Mlle Mourawieff et Mérante
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
2005.100.588.1.3
Art Historical Context
In 1863, French photographer André-Adolpheugène Disdéri *Mlle Mourawieff et Mérante*, exquisite albumen silver print from a glass negative, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of's Gilman Collection. Disdéri, a pioneer of mid-19th-century photography, revolutionized portraiture with his invention of the carte de visite small, affordable format that democratized imagery during France's Second Empire. Though this print is larger (7 3/8 × 9 1/4 inches), it exemplifies his mastery of the albumen process, prized for its luminous tones, fine detail, and warm sepia hues derived from egg whites sens...
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...