The exhibition everyone was talking about in New York last week was a modest display of 19th-century French photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Italian-born Virginia married the Count di Castiglione, a rich widower 10 years her senior, in 1854, when she was 16. Like other ladies of high fashion but limited means, she also found her way to the studio of a firm of commercial photographers, Mayer and Pierson.
Early photographs show a plump and extremely pretty young woman.
Though she isn't shy, initially she appears to be intimidated by the camera. Her repertoire of poses is conventional. Clearly she is assuming poses suggested by the experienced photographer, Pierson. But before long, the balance of power begins to shift, as the countess discovers the true love of her life, the camera, and finds that her infatuation is reciprocated. She appears to have become addicted to the contemplation of her own beauty.