Frank French
[Advertising Arrangement of Cartes-de-Visite]

ArtistAmerican, active c. 1870s
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • [Advertising Arrangement of Cartes-de-Visite]
Datec. 1870s
MediumAlbumen silver print from glass negative
DimensionsImage: 3 3/4 × 2 3/16 in. (9.6 × 5.5 cm)
Sheet: 3 3/4 × 2 3/16 in. (9.6 × 5.5 cm)
Mount: 4 1/8 × 2 1/2 in. (10.5 × 6.3 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by various donors
Object number2017.7
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

Following their invention in France, millions of cartes
de visite
—inexpensive photographs on mounts the size of visiting
cards—were produced, bringing photography to the middle class and celebrity to
those who understood the power of photography to cultivate a public image. Special
albums made for cartes de visite allowed people to curate their own
collections, mixing portraits of loved ones with images of public personalities
such as President Lincoln, British nobility, or Tom Thumb. This carte de visite
by the Frank French studio in Pecatonica, Illinois, is a striking illustration
of the “cartomania” that swept American and European markets beginning in the
1850s.




Provenance[Medhurst & Co., North Liberty, Iowa]; purchased by MFAH, 2017.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Printed in brown, verso: FRENCH, // Photo-Artist. [ surrounded by decorative design] // PECTATONICA, ILL. // Duplicates can be had of this Photo at any time.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

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