Madame Gihoul
Medium
Salted paper print from paper negative
Dimensions
Image: 10 in. × 7 5/8 in. (25.4 × 19.3 cm) Sheet: 13 3/8 × 18 1/8 in. (34 × 46 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.372.14
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-1850s, French photographer Louis-Pierre-Théophile Dubois de Nehoul captured *Madame Gihoul*, a poised portrait that exemplifies the intimate artistry of early photography. Created between 1854 and 1856, this salted paper print from a paper negative measures 10 × 7⅝ inches and showcases a woman gazing directly at the viewer, her attire and setting evoking the refined domesticity of Second Empire France. Dubois de Nehoul, though lesser-known today, was part of a vibrant circle of Parisian photographers experimenting with the medium's potential for portraiture. The salted paper proces...
About the Artist
Louis-Pierre-Théophile Dubois de Nehaut · 1799–1872
Louis-Pierre-Théophile Dubois de Nehaut (1799–1872) was a French artist and early enthusiast of photography whose career bridged the worlds of traditional draughtsmanship and the new mechanical image-making technologies that transformed visual culture in the nineteenth century. Trained in the conventions of French academic art, he possessed the skills of a practiced draughtsman before turning his ...