Ghibert[?]; Alphonse
1850s–60s
![Ghibert[?]; Alphonse by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/ghibert-alphonse-705002.webp)
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 7 3/8 × 9 1/4 in. (18.8 × 23.5 cm) Album page: 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
2005.100.588.1.141
Art Historical Context
This striking portrait, titled *Ghibert[?]; Alphonse*, captures poised elegance of its subject through the lens of André-Adphe-Eugène Disdéri, a pioneering French active in the 1850s–60s. Disdéri revolutionized commercial photography by inventing the carte de visite—a small, affordable portrait format that swept Europe and America, making photography accessible to the masses during the Second Empire. Though this image (7 3/8 × 9 1/4 in.) is larger than a standard carte, it exemplifies his mastery of studio portraiture, likely produced in his bustling Paris atelier. Printed as an albumen silve...
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...