Rossi. Guillaume. 20 ans, né le 8/3/71 à Biel (Italie). Serrurier. Vagabondage. 15/1/95.
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
2005.100.375.368
Tags
Art Historical Context
This poignant albumen silver print, created by Alphonse Bert in 1895, the stern visage of Guillaume Rossi, a20-year-old locksmith born in Biel, Italy, arrested in Paris for vagrancy January 15. Titled with meticulous detail—*Rossi. Guillaume. 20 ans, né le 8/3/71 à Biel (Italie). Serr. Vagabondage. 15/1/95*—it exemplifies Bertillon's revolutionary anthropometric system, or *Bertillonage*, the first scientific method for criminal identification before fingerprints dominated. As a pioneer in forensic photography, Bertillon transformed portraiture into a tool of justice. Working as a French poli...
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 ...