Rachel
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 14.6 x 9.8 cm (5 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.) Mat: 35.6 x 27.9 cm (14 x 11 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.390
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the intimate portrait *Rachel* (September 1, 1893), photographer Pierre-Louis Pierson captures the enigmatic gaze of Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione, the legendary 19th-century Italian aristocrat and courtesan. Produced as an albumen silver print from a glass negative—a technique prized for its luminous detail and rich tonal range—this 14.6 x 9.8 cm image exemplifies the exquisite clarity of mid-to-late 19th-century photography. Now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, it reflects the era's shift from daguerreotypes to more reproducible prints, maki...
About the Artist
Pierre-Louis Pierson|Countess Virginia Oldoini Verasis di Castiglione · 1822–1913
Pierre-Louis Pierson (1822–1913) was a pioneering French portrait photographer whose career spanned the formative years of the medium. Born on December 13, 1822, in Hinckange in the Moselle department, Pierson developed an early fascination with photography during the 1840s, as the daguerreotype was still in its infancy. His early life and formal training remain sparsely documented, but by 1844, h...