Monsieur Merlen (1861): Art, History and Details

Monsieur Merlen (1861) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French, 1819–1889).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The carte-de-visite, a small photograph mounted on card stock, was patented by André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in 1854. This efficient, inexpensive process employed a camera with four lenses and a sliding plate holder that produced eight sequential exposures on a single glass negative. The resulting paper print was cut into individual images. This uncut sheet, which includes several humorous views, was probably produced for the sitter’s approval. The low cost of the carte-de-visite led to the trend of collecting celebrity portraits. By 1862, Disdéri’s studio was producing over 2,000 prints a day, making him reputedly the world’s richest photographer.

Object facts

• Title: Monsieur Merlen
• Date: 1861
• Creator attribution: André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French, 1819–1889)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative, uncut carte-de-visite proof print
• Dimensions: Image: 19.9 x 23.1 cm (7 13/16 x 9 1/8 in.); Matted: 35.6 x 45.7 cm (14 x 18 in.)
• Collection: Photography
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1995.179

A detail from the museum

The carte-de-visite process was so inexpensive, Monsieur Merlen felt he could clown around, riding a child's toy horse in the first two exposures.

Collection credit

Gift of Paula and Robert Hershkowitz in memory of Sam Wagstaff

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.