Clara Pilvois
1850s–60s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 3 3/8 × 4 3/4 in. (8.5 × 12 cm) Sheet: 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
2005.100.588.1.42
Art Historical Context
**Clara Pilvois** is a captivating portrait by André-Adolphe-Eène Disdéri, a pioneering French photographer active in the 1850s–60s. Captured during the early boom of commercial photography, this image exemplifies Disdéri's revolutionary *carte de visite*—small, affordable prints that democratized portraiture for the middle class. The modest image size (3 3/8 × 4 3/4 in.) made it perfect for collecting and trading, much like today's trading cards, fueling a craze across Europe and America. Printed as an albumen silver print from a glass negative, the work showcases the era's cutting-edge wet-...
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...