Série des Roses 1895

“Série des Roses” consists of a series of photographs created by Pierre-Louis Pierson between 1854 and 1895. Pierson was a French photographer best known for his portraits of Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, an Italian aristocrat who was also Napoleon III's mistress. The Countess was a fascinating figure in the French court; she was known for her beauty, extravagance, and her obsessive documentation of herself through photography. During this period, the rise of photography coincided with a growing interest in celebrity and the construction of identity, particularly for women in the public eye. The Countess used photography to control her image and construct a persona. The photographs in the "Série des Roses" are part of this project, revealing as much about the Countess’s sense of self as about the social conventions and expectations placed upon women of her status during the Second Empire. These images offer a glimpse into the complex interplay of gender, power, and representation in 19th-century France. It is unclear whether the handwriting on the photograph is by Pierson or the Countess, but what is evident is the degree to which photography was being used to codify and market images of femininity at the time.