Les étoiles de jois
1860s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1975
Accession Number
1975.548.169
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Les étoiles de joie (The Stars of Joy)**Pierre-Louis Pierson, leading French photographer of the 1860s, created this elegant albumen silver print from glass negative during the height of the Second Empire in. Acquired through the David Hunter McAlpin Fund 1975, it resides in the Metropolitan Museum of's Photographs department. Pierson, working with the renowned Mayer & Pierson studio specialized in fashionable portraits that captured the allure of high society women, often in profile to emphasize poise and refinement. The albumen process—coating paper with egg whites mixed with silver salts...
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...