Untitled (French Military Heroes and Political Leaders)
1864
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1864
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Untitled (French Military Heroes and Political Leaders) is a 1864 by André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This is a grid of small photos pasted together. Each shows a man in uniform or fancy clothes. They’re arranged in neat rows on a single sheet. Disdéri invented a trick here. He cut photos of leaders, pasted them, then re-photographed the collage. It looks like one big picture. These cards sold fast. People liked flipping through France’s top brass like trading cards. Check out this artist next: André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French, 1819–1889).
A mosaic was produced by cutting photographs of hundreds of figures away from their backgrounds, mounting the likenesses on a single sheet, photographing that collage, and printing the result on 6 x 9 cm cards. These entertaining images sold well and were effective advertising for the photographer’s prowess. A list identifying each individual accompanied the mosaics, but most of those sheets have been lost.
This montage of France’s military and other leaders is a mosaic carte, a form invented by Disdéri in 1863.
Read the full account in the museum source.
André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (1819–1889) was a French artist.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
