#augustemestral

[Angel of the Passion, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris], Auguste Mestral, 1853–1854, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Photography

Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 2002 Size: 32.9 x 20.3 cm (12 15/16 x 8 in.) Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative

[Angel of the Passion, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris] by Auguste Mestral, The Met's Photography Department

Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative

Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 2002 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

[Angel of the Passion, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris] by Auguste Mestral, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Photography

Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 2002 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative

[Angel of the Passion, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris] by Auguste Mestral, The Met's Photos

Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 2002 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative

[Sculpture of Virgin and Child, Notre Dame, Paris] by Auguste Mestral, The Met's Photography Department

Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative

Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2000 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

[Angel of the Passion, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris] by Auguste Mestral, The Met's Photography Department

Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative

Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Howard Gilman Foundation Gift, 2002 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Sculpture of Angel, Sainte-Chapelle, Paris (circa 1851)

Auguste Mestral (1812–1884) was a pioneering French photographer who helped establish photography as both an art and a documentary medium. Born to a middle‑class family in southeastern France, he trained in mathematics, physics, and drawing, apprenticed with lens‑makers and chemists, and learned calotype and later wet collodion techniques. Beginning in the mid‑1830s, he produced carefully composed, atmospheric images of architecture, landscapes, portraits, and modern infrastructure (e.g., Paris landmarks, railways, the 1867 Exposition, Franco‑Prussian War scenes). Mestral advanced chemical formulations, exposure and printing methods, lectured and wrote to professionalize the field, mentored younger photographers, and exhibited widely. Reserved and meticulous, he never married and worked despite health issues likely from chemical exposure. His works are preserved in museums and archives and his legacy influenced generations of photographers and the development of photographic practice.

[Sculpture of Virgin and Child, Notre Dame, Paris] by Auguste Mestral, The Met's Photography Department

Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative

Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2000 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY