The Imperial family

The following paragraph is taken from Elizabeth Anne McCauley's A.A.E.Disdéri and the Carte de Visite Portrait Photograph (1985):

'Composite prints of oval portraits gradually yielded to the so-called mosaic carte de visite, in which hundreds of the figures photographed by Disdéri were cut out from their backdrops, mounted on a single sheet, and rephotographed. As he noted in his patent for the process on April 21, 1863, "The sale that I have made of contemporaries has invaded the entire world" so that now an engraving, lithograph or photograph could be combined to produce a collage which could "put on the market from two to three persons up to a thousand for the same price." The production of mosaic cartes featuring the legs of ballet dancers, opera stars, heads of state, the Bonaparte family, admirals of France, and so on, demonstrates the ingenuity of Disdéri's money-making schemes.'

This particular image shows numerous members of the Emperor’s immediate and extended family. The more senior members appear towards the top of the composition, including the Emperor himself, Empress Eugénie, Prince Jérôme, Prince Napoléon (‘Plon-Plon’) and Princess Mathilde, all in the top row. The next row down includes the Prince Imperial and Princess Clothilde, and at four o’clock from her, the man with the bald head is Prince Joseph Bonaparte. Further down still appear Princess Gabrielli Bonaparte [with a Greek key pattern on her sleeve], Prince Achille Murat and Princess Anne Murat. Near the lower left-hand corner, the Empress’s mother, the Countess of Montijo, can easily be recognized, as can the Empress’s brother-in-law, the Duke of Alba, who appears in the bottom row.