Mlle Mercier; Mlle Simon
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
2005.100.588.1.124
Art Historical Context
In 1861, French photographer André-Adolpheugène Disdéri *Mlle Mercier; Mlle Simon*, a double portrait of two stylish young women, likely actresses or performers from Paris's vibrant theater scene. Disdéri, a pioneer in commercial photography, was renowned for inventing the *carte de visite*—compact calling-card portraits that swept Europe in the 1860s, making celebrity images accessible to the masses. This elegant albumen silver print, mounted on a larger page, showcases his mastery of studio portraiture, with the subjects posed confidently in elaborate gowns, evoking the glamour of Second Emp...
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...