Eugène Delacroix
c. 1860s
Medium
albumen print (carte-de-visite)
Dimensions
image/sheet: 9.1 × 5.5 cm (3 9/16 × 2 3/16 in.) mount: 10.2 × 6.1 cm (4 × 2 3/8 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Funds from Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund
Accession Number
2022.174.8
Art Historical Context
This charming carte-de-visite captures the likeness of Eugène Delacroix one of France's most celebrated Romantic painters, known for dramatic works like *Liberty Leading the People*. around the 1860s by the Paris studio of Legé & Bergeron this albumen print exemplifies the photographic revolution of the era. Carte-de-visites—visiting cards sized at about 2.5 by 4 inches—became a mid-19th-century sensation, allowing everyday people to collect images of celebrities, royalty, and artists like Delacroix, who died in 1863. The albumen process, using egg whites to coat paper with light-sensitive ch...