Adelaide Fanny Louise Barber by Alexander Bassano late 1860s, early 1870s

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Yvonne Mertens by Alexander Bassano

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Yvonne Mertens by Alexander Bassano 1930

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Hedy Lamarr by Clarence Sinclair Bull (MGM, 1938)

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Hedy Lamarr (9 November 1913 – 19 January 2000) was an Austro-American actress and mathematician, celebrated for her great beauty, who was a major contract star of MGM's "Golden Age." Mathematically talented, Lamarr and composer George Antheil invented an early technique for spread spectrum communications and frequency hopping, necessary for wireless communication from the pre-computer age to the present day. When she worked with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, he called her the "most beautiful woman in Europe" due to her "strikingly dark exotic looks," a sentiment widely shared by her audiences and critics. She gained fame after starring in Gustav Machatý's Ecstasy, a film which featured closeups of her character during orgasm in one scene, as well as full frontal nude shots of her in another scene, both very unusual for the socially conservative period in which the bulk of her career took place.

Clarence Bull (1896-1979), usually credited as "Clarence Sinclair Bull", was one of the great portrait photographers who worked for the movie studios during the "Golden Age of Hollywood". He was head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer stills department for nearly forty years.

Coluche & Jean Rochefort by Jeanloup Sieff 1975

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Michel Gérard Joseph Colucci (born October 28, 1944 in Paris, France; died June 19, 1986 in Opio, Alpes-Maritimes, France), better known as Coluche, was a French comedian and actor, famous for his irreverent sense of humour. Colucci adopted "Coluche" as a stage name at 26, when he began his entertainment career. He became known for his irreverent attitude towards politics and the “Establishment,” and he incorporated this into much of his material. He was one of the first major comedians to regularly use profanities as a source of humor on French television.

Jean Rochefort (born 29 April 1930) is a French actor, with a career that has spanned over five decades.

Bertha & Edwige by Jeanloup Sieff 1972

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Alfred Hitchcock for Harper's Bazaar by Jeanloup Sieff 1962

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Catherine Deneuve for Vogue by Jeanloup Sieff 1969

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Francoise Sagan by Jeanloup Sieff 1956

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Françoise Sagan (21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) – real name Françoise Quoirez – was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Hailed as "a charming little monster" by François Mauriac on the front page of Le Figaro. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois characters. Her best-known novel was her first – Bonjour Tristesse (1954) – which was written when she was a teenager.

Gloria Swanson in Zaza 1923

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Gloria Swanson 1920s

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Portrait of Marchesa Luisa Casati by Adolf de Meyer

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Luisa, Marquise Casati Stampa di Soncino (23 January 1881 – 1 June 1957) was an eccentric Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts in early 20th century Europe. As the concept of dandy was expanded to include women, the marchesa Casati fitted the utmost female example by saying: "I want to be a living work of art".

Adolph de Meyer (1st September 1868 - 6 January 1946) was a photographer famed for his elegant photographic portraits in the early 20th century, many of which depicted celebrities such as Mary Pickford, Rita Lydig, Luisa Casati, Billie Burke, Irene Castle, John Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Ruth St. Denis, King George V of the United Kingdom, and Queen Mary. He was also the first official fashion photographer for the American magazine Vogue, appointed to that position in 1913.

Countess Clancarty née Bilton (stage name Belle Bilton) at coronation of Edward VII by Lafayette Photographic Studio 1902

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Belle Bilton by Alexander Bassano 1893-94

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Belle Bilton by Alexander Bassano 1889

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Belle Bilton (1867-1906), music hall entertainer; wife of 5th Earl of Clancarty; daughter of John George Bilton.

Queen Elizabeth II 1934

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