Toulet. Guy, Flavien. 41 ans, né à Boufler (Somme). Entrepreneur de peinture. Anarchiste. 23/3/94.
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
2005.100.375.412
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the shadowy world of 19th-century criminal identification with Alphonse Bertillon'sToulet. Guy, Flav. 41 ans, né à Boufler (Somme). Entrepreneur de peinture Anarchiste. 23/3/94* (1894). This intimate albumen silver print from glass negative captures Flavien Guy Toulet, 41-year-old painting and self-identified anarchist from northern France. Measuring just 10.5 x 7 cm, the small-scale portrait—part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art'sman Collection—serves as a stark mugshot, documenting Toulet amid France's turbulent era of social unrest. Bertillon, the pioneering French forensic photographer and chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police's Identification Bureau, revolutionized policing with his "anthropometric system." Before fingerprints dominated, his method combined precise measurements of the body with standardized frontal and profile photographs, creating visual dossiers like this one. Produced on March 23, 1894, during a wave of anarchist bombings and trials that gripped Paris, the image reflects the era's paranoia over radical politics, blending science, surveillance, and portraiture. Technically masterful, the albumen print yields sharp details and subtle tones from its glass negative, highlighting Bertillon's clinical gaze. Far from mere police records, these works now hold artistic and cultural weight, offering a window into the human stories behind France's fin-de-siècle upheavals—a poignant reminder of how photography bridged art and authority.
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 ...