[Le Joueur d'Orgue (The Organ Grinder)]

In this small, oval-trimmed portrait, the organ grinder throws his head back as if lost in the music he is playing. An intimate study of a street performer at work, this portrait by André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri can be compared with the Charles Nègre study of another organ grinder, Organ-Grinder at 21, Quai Bourbon; Île Saint-Louis, Paris (84.XM.344.1). In that photograph the subject is shown at the end of the day's work, bent from the weight of his instrument. In reality, the man in Disdéri's photograph also is bracing his body against the weighty instrument in order to remain posed for the length of the photographic exposure. His hand touches the handle, but if he were really turning and playing the instrument, the photograph would have been rendered as a hopeless blur. Disdéri successfully evoked the spirit of the music-man through sensitive arrangement and natural gestures.

Adapted from getty.edu, Interpretive Content Department, 2008.