Demi-Monde II 57
1858–68
Medium
Albumen silver prints from glass negatives
Classification
Albums|Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.588.3.1–.155
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the shadowy allure of 19th-century with *Demi-Monde II 57*, a captivating albumen silver print from glass negatives by pioneering photographer André-Adolpheugène Disdéri, created between 1858 and 1868. Part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, this photograph belongs to a rare album documenting the "demi-mondethe demimondaines, those enigmatic women of the Parisian demimonde, including actresses, courtesans, and performers who navigated the fringes of high society. Disdéri revolutionized photography with his invention of the carte de visite, a small, affordable por...
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...