Loading
Mosaique: The Imperial Court of Napoleon III
André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéric. 1866
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
The mosaic cards offered visual catalogues of the luminaries of a profession or social group in a single photograph. Here the emperor, his wife, and son top a pyramid of statesmen, soldiers, artists, writers, and others affiliated with the imperial court. This image was produced by cutting hundreds of figures photographed by Disdéri away from their backgrounds, mounting the likenesses on a single sheet, photographing that collage, and printing it on 6 x 9 cm cards.
Show lessRead more
Download this artwork (provided by The Cleveland Museum of Art).
Learn more about this artwork.
Details
- Title: Mosaique: The Imperial Court of Napoleon III
- Creator: André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French, 1819-1889)
- Date Created: c. 1866
- Physical Dimensions: Image: 9.1 x 5.6 cm (3 9/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Paper: 9.1 x 5.6 cm (3 9/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Mounted: 10.5 x 6.1 cm (4 1/8 x 2 3/8 in.)
- Provenance: (Philippe Lengendre, Paris, France), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Photograph
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.69
- Medium: albumen print, carte-de-visite
- Inscriptions: Imprinted in black type on recto of mount: “Disdéri Phot/MOSAIQUE./Breveté s g.d.g”, Written in pencil on verso of mount: “100”, Imprinted in black type on verso of mount: “Disdéri/Photographe de S.M. L’Empereur/8, Boulevart des Italiens/Paris”
- Fun Fact: Disdéri bragged that the <em>mosaique</em> could offer a picture of “from two or three persons up to a thousand for the same price” as a photograph of one individual.
- Department: Photography
- Culture: France, 19th century
- Credit Line: Gift of Barbara Tannenbaum and Mark Soppeland
- Collection: PH - French 19th Century
- Accession Number: 2019.69
Get the app
Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more
