The Imperial family

In the early 1860s, Disdéri hit upon a money-making scheme which enabled to profit a second time from the sale of celebrity portraits he had already taken and previously sold as individual portraits. By cropping the photographs into an oval format, grouping them together according to a particular theme and rephotographing the composition, he exploited the photographs anew and enabled his customers to buy seven, eight, thirteen twenty-three, or more portraits for the price of one. These cartes proved to be a popular novelty in market that was fast becoming saturated.

This particular example shows members of the Imperial family, namely Napoléon III, Empress Eugénie, Prince Napoléon (‘Plon-Plon’), Princesse Clothilde, Princesse Mathilde, the Prince Imperial, and - at the centre of the arrangement – Prince Jérôme.