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[Portrait of a man]

Creator

British Photographer · 1813–1875

Artist

Seeing the fold of a coat sleeve in a photographic portrait prompted Oscar Gustave Rejlander to give up painting for photography. In 1853 Rejlander, eager to learn the wet-collodion process of photography in just one day, paid a hurried visit to a photographer's studio in London. As implied in the name, the wet-plate glass negative had to be used while the collodion was still damp, and the process

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Date: about 1869–1875
Medium: Albumen silver print
Culture: British
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

This photograph sits in an album that intermixes pages of _cartes-de-visite_ with full-page photocollages. Victorian collagists took their photographic materials primarily from _cartes-de-visite_. Patented by André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, the _carte-de-visite_ was easily and inexpensively printed ([84.XD.1157.2179](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107JXY)). By the 1860s, _cartomania _ had taken hold. It became customary to exchange _cartes-de-visite_ on social calls. These small studio portraits measure 3 ½ x 2 1/8 inches, about the size of a playing card. It is not known whether they removed the photographs from the thick cardstock on which they had been mounted or obtained unmounted prints from the photographer. People also collected cards of the royal family, actors, and politicians (see for example, the image of Princess Christina of the United Kingdom found in [this album](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107NCC)). A woman’s collection of _cartes-de-visite_ visually displayed her social circle and favorite celebrities The _cartes-de-visite_ could be inserted in specially manufactured album pages that came with slots. These display pages might include painted ornamentation, as in [this one](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/107NE6?altImage=1c8b969e-142b-4845-8b1e-569ac6ffd160) from The Westmorland Album. Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs 2021 For more information about this album see the [extended essay](https://museum-essays.getty.edu/photographs/cpeter-westmorland-album/).

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