Prince and Princess de Metternich

Prince Richard de Metternich was the Austrian ambassador to the court of Napoléon III, and his wife, Princess Pauline de Metternich, was a close personal friend of the Empress Eugénie. Considered by many of her contempories to be the life and soul of the Second Empire, she was a regular attendant at all the balls at the Tuileries and a frequent house guest at Compiègne. Her memoires, published in two volumes, offer a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of life at court. Possessed of exquisite taste, although unfortunately not the most beautiful of women, she was known as 'the best dressed monkey in Paris,' a soubriquet she was reputed to have coined herself.

This particular carte-de-visite was copied by Degas for a portrait of the Princess (cropped at the waist, and with her husband omitted altogether) that now hangs in the National Gallery in London; it is one of the earliest known examples of an artist directly copying a photograph.