Violante, Duchess

8×10″ oil on panel.

Violanté, Duchess of Mollawray (1530 – 1591)
After the sudden death of her husband Henri the 2nd Duke of Mollowray in a hunting accident, she went into a lifetime of mourning. She stopped dying her hair and powdered her face a ghostly white to show that she herself was now living-dead. Little did she know this would spark a fashion trend; women stopped dying their hair for nearly forty years.

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