Mechesinski [?]
1850s–60s
![Mechesinski [?] by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri](https://images.artheonmuseum.org/met/ph/thumb/mechesinski-704925.webp)
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
2005.100.588.1.64
Art Historical Context
André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri's *Mechesinski [?]* (1850s–60s) captures the elegance of mid-19th-century portrait through an albumen silver print made from a glass negative. Measuring 7⅜ × 9¼ inches, this image was once mounted on a larger album page, suggesting it was part of a personal collection cherished by its owner. Disdéri, a pioneering photographer, transformed the medium during this era, producing crisp, detailed prints that brought photography into everyday life. The albumen process, using egg whites to bind light-sensitive silver salts to paper, yielded the rich tones and fine detail...
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...