Les jambes croisées
1860s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
8.9 x 12.4 cm. (3 1/2 x 4 7/8 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1975
Accession Number
1975.548.216
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Les Jambes Croisées** (Crossed Legs), a delicate albumen silver print from a negative by Pierre-Louis Pi, captures an intimate portrait from the 1860s. Measuring just 8.9 x 12.4 cm, this small-scale photograph exemplifies the carte-de-visite format that revolutionized 19th-century portraiture. Pierson, a prominent French photographer associated with the Mayer & Pierson studio, specialized in portraits of high society, often highlighting subtle poses and expressions. Created during the Second Empire under Napoleon III, when photography exploded in popularity, the albumen process—using egg wh...
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...