[Empress Eugénie and the Prince Imperial]
![[Empress Eugénie and the Prince Imperial] by Louise Deglane|François-Benjamin-Maria Delessert](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/empress-eugnie-and-the-prince-imperial-286695.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
21.6 x 16 cm (8 1/2 x 6 5/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, by exchange, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.631
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1862, during the opulent Second French Empire, this intimate albumen silver print captures Eugénie de Montijo and her young son, the Prince Imperial, Napoleon Eugène Louis Bonaparte. by photographers Louise Deglane and Françoisenjamin-Maria Delert, the portrait exemplifies the era's fascination with photography as a tool for immortalizing royalty. Eugénie, a Spanish-born beauty and influential consort to Napoleon III, was global fashion icon whose poised elegance here radiates imperial grace, while her four-year-old heir embodies the promise of dynastic continuity. The albumen silver proce...
About the Artist
Louise Deglane|François-Benjamin-Maria Delessert (French|French) · |1817 – |1868
French|French, 1817–1868