The Countess de Castiglione

To create images that fully aligned with her self-perceived beauty, the countess oversaw many alterations to Pierre-Louis Pierson’s photographs. For example, many of the portraits of the countess are heavily hand-colored. In this unique work, an unidentified painter used various brushstrokes to realize the countess’s delicate skin, glossy garment, velvety ribbons, and sparkly pearls. The skin tones were developed using layers of fine dots of color. A section of the countess’s hair was left uncolored, as the painter used the photograph’s inherent warm-brown tone to create the appearance of shine.