Mlle Moncelet; Mlle Rousseau
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
2005.100.588.1.71
Art Historical Context
In 1862, pioneering French photographer André-Adol-Eugène Disd captured *Mlle Moncelet; Mlle Rousseau*, a portrait that exemplifies the elegance of mid-19th-century photography. Printed as an albumen silver from a glass negative, image measures 7 3/8 × 9 1/4 inches and is mounted on a larger album page, inviting collectors to assemble personal galleries of notables and loved ones. The albumen process, using egg whites to coat paper for a sharp, luminous finish, was the gold standard of the era, producing richly toned images that captured fine details in fabrics and expressions. Disdéri revolu...
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...