Amélie and Elise Gitteri
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 7 1/2 × 9 7/16 in. (19 × 24 cm) Album page: 10 3/8 × 13 3/4 in. (26.3 × 35 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.588.3.109
Tags
Art Historical Context
André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri’s 1866 portrait *Amélie and Elise Gitteri* captures two young women in a carefully posed studio setting. As one of the leading French photographers of the Second Empire, Disdéri helped transform photography from a scientific novelty into a popular social practice. His studio in Paris attracted a wide clientele eager to commission portraits that conveyed status and elegance. The work is an albumen silver print made from a glass negative, a technique prized for its fine detail and rich tonal range. Albumen, derived from egg whites, created a glossy surface that enha...
About the Artist
André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri · 1819–1889
**André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri** (1819–1889) was a pioneering French photographer whose innovations transformed portraiture into a mass medium during the Second Empire. Born on March 28, 1819, in Paris, Disdéri pursued diverse careers in commerce, acting, and politics early on, while studying art amid personal hardships following his father's death, which compelled him to support his mother, sibli...