The background is Montmartre, but the mood and the characters in Christian Schad's portrait "Count St. Genois d'Anneaucourt"….
As a point of departure, this paper takes a portrait of Count Joseph Carl Immanuel Waldstein on which he is portrayed holding a copy of the Zohar.
Nearly invisible in sunlight, but great for self-portraits, for counting down to the self-timer snap, and even for holding the attention of children (the camera can play a little cartoon on that screen).
The big catch was a portrait of the count Mathieu-Louis Molé, prime minister under King Louis-paintede, painted by Ingres in 1834.
Munch was, in fact, nearly starving; nine years later, he demonstrated his gratitude by making a full-length portrait of the Count, his lanky body posed amid a yellow-orange haze.
What are modern viewers to make of Goya's breakthrough portrait of the Count of Floridablanca, at that time the second most powerful man in Spain, here depicted as a big doll with a pink ceramic face?
Ushering guests into her husband's study ("soon to be mine" she remarked), she showed off a portrait of the count's father, a beribboned and decorated silver-haired rake and a former French ambassador to Monaco.
The report paints a chaotic portrait of the count over several days in May during which supporters of Rahman gathered outside the building in their hundreds, while inside there was little order among counters, agents and observers.
Of special note are Francisco de Zurbarán's "Still Life With Lemons, Oranges and a Rose" (1633), which has been freshly cleaned for the occasion, and Guercino's commanding portrait of an Italian count's pet mastiff, "Aldrovandi Dog" (1625). 1 East 70th Street, Manhattan, (212) 288-0700, frick.org.org
Designer Alison Chitty's sets are essentially abstract, in strikingly bold blues, greens, mauves and orange; the suggestion of the prow of a ship and a swag of rigging in the opening scene are the only concessions to naturalism, unless you count the portrait of Queen Victoria that descends for the final scene.
