Louise Abigdon
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 18.4 × 24.8 cm (7 1/4 in., 24.8 cm) Sheet: 26.2 × 34.8 cm (10 5/16 × 13 11/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.588.2.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1866, French photographer André-Adolpheugène Disdéri *Louise Abigdon*, striking portrait that exemplifies the elegance of mid-19th-century photography. Disdéri, a pioneer in the field, is best known for inventing the carte de visite—a small, affordable photograph format that sparked a collecting craze across Europe and. While this albumen silver print from a glass negative measures a more substantial 18.4 × 24.8 cm, it reflects the era's shift toward accessible portraiture, allowing everyday people and celebrities alike to own images of themselves or admired figures. The albumen process, u...
About the Artist
André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri · 1819–1889
**André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri** (1819–1889) was a pioneering French photographer whose innovations transformed portraiture into a mass medium during the Second Empire. Born on March 28, 1819, in Paris, Disdéri pursued diverse careers in commerce, acting, and politics early on, while studying art amid personal hardships following his father's death, which compelled him to support his mother, sibli...