Blogtrotter

Does she look like my wife?

The Countess de Castligione was the Bjork muse to the Matthew Barney manipulator circa 1863-66, collaborating with the French (of course) photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson. This pioneer artiste worked with this mistress of Napoleon III (I have a coin with his image) on seventeen portraits, including this one, a rare albumen print of which was bought by Richard Avedon. Like Avedon, Pierson revelled in the artifice of the medium and its mediums.

Our guardian of objets d'art from the rich and famous, fellow archivist Barry, told Layne she struck him as the very incarnation of La Divine Comtesse, after "Scherzo de Follia" (Game of Madness) graced the cover of a trade magazine recently.


http://www.metmuseum.org/special/LaDivineComtesse/comtesse_more.asp