Baron Adolf de Meyer was a member of the Linked Ring Brotherhood
of Pictorialist aesthetic photographers and a noted fashion photographer for
the Condé Nast publications Vogue and Vanity Fair. He
assumed photographic identities as readily as he appropriated titles and glided
from English royal circles to the Diaghilev avant-garde coterie to the glitter
of Hollywood. No less a gem in the crown of high society than her husband, Olga
de Meyer was the goddaughter (rumored to be the illegitimate daughter) of King
Edward VII of England. As early as the age of sixteen, Olga was a model for
painters such as JAM, Whistler and Paul Hellen and the inspiration for novels
by such luminaries as Henry James.

In this very early portrait of Olga, probably taken
soon after the de Meyers were married, her aristocratic bearing and strong,
piercing gaze evidence an indomitable spirit which cannot be concealed
completely by the elegant accoutrements of her wardrobe. The compositional balance,
studied and manipulated to perfection, is a trademark of de Meyer, whether it
appears in soft focus or is sharply delineated and dramatically staged.