[Giovanni Battista Quadrone]

Art Historical Context

This albumen silver print from the 1860s offers a glimpse into the early days of as a portrait medium. Created by the photographer Schemboche, the small carte-de-visite–sized image (roughly 4 by 2½ inches) depicts the Italian artist Giovanni Battista Quadrone. Such compact portraits were immensely popular in the mid-nineteenth century, allowing people to exchange and collect likenesses much like calling cards. Albumen prints, made by coating paper with egg-white emulsion, produced the rich tonal range and fine detail seen here. This technique helped photography move beyond mere documentation,...