Cleveland Museum of Art

Monsieur Merlen

André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri

Date

1861

Medium

albumen print from wet collodion negative, uncut carte-de-visite proof print

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Photography

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A small photograph mounted on card stock, called a carte-de-visite, was patented by Disdéri in 1854. Used for images of both ordinary and famous people, it gave birth to the craze of collecting celebrity portraits. By 1862 Disdéri had 90 employees producing over 2,000 prints a day, making him reputedly the world’s richest photographer. In contrast with the daguerreotype medallion portrait, carte-de-visite prints were economical and inexpensive. A camera with four lenses and a sliding plate holder produced eight sequential exposures on a single glass negative. The resulting paper print was cut up and the individual images were mounted. This uncut sheet was probably a proof produced for the sitter’s approval.

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