Posts in the Photograph category

Photographs of the Countess Greffulhe

La comtesse Greffulhe, nÈe Elisabeth de Caraman-Chimay (1860-1952), portant la robe aux lis crÈÈe pour elle par la maison Worth
In this photograph by Paul Nadar, the Countess Greffulhe wears her famous Lily Dress, attributed to the House of Worth, 1896. She studied photography with Nadar and collaborated with him on at least two versions of this photograph, posing in front of a full-length mirror. Long a symbol of female vanity, the mirror can also be compared to a photograph. As Robert de Montesquiou once said, “A photograph is a mirror that remembers.”

Photograph by Paul Nadar.
Palais Galleria, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris.
© Eric Emo/Galliera/Roger-Viollet.
La Comtesse Greffuhle dans une robe de bal
The Countess Élisabeth Greffulhe in a ballgown, circa 1887.

Exposed to the crowd at the opera, the Countess Greffulhe experienced a feeling of triumph. As she once wrote to Robert de Montesquiou, “I don’t think that there is any pleasure in the world comparable to that of a woman who feels that she is being looked at by everybody. . . . How can one live when one can no longer provoke this great anonymous caress, after having known and tasted it?” Photography was another way of presenting herself to the gaze of others.

Photograph by Otto Wegener.
Palais Galliera, Musée de la mode de la Ville de Paris.
© Otto/Galliera/Roger-Viollet.
© Eric Emo/Galliera/Roger-Viollet.
Portrait de la comtesse Elisabeth Greffulhe
The Countess Greffulhe wearing an evening coat, circa 1887.

In this photograph, The Countess Greffulhe poses almost completely concealed by a voluminous evening cape, perhaps the same chinchilla cape that she loaned to Robert de Montesquiou for his portrait by Whistler. She later complained that the cape was never returned by his companion, Yturri.

Photograph by Otto Wegener.
Palais Galleria, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris.
© Otto/Galliera/Roger-Viollet.
palais-galliera-logos-sm

This exhibition was developed by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, Paris Musées.
Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC.

About the Countess Greffulhe

Photograph by Otto, the Countess Greffulhe in a ball gown, circa 1887. © Otto/Galliera/Roger-Viollet.

Photograph by Otto, the Countess Greffulhe in a ball gown, circa 1887.
© Otto/Galliera/Roger-Viollet.

palais-galliera-logos-smThis exhibition was developed by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, Paris Musées.


Élisabeth de Caraman-Chimay, the Countess Greffulhe (1860–1952), patronized the greatest couturiers of her day, but her audacious personal style was very much her own. As the press observed: “Her fashions, whether invented for her or by her must resemble no one else’s,” adding that she preferred to look “bizarre” rather than “banal.” In this, she resembled her uncle, the dandy-poet Count Robert de Montesquiou, who inspired Marcel Proust’s notorious character, the Baron de Charlus, just as the Countess Greffulhe inspired Proust’s immortal character, Oriane, the Duchesse de Guermantes.

Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC.