My Favourite Painting: Sir Peter Osborne

'There’s that extraordinary gaze of hers, how confident and proud – she was, after all, born a princess – but, at the same time, how alluring and seductive, her eyes following you as you walk past her.'

Comtesse d’Haussonville, 1845
Comtesse d’Haussonville, 1845, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867), 52in by 36¼in.
(Image credit: The Frick Collection, New YorK.)

Sir Peter Osborne chooses Comtesse d’Haussonville:

‘My favourite museum is the Frick in New York. I probably could have chosen half a dozen “favourite paintings” from there alone. There are couple of reasons why I finally picked this one: in the first place, no one painted silk quite as well as Ingres.

'The ruffles and creases and shimmers are unbelievably lifelike; you just want to take a handful of the taffeta and crunch it between your fingers. And then there’s that extraordinary gaze of hers, how confident and proud – she was, after all, born a princess – but, at the same time, how alluring and seductive, her eyes following you as you walk past her.

'Add to this what we know about her, a formidable intellect and prolific essayist, and I have to say it’s an obvious favourite ’

Sir Peter Osborne is chairman of Osborne & Little, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.

John McEwen comments on Comtesse d’Haussonville:

Louise de Broglie, Countess d’Haussonville (1818–82), was a daughter of the long-established Broglie dynasty, her father a statesman, a diplomat and a member of the French Academy. She was a granddaughter of Madame de Staël, a formidable writer and saloniste. The Countess’s husband, a diplomat and writer, was also an academician. She was outspokenly liberal and independent and would later write novels, essays and biographies – of Byron, among others.

By the 1840s, having achieved fame as a portraitist, Ingres was devoted to the higher, but less lucrative art of history painting. This portrait was one of only two he accepted at the time. It was a second attempt. The Countess had found the long sessions wearisome, complaining that nine days had been taken to paint one hand, and then she became pregnant with her third child.

The new portrait shows her in a silk-taffeta dress, a robe de petit dîner, today’s equivalent of a cocktail dress. Daywear would have prescribed a hat; an afternoon or evening at the Opera or Comédie Française called only for combs and a decorative ribbon. An apparently discarded shawl and handkerchief enforce this interpretation, as do the barely visible opera glasses standing beside the pile of calling cards. The apparently all-seeing eye for detail is balanced by a strict and pleasing sense of formal design.

At its finish, Ingres was disappointed, but the Countess’s father was delighted and, as Ingres wrote: ‘Finally to crown the work, M. Thiers [acquaintance, former Prime Minister and future President]… came to see it… and repeated this wicked remark: “M. Ingres must be in love with you to have painted you that way.”’


peter may

My favourite painting: Peter May

'Vividly coloured sailing boats in a harbour, which I gazed at for hours'

roger wright

Credit: Courtesy of the artist’s estate/Alan Cristea Gallery

My favourite painting: Roger Wright

'Its typically powerful brushstrokes and juxtaposed gorgeous colours give a heart warming and evocative sense of fun and nostalgia'

Lord Ribblesdale

My favourite painting: David Starkey

David Starkey shares the one painting he would own, if he could

patrick gale chooses his favourite painting for country life

My favourite painting: Patrick Gale

Patrick Gale chooses his favourite painting for Country Life.

Lucinda Bredin's favourite painting, Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt van Ryn.

Lucinda Bredin's favourite painting, Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt van Ryn.

My Favourite Painting: Lucinda Bredin

Lucinda Bredin chooses her favourite painting for Country Life.

John Taylor's favourtie painting, Nude Self Portrait by Egon Schiele.

John Taylor's favourtie painting, Nude Self Portrait by Egon Schiele.

My Favourite Painting: John Taylor

John Taylor chooses his favourite painting for Country Life.

Country Life

Bringing the quintessential English rural idle to life via interiors, food and drink, property and more Country Life’s travel content offers a window into the stunning scenery, imposing stately homes and quaint villages which make the UK’s countryside some of the most visited in the world.