Virginia Oldoini, the Countess of Castiglione, arrived in Paris in 1856 with a specific mission. The Italian aristocracy had sent her to charm Napoleon III, Emperor of France, into supporting Italian unification. She succeeded. She became his mistress, and her political influence at the French court was real and deliberate.
By 1861, Virginia had separated from both her husband and the emperor. She settled permanently in Paris, moving through elite circles of politicians, aristocrats, and financiers. Balls, operas, and high-society events filled her calendar, and her presence at any gathering was widely noted.
What made Virginia truly distinctive was her obsession with controlling her own image. Starting in 1856, she worked closely with Pierre-Louis Pierson, the official photographer of the Second French Empire. Their collaboration produced hundreds of carefully staged photographs.
Virginia directed every session herself. She chose elaborate costumes, recreated theatrical characters, displayed the latest fashions, and posed to capture specific moods. Each photograph was given a name, often drawn from operas or plays.
This was performance art as much as photography. The level of detail she demanded from each session was rare for the era. She treated the camera as a stage, and herself as both director and subject.
The portraits below span the 1860s, showing Virginia in a range of costumes and poses that she personally designed and staged with Pierson.
After Napoleon III’s empire collapsed in 1870, Virginia withdrew from public life. She lived reclusively, avoiding appearances that would expose her age, while her photographs kept the image of her youth frozen in time.
