Brunel. Alexandre. 50 ans, né le 25/12/43 à Renaix (Belgique). Menuisier. Anarchiste. 3/7/94.
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
10.5 x 7 x 0.5 cm (4 1/8 x 2 3/4 x 3/16 in.) each
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.375.81
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
This poignant portrait, titled *Brunel. Alexandre. 50 ans né le 25/12/43 à Renaix (Belgique). Menu. Anarchiste. 3/7/94*, captures Alexandre Brunel, 50-year-old Belgian-born carpenter and self-identified anarchist, on July 3, 1894. Created by Alphonse Bertillon, the French forensic photographer and inventor of the anthropometric identification system, it exemplifies early criminal mugshot photography. Bertillon's meticulous portraits were not mere snapshots but standardized tools for police archives, combining full-face and profile views to aid in suspect identification amid rising concerns over anarchism in fin-de-siècle France. Printed as a compact albumen silver print from a glass negative—measuring just 10.5 x 7 cm—this image highlights the era's photographic precision. Albumen, derived from egg whites, yielded rich tonal depth and fine detail on paper, making it ideal for documentary work. Though produced for law enforcement, Bertillon's compositions reveal an artistic eye, transforming clinical records into haunting human studies that reveal the subject's weary gaze and rugged features. Today, housed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection, this photograph bridges art, science, and social history. It offers a window into the turbulent world of 1890s radical politics, where figures like Brunel embodied the era's fears and fascinations with anarchism, reminding us how images once deemed utilitarian now captivate as profound portraits of humanity.
About the Artist
Alphonse Bertillon · 1853–1914
Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914) was a pioneering French photographer whose work revolutionized forensic documentation, transforming police identification into a precise visual science. Born in Paris on April 22, 1853, he was the son of medical professor and statistician Louis-Adolphe Bertillon and the younger brother of demographer Jacques Bertillon. Lacking formal higher education after expulsion ...