Marie Petipa
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 7 3/8 × 9 1/4 in. (18.8 × 23.5 cm) Album page: 10 3/8 × 13 3/4 in. (26.3 × 35 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
2005.100.588.1.27
Art Historical Context
In 1861, French photographer André-Adolpheugène Disdéri the graceful likeness of Marie Petipa, celebrated ballerina of the Paris Opéra, in this elegant albumen silver print from a glass negative.déri, a pioneer in commercial photography, revolutionized portraiture with his invention of the *carte de visite* just a few years earlier—a small, affordable card-mounted image that sparked a collecting frenzy akin to modern trading cards. Though this print is larger (7 3/8 × 9 1/4 in.), it reflects the era's obsession with celebrity portraits, especially of performers like Petipa, whose poised stance...
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...