Perot. Gaston, Auguste. 22 ans, né à Paris XVllle. Journalier. Anarchiste. 4/3/94.
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
2005.100.375.327
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1894, French forensic pioneer Alphonse Bertillon this stark portrait of Gaston Auguste Per, a 22-year-old day laborer from Paris's 18th arrondissement, labeled an "anarchiste." Part of Bertillon's groundbreaking anthropometric system—known as *bertillonage*—the image served as an official police identification record, complete with meticulous physical measurements and details inscribed on the mount. Measuring just 10.5 x 7 cm, this albumen silver print from a glass negative exemplifies the clinical precision of early criminal photography, where subjects were posed frontally and in profile against plain backdrops to aid identification. Bertillon, chief of the Paris Prefecture's Identification Service, revolutionized law enforcement during a turbulent era of social unrest. France in the 1890s was gripped by anarchist bombings and trials, including the infamous "Trial of the Thirty" that same year, heightening fears of radicalism. Perot's mugshot reflects this climate, transforming ordinary individuals into archetypes of deviance through standardized portraiture. Artistically, Bertillon's work bridges documentary photography and modernism, influencing figures like August Sander. Its small scale and sharp detail highlight albumen prints' role in preserving forensic evidence, now valued as cultural artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Gilman Collection. A window into fin-de-siècle anxieties, it reminds us how images once confined to police files now illuminate history.
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 ...