Alexandra Barie ’13 on Two French Actresses

This podcast is part of Watson Conversations, a growing collection of podcasts produced by Wheaton students as part of Art History 298: Photography as Knowledge.

 
Charles Reutlinger Studios
Blanche Montaubry
1868
Albumen print on carte-de-visite mount
(left)
Charles Reutlinger Studios
Rosélia Rousseil, Actress Comedie-Française
1874
Albumen print on carte-de-visite mount
(right)

Both works purchased with the Kenneth C. and Louise McKeon Deemer ’33 Fund

Alexandra Barie ’13 discusses how the carte-de-visite format— allowing for photographic portraits to be easily exchanged and collected from mid-19th century on—was used by two French actresses as a means of self-fashioning, to elevate themselves both socially and professionally.

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