Checchi and Renato Cialente. The film portrays the life of the nineteenth-cent ...
'', and a 1954 Italian-French film, ''
The Contessa's Secret'', that starred
Yvonne De Carlo.
The Countess was painted by the artist
Jacques-Émile Blanche
Jacques-Émile Blanche (; 1 January 1861 – 30 September 1942) was a French artist, largely self-taught, who became a successful portrait painter, working in London and Paris.
Early life
Blanche was born in Paris. His father, whose name he s ...
after her death.
The Countess is also depicted in
Alexander Chee
Alexander Chee (born August 21, 1967) is an American fiction writer, poet, journalist and reviewer.
Born in Rhode Island, he spent his childhood in South Korea, Kauai, Truk, Guam and Maine. He attended Wesleyan University and the Iowa Writers' ...
's novel ''The Queen of the Night''.
She inspired the novel ''Exposition'' by
Nathalie Léger
Nathalie Léger (born 20 September 1960 in Paris, France) is a writer and the executive director of the Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives.
Career
Nathalie Léger was curator of several exhibitions, notably ''Le Jeu et la Raison'', ...
.
References
Sources
* Hamish Bowles, "Vain Glory" in ''Vogue'' (Aug 2000), 242–245, 270-271
* Alain Decaux, ''La Castiglione, d’après sa correspondence et son journal inédits'' (Librairie académique Perrin, 1953)
* Claude Dufresne ''La comtesse de Castiglione '' (Broché, 2002)
* Massimo Grillandi, ''La contessa di Castiglione'' (Milan: Rusconi, 1978)
* Max Henry
"Gotham Dispatch" review of an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art September 19, 2000 – December 31, 2000, accessed 30 March 2005
* Heather McPherson, "''La Divine Comtesse'': (Re)presenting the Anatomy of a Countess," in ''The Modern Portrait in Nineteenth Century France'' (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 38-75
*Isaure de Saint-Pierre, ''La Dame de Coeur, un amour de Napoléon III]'' (Albin Michel, 2006),
* Abigail Solomon-Godeau, "The Legs of the Countess," in ''October'' 39 (Winter 1986): 65-108. Reprinted in Emily Apter and William Pletz, eds., ''Fetishism as Cultural Discourse'' (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993), 266-306
* Roger L. Williams, ''Gaslight and Shadow: The World of Napoleon III'' (NY: Macmillan, 1957), Ch. 6: "The Countess of Castiglione"
* aboutthearts.com
"Indepth Art News" notice of an exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay October 12, 1999 – January 23, 2000, accessed 30 March 2005
* ''"La Divine Comtesse": Photographs of the Countess de Castiglione'', catalog for a 2000 exhibition of the Countess de Castiglione photos at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
External links
Metropolitan Museum of Art: "La Divine Comtesse"(with sample photos)
Short article in Artnet about the Countess de Castiglione(with sample photos)
Review of "La Divine Comtesse": Photographs of the Countess de Castiglione(book review)
(scroll down to the middle)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castiglione, Virginia Oldoini, Countess di
1837 births
1899 deaths
*
Mistresses of Napoleon III
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy
19th-century Italian women artists
Italian women photographers
19th-century women photographers
Italian artists' models
Italian emigrants to France
19th-century spies
People of the Second French Empire
Women in war in Italy
Italian spies