Parisot. Louis. 37 ans, né à Saint-Avalet (Moselle). Employé au "Petit Journal". Anarchiste. 2/3/94.
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
10.5 x 7 x 0.5 cm (4 1/8 x 2 3/4 x 3/16 in.) each
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.375.319
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1894, pioneering forensic photographer Alphonse Bertillon this stark portrait of Louis Parisot a 37-year-old from Saint-Avalet in Moselle, employed at Paris newspaper *Le Petit Journal*. Titled with meticulous detail—*Parisot. Louis. 37 ans, né à-Avalet (Moselle). Employé au "it Journal". Anarch. 2/3/94*—the image exemplifies Bertillon's revolutionary "anthropometric" system, or *bertillonage*, used by French police to identify criminals through standardized mugshots and measurements. Taken amid France's turbulent *belle époque*, when anarchist bombings and "propaganda of the deed" gripped...
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 ...