Dietrich in The Devil is a Woman, 1935

Dietrich's final collaboration with Josef von Sternberg, The Devil is a Woman, is a silly, rather annoying film but, like all their previous work together, it's really quite amazing to look at.  Dietrich flits about in a glittering whirlwind of Travis Banton's sublimely excessive costumes, and hair and maquillage are a tortured perfection; it's here that the famous eyebrows attain their greatest altitude.

Dietrich's "reveal":

 Dietrich in other scenes from the film:

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Screen captures from Mitteleuropa.

Homme nu de dos by Hippolyte Flandrin, circa 1830-38

Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin (March 23, 1809, Lyons – March 21, 1864, Rome), French painter best known for this:

Jeune homme nu assis au bord de la mer, 1836

Queen Victoria in her Garter robes, by Winterhalter, 1843

One of my favorite images of Queen Victoria; quite a glamorous turn for the famously unglamorous lady.  I think the coloring and lighting are exquisite.  At completion, this portrait and its pendant of Prince Albert were put into the paneling of the Garter Throne Room in Windsor Castle and have been there ever since.

The Garter Throne Room, Windsor Castle.  The two Winterhalters are on the left.

Anton Dolin, 1924

Sir Anton Dolin (July 27, 1904, Slinfold, Sussex – November 25, 1983, Paris), born Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay (generally known as Patrick Kay), was an important English ballet dancer and choreographer.  Joining the Ballets Russes in 1924, he was immediately made soloist and created roles in several significant ballets from the company's late period, including Le Train bleu, Le Fils prodigue, and Le Bal.  He was knighted in 1981.

Sylvia Sidney in Merrily We Go To Hell, 1932

Sylvia Sidney (August 8, 1910, The Bronx – July 1, 1999, New York City), born Sophia Kosow, began acting professionally at the age of fifteen.  After attracting attention on the New York stage, she made her first film in 1929.  Her Hollywood career was at its height in the early to mid Thirties, when she was frequently cast as the girlfriend or sister of a gangster; she had a face - and those huge blue eyes - beautifully designed for cinematic suffering.  Things had wound down by the late forties and she transitioned into character roles on film and television, and continued her work in the theatre.  But with her husky voice - a result of decades of heavy smoking - and her striking, well-aged beauty, she had a late career rebound, and during the last three decades of her life she gave many notable, award-winning performances.

The beautiful costumes for Merrily We Go To Hell were, I believe, by Travis Banton, but I've been unable to verify that.

Elizabeth Pennington Foster, born December 2, 1911

For a child, I don't think there's anything so encouraging as to know that someone "gets" you.  My Grandma Betty - my mother's mother - got me.  Her appreciation of my nascent artistic talent was indispensable to its growth, and her influence on me has been incalculable; I wouldn't be who I am if it weren't for this wonderful, difficult woman.  Three years ago, on this same day, I wrote in more depth about who she was and what she was to me:  Elizabeth Pennington Foster Matson Alberts Dahm Burpee.   She would have been 102 today.

Les Diamants de la couronne de France

In 1887, in an effort to prove that they'd finally accomplished what their great revolution of 102 years previous had failed pitifully to do - make France not a monarchy - the French government decided to sell off their crown jewels.  The last occupant of a French throne, Napoléon III, had been booted in 1871, and much of the truly impressive horde of jewelry had been created for his wife, the Empress Eugénie.  Existing jewels from the state treasury were often used in these commissions, and so these new pieces were considered state property rather than personal.  The empress had fled Paris at the Empire's fall with pretty much just the clothes on her back and, though the French government eventually returned much of her personal property - her Winterhalter paintings for example - they felt justified in withholding the sparkly things.

The cover and some illustrations from the catalogue of photographic plates by the photographer Berthaud - Diamants, Perles et Pierreries provenant de la Collection dite des Joyaux de la Couronne. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1887:

The sale was heavily promoted and much commented on in the press.  In the end, it appears that - somehow - the sale didn't manage to be terribly profitable.

A vintage photograph of a display of the diamond jewelry.

A vintage photograph of a display of the ruby and diamond jewelry.

In much the same way that, having sold off the contents of Versailles and other royal palaces during the French Revolution, the current republic continues to frantically - and at great cost - buy back whatever pieces of royal provenance it can get its hands on, they have also reacquired several of the long lost crown jewels.  Most of the "resurrected" reside today in the galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre.

The emerald tiara made by royal jewelers Evrard and Frédéric Bapst in 1819 for the duchesse d'Angoulême - Marie Thérèse
Charlotte de France, only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette - it was acquired by the Louvre in 2002.

The tiara in its case in the Louvre.

Pair of ruby bracelets that also belonged to the duchesse d'Angoulême; created by Paul-Nicolas Menière
and Evrard Bapst in 1816 and part of a large parure.  They were donated to the Louvre in 1973.

Emerald necklace and earrings made by Nitot et fils for the Empress Marie Louise, second wife
of Napoléon I.  Originally part of a large parure, they were bought by the Louvre in 2004.

A remarkable survival:  the tasseled diamond bow-knot brooch of the Empress Eugénie.  Made by François Kramer in 1855,
altered in 1864, it spent more than a century in the collection of the Astor family, and was purchased by the Louvre in 2008.

The pearl and diamond diadem of the Empress Eugénie, made by Gabriel Lemonnier, circa 1853 - well-known from the state
portrait by Winterhalter - and resold soon after the auction, in 1890, to Albert, prince von Thurn und Taxis.  It remained
in the family for over one hundred years, until it was bought at auction by the société des amis du Louvre in 1992.

The state portrait of the Empress Eugénie, after Winterhalter.  (The original
painting is presumed destroyed in the burning of the Tuileries palace in 1871.)