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literally “touchy-feely” artefacts; not to be looked at
with deferential awe or revered from a distance but
catalogued and collected, gossiped and commented
upon. The carte-de-visite had a distinctly egalitarian
aesthetic. As the Reader put it in its edition of 9 August
1862, “Here there is no barrier of rank, no chancel end;
the poorest carries his three inches of cardboard, and
the richest can claim no more.”
One of the most notable features of carte portraits
is their uniformity of representation. Most contain a
full-length single fi gure, posed inside a studio using a
number of stock props and gestures. This uniformity
stems from the fact that the artistic conventions initially
used for picturing aristocratic sitters were imitated end-
lessly. Studios serving high society sitters were often
sumptuously decorated, using genuine objet d’art for
their props. Alongside such ornateness, however, a
whole industry grew up in order to provide the majority
of studios with cheap wooden balustrades and papier-
mache adornments.
The expansion in the number of photographic studios
resulted in numerous articles satirising the social per-
formance of carte portraits. For some critics, there was
a disjunction between the working-class class status of
those sitting for their carte and the fi ne art conventions
that were being used to represent them. The most notori-
ous of these was the stereotyped false background:
There is Mrs Jones, for instance, who does the honours
of her little semi-detached villa so well: how does she
come to stand in that park-like pleasure-ground, when we
know that her belongings and surroundings don’t warrant
more than a little back-garden big enough to grow a few
crocuses? Or Miss Brown again, why should she shiver in
a ball dress on a veranda, and why should we be called
upon—instead of looking at her good honest face—to
have our attention called away to the lake-like prospect
at her back? (Andrew Wynter, “Photographic Portraiture,”
Once a Week 6 (1862) 148)
The carte studio was as much a space for fantasy as
it was for unadorned realism. Cartes were a pleasurable
opportunity for posing and theatricality. Signs of labour
and occupation were often discarded in favour of refi ned
bourgeois poses. For many sitters, the pleasure of the
carte was not in its realism but in its ability to enact a
magic-grotto like transformation.
Cartes were produced in immense volumes during
the last four decades of the century. However, they were
fashionable only until the mid 1860s, when they were
superseded by the introduction of the larger cabinet
portrait. After reputedly being the richest photographer
in the world, making £48,000 in 1861, Disderi himself
was declared bankrupt in 1872.
John Plunkett
See Also: Brewster, Sir David; Diamond, Hugh
Welch; Disdéri, André Adolphe Eugéne; Wet
Collodion negative; and Wet Collodion Positive
Processes.Further Reading
“Cartes De Visite,” Once a Week 6 (1861–62): 134–137.
“Cartes-de-visite,” Art Journal n.s. 7 (1861): 306–307.
Linkman, Audrey, The Victorians: photographic portraits. Lon-
don: Tauris Parke, 1993.
McCauley, Elizabeth Anne. A.A.E Disdéri and the Carte de Visite
Portrait Photograph, New Haven: Yale UP, 1985.
McCauley, Elizabeth Anne. Industrial Madness, commercial pho-
tography in Paris, 1848–1871, New Haven; Yale UP, 1994.
“Modern Priests and the Temple of the Sun,” Chamber’s Journal
17 January 1863: 33–36.
“The Carte de Visite,” All the Year Round 7 (March–Sept 1862)
165–168.
“The Philosophy of Yourself,” All the Year Round 9 (1863):
391–394.
Wynter, Andrew, “Photographic Portraiture,” Once a Week 6
(1862) 147–150.CASED OBJECTS
The cased portrait predates photography, and the
adoption of the leather case for the presentation of
early daguerreotype portraits may be seen as the infant
photographic art seeking to present itself in a format
traditionally associated with the miniature painting.
Photography therefore exploited a case-making industry
which was already established, albeit on a small scale,
and adopted the sizes, formats and styles of the cased
miniature portrait painting.
The cased photographic portrait enjoyed widespread
popularity in the United States and Great Britain, with
limited popularity in South America and mainland Eu-
rope, particularly France. The frame—the alternative to
presentation in a case—enjoyed widespread popularity
in Europe despite the diffi culties associated with viewing
a framed daguerreotype. The case enhanced the per-
ceived value of the photographic portrait by emulating
a miniature painting, and by preserving the intimacy of
the portrait it contained.
The evolution of the case from being a bespoke item
produced for a very small and exclusive market—the
painted portrait miniature—to a mass-market commod-
ity brought with it standardization, mass production,
and the development of entirely new materials. Stan-
dardization of camera formats introduced the fractions
of full plate sizes that became universal—from whole
plate down to 1/16th plate—and case manufacturers
followed suit. In addition to the traditional morocco
leather coverings, fabric covered cases—especially vel-
vets—achieved some popularity. As alternatives to cov-
ered wood-framed cases, papier maché, mother-of-pearl,
pressed metal and thermoplastic were all widely used in
case manufacture. In Japan and China, plain uncovered
wooden cases were available. Portraits presented in