A new life for the Countess

A new life for the Countess

In the Parisian metro, Pauline Gagnon saw for the first time the poster for The Russian court an exhibition in Amsterdam. Fascinated, she was looking at it with such intensity that the man gluing the posters gave her a copy… In exchange, the painter turned it into one of her portraits… and it will soon be exhibited at the Galerie Monaro.

This is how Countess Varvara Musina Pushkina, a work by Frans Xaver Winterhalter dated from 1857 in the  collection of the Hermitage Museum in Russia, has become a model for the Quebec artist. After mounting the poster on canvas, Pauline Gagnon worked as she usually does, from photographs. Only this time, with a paper format of 10 x 4 feet, no mistakes were allowed. If one wants to play with transparencies and superimpositions, this technique does not allow for any corrections. The touch ups were all done by hand, the same way one does now on Photoshop, but keeping always in mind the impact each action could have on the whole.

The result of this concentrated and rigorous exercise is astonishing. The countess seems really to come alive and the painting to light up. In between, her eyes have changed color. Going from brown to blue!