The Princesse de Broglie is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French Neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Completed between 1851 and 1853, it shows Pauline de Broglie, who adopted the courtesy title princesse, and married Albert de Broglie, the 28th prime minister of France. She was aged 28 at the time of its completion. Although highly intelligent and widely known for her beauty, Pauline suffered from profound shyness, and the painting captures her melancholia. She contracted tuberculosis and died in 1860 aged 35. The painting is considered one of the artist's finest later-period female portraits, along with those of Comtesse d'Haussonville, of Baronne de Rothschild and of Madame Moitessier. As with many of Ingres's female portraits, details of costume and setting are rendered with a chilly precision while her body seems to lack a solid bone structure. The portrait is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princesse_de_Broglie

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1904:

Himalia, Jupiter's largest irregular moon, was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at the Lick Observatory in California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalia_%28moon%29

1927:

Putting Pants on Philip, the first official film featuring the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, was released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_and_Hardy

1967:

Cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human heart transplant on Louis Washkansky at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiaan_Barnard

1982:

The United States Environmental Protection Agency tested soil from Times Beach, Missouri, which revealed high concentrations of dioxin and led to the abandonment of the town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Beach,_Missouri

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

confusedly: In a confused manner. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/confusedly

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The good author is he who contemplates without marked joy or excessive sorrow the adventures of his soul amongst criticisms.   --Joseph Conrad https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad