Untitled (Pair of Portraits) (1879): Art, History and Details

Untitled (Pair of Portraits) (1879) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Etienne Carjat (French, 1828–1906).

The work and its context

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

This couple paid extra to have their portraits vitrified on enamel, a more permanent process than photographs on paper. The photographer would shoot a collodion negative on glass, then produce a positive version, possibly on glass. That would have been sent to a commercial firm which fused the images onto a glasslike coating on metal, a process fairly common in the late 1800s but now used primarily for grave headstones. The portraits were usually inset into a fancy box or tabletop frame for display in the couple’s home but could be made into portable mementos like the pocket-sized leather case.

Object facts

• Title: Untitled (Pair of Portraits)
• Date: 1879
• Creator attribution: Etienne Carjat (French, 1828–1906)
• Culture: France
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: Photographs on enamel in copper alloy frame with velvet liner
• Dimensions: Each: 7.7 x 6.2 cm (3 1/16 x 2 7/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2017.8

Collection credit

John Cook Memorial Fund

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.