Cocktails with a Curator: Ingres's 'Comtesse d'Haussonville'

In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Curator Aimee Ng explores the history behind one of the audience favorites at the Frick, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s “Comtesse d’Haussonville.” Sometimes referred to as the “poster girl” of The Frick Collection, the subject of this celebrated portrait led a fascinating life, taking piano lessons from Chopin and writing biographies of Lord Byron and the Irish revolutionary Robert Emmet. (She published the books anonymously to avoid a scandal.) This week’s complementary cocktail calls for an ounce of absinthe, an anise-flavored spirit invented in Switzerland, the country of her birth.

Cocktail Recipe

Jaded Countess
1 oz absinthe
1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
stir with ice and strain
top with champagne and garnish with a lemon twist

Mocktail Recipe

1/2 oz anise syrup
1/4 oz lemon juice
top with sparkling water and garnish with a lemon twist