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
2005.100.588.1.127
Art Historical Context
In the elegant portrait *Mlle Simon* (1865), French photographer André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri the poised grace of his subject against a softly lit backdrop. Created as an albumen silver print a glass negative, this 7 3/8 × 9 1/4-inch image exemplifies the refined portraiture that defined mid-19th-century photography. Albumen prints, coated with egg whites for a glossy sheen and rich tonal depth, were the gold standard of the era, allowing for intricate details in fabrics, expressions, and studio settings that brought sitters vividly to life. Disdéri, a pioneer in commercial photography, revol...
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...