La robe de moiré
1860s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
7.3 x 10.2 cm (2 7/8 x 4 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1975
Accession Number
1975.548.17
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the 1860s, Parisian photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson the elegance of Second Empire fashion in *La robe de moiré (The Moiré), an intimate albumen silver print from glass negative. Measuring just 7.3 x 10.2 cm, this petite portrait showcases a woman in a luxurious moiré silk gown, its shimmering, wavy fabric pattern emblematic of the era's opulent textiles. Pierson, a master of society portraiture at the Disdéri studio, in flattering images of fashionable women, often evoking the grandeur of Empress Eugénie's court. The albumen process, introduced in the 1840s, lent these prints their chara...
About the Artist
Pierre-Louis Pierson · 1822–1913
Pierre-Louis Pierson (1822–1913) was a pioneering French portrait photographer whose career spanned the formative years of the medium. Born on December 13, 1822, in Hinckange in the Moselle department, Pierson developed an early fascination with photography during the 1840s, as the daguerreotype was still in its infancy. His early life and formal training remain sparsely documented, but by 1844, h...