Augustine Stoikoff; Laura Fonta
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 7 3/8 × 9 1/4 in. (18.8 × 23.5 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
2005.100.588.1.133
Art Historical Context
In 1864, French photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri captured *Augustine Stoikoff; Laura Fonta* using his pioneering carte de visite format—a small, affordable photograph that revolutionized portraiture. Disdéri, who patented the process in 1854, millions of these vignettes, turning photography into a mass phenomenon akin to trading cards. Here, the two women, likely performers given their poised stances and the era's conventions, gaze directly at the viewer, embodying the intimate yet public celebrity culture of Second Empire France. Printed as an albumen silver print from a glass negat...
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...