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.”

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.

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.

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