Notation of Scars, Schematic Drawings
ca. 1893
Medium
Albumen silver prints
Dimensions
Image (top): 6 in. × 4 1/8 in. (15.2 × 10.4 cm) Image (bottom): 2 3/16 × 4 1/8 in. (5.6 × 10.5 cm) Mount: 11 3/4 × 7 3/4 in. (29.8 × 19.7 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2016
Accession Number
2016.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 19th century, French criminologist Alphonse Bert revolutionized police work with his pioneering system of *bertillonage*, a precursor to modern fingerprinting that relied on precise body measurements, photographs, and detailed notations of identifying marks like scars. *Notation of Scars, Drawings* (ca. 1893) exemplifies this method through two albumen silver prints mounted together: a larger portrait view and a smaller schematic diagram highlighting a man's facial scars. These intimate, clinical images capture not just a face, but a forensic blueprint designed for criminal identif...
About the Artist
Alphonse Bertillon · 1853–1914
Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914) was a pioneering French photographer whose work revolutionized forensic documentation, transforming police identification into a precise visual science. Born in Paris on April 22, 1853, he was the son of medical professor and statistician Louis-Adolphe Bertillon and the younger brother of demographer Jacques Bertillon. Lacking formal higher education after expulsion ...