Empress Eugénia
1860–69
Medium
Albumen print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 8.6 × 5.2 cm (3 7/16 × 2 1/16 in.); Mount: 10.4 × 6.2 cm (4 1/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
228218
Art Historical Context
In the glittering era of the Second French Empire André-Adolphe-Eène Disdéri captured the elegance of Empress Eugénie in this intimate albumen print from the 1860s. Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III, was fashion icon whose poised portrait exemplifies the opulence and refinement of imperial France. Disdéri, a pioneering French photographer, revolutionized portraiture with his invention of the *carte de visite*—compact photographs like this one (measuring just 8.6 × 5.2 cm)—that became wildly popular calling cards traded among Europe's elite. The albumen printing process, using egg white...
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...