[Member of the Paris Commune: Joséphine Bocquin, Incendie de la rue du Bac, perpétuité]

1871
Not on view
Following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the fall of Napoleon III, thousands of Parisians revolted against the new royalist-leaning government and declared Paris an independent commune. Weeks of fighting ensued, during which Versailles troops attacked the city while the Communards threw up barricades, shot hostages, and burned government buildings. Women participated in the insurrection in great numbers, most notoriously as pétroleuses, or female arsonists, who torched several government buildings during the Commune's bloody last week. Soon afterward, Appert, a Parisian portrait photographer, gained exclusive access to a makeshift prison at Versailles and made portraits of individual prisoners, who ceded the rights to their likenesses. He issued many of the portraits as cartes-de-visites, such as these, but also integrated the Communards' faces into a series of propagandistic photomontages entitled "Crimes of the Commune."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: [Member of the Paris Commune: Joséphine Bocquin, Incendie de la rue du Bac, perpétuité]
  • Artist: Ernest Eugène Appert (French, 1831–1891)
  • Date: 1871
  • Medium: Albumen silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 3 5/8 × 2 1/4 in. (9.2 × 5.7 cm)
    Mount: 4 1/8 in. × 2 1/2 in. (10.4 × 6.3 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Gift of Denise Bethel, in honor of Etta Henley Bethel, 2017
  • Object Number: 2017.662.12
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.