[Photo Collage: Musician Playing Flute]

Art Historical Context

Created around 1875 by Juan Pedro Chabalgoity, this intimate collage captures a musician absorbed in playing the flute. Measuring just over four by two-and-a-half inches on its mount, the work combines an albumen silver print with lithographic elements, a hybrid technique that was still novel in the 1870s. The small scale suggests it may have been intended as a personal keepsake or collectible card, formats popular before widespread photographic reproduction. Albumen prints, prized for their rich tonal range and fine detail, were the dominant photographic medium of the era, while the addition of lithography allowed artists to introduce drawn or printed textures that pure photography could not yet achieve. Chabalgoity’s collage reflects the experimental spirit of early photographers who blurred the line between mechanical image-making and hand-crafted art. Today in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, the piece offers a glimpse into the nineteenth-century fascination with music and portraiture, preserving both the likeness of an anonymous performer and the inventive spirit of photography’s formative decades.

About the Artist

Juan Pedro Chabalgoity · 1848–1909

Juan Pedro Chabalgoity (1848–1909) stands as one of the pioneering figures of Uruguayan academic painting, a generation that sought to establish a national artistic tradition while remaining deeply connected to European models. Born in Uruguay, he pursued formal training abroad, traveling to Europe to refine his craft in the manner of the academies then dominant on the continent. His formation pla...