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| The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions |
 | | In 1856, then eighteen, the countess was sent to Paris by her cousin, the minister to King Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont, to bolster the interest of Napoleon III in the cause of Italian unification. |
 | | Although the affair with Napoleon seems to have been quite brief, ending in 1857, the countess continued to be a glamorous and influential fixture of Parisian society, forming numerous liaisons with notable aristocrats, financiers, and politicians. |
 | | Prominent among them was Robert de Montesquiou, who spent thirteen years writing her biography, La Divine Comtesse (published in 1913), and also assembled a large collection of her photographs, 275 of which were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1975. |
| www.metmuseum.org /special/LaDivineComtesse/comtesse_more.asp (1013 words) |
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