Young Alsacienne Woman
Medium
carbon print on a ruled mount
Dimensions
40 × 30.5 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Michael Mattis and Judith Hochberg
Accession Number
2021.57
Tags
male
About this artwork
The woman wears the costume of, and personifies, the province of Alsace near the Franco-German border, where French photographer Adolphe Braun had his studio. The museum also owns Braun’s allegory of Lorraine (Woman in Lorraine Dress, 1999.109). After France lost the Franco-Prussian war, it had to yield most of Alsace and one-quarter of Lorraine to Prussia (now Germany) in 1871. While allegorical, these images were also personal for Braun and many Frenchmen, and often seen together as a pair.