Sachet. Edmond. 27 ans, né à Mézières (Ardennes). Typographe. Anarchiste. 1/3/94.
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
2005.100.375.373
Tags
Art Historical Context
This poignant albumen silver print from a glass negative, created by Alphonse Bertillon in 1894, Edmond Sachet, a 27-year-old typ from Mézières in the Ardennes region of France, identified starkly as an "Anarchiste." Measuring just 10.5 x 7 cm, this small portrait exemplifies Bertillon's pioneering mugshot system, developed in the 1880s to revolutionize criminal identification through standardized frontal and profile views paired with meticulous physical measurements—anthropometry. Bertillon, chief of the Identification Service at Paris's Prefecture of Police, transformed photography from an ...
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 ...