Gröfin Auersperg
1850s–60s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
21.8 x 17.2 cm. (8 9/16 x 6 3/4 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1948
Accession Number
48.83.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Gröfin Auersperg** is a striking portrait by Franz Antoine, a pioneering Austrian photographer active in the-19th century. Captured in the 1850s–60s, it depicts Countess (Gröfin) Auersperg, a member of the Viennese nobility embodying the elegance of Habsburg-era aristocracy. Antoine, for his work as a court photographer, in formal portraits that preserved the grandeur Europe's elite during photography's formative years. This albumen silver print, made a glass negative, exemplifies photographic innovation. The albumen—using egg whites to coat paper with light-sensitive silver salts—produced ...
About the Artist
Franz Antoine · 1815–1886
Franz Antoine (1815–1886) was an Austrian botanist and horticulturalist who served as court gardener at the Imperial Gardens of Schönbrunn in Vienna, one of the most celebrated horticultural establishments in nineteenth-century Europe. His career unfolded at the intersection of scientific botany and the decorative arts of the garden, positioning him as a key figure in the cultivation and documenta...