Provenance: Don Pedro Alejandro Paterno (1857– 1911) and Doña Luisa Piñeyro de Lugo y Merino (Sra. de Paterno, d. 1897)

ABOUT THE WORK

The Carte-de-Visite foretold two 21st-century phenomena: Social media and the Cult of Celebrity. Like both, it also depended on a technological breakthrough, the creation of an 8-photograph that made possible multiple images from a single plate. The ‘Visiting Card” began as a form of leaving one’s name to convey a variety of messages, from formal appreciation to courtship to condolences. Also called "Calling cards”, they were an indispensable accessory to fashionable, upper class life in Europe during the 19th century. One social historian noted, "The Victorian etiquette of leaving and accepting calling cards was a complicated web of strict rules; to go against these rules could mean social suicide. It was traditionally the obligation of the upper class woman to deliver and accept calling cards, though she could leave her husband's card for the master of the house, along with two copies of her own (one for the master and one for the mistress of the house). Calling with a card at the right time and in favorable circumstances could lead to an invitation to visit. These visits were strictly formalized as well, usually consisting of twenty minutes of polite conversation and allowed only during set times in the late morning or early afternoon. After a call was made, a return call was to be expected and the process continued.” Eventually, the plain, dignified cards would be replaced by elaborate painted designs and with the advent of photography, images of the owner which could be exchanged with family and friends. Soon, the Carte-de-Visite would become notorious equivalents of a little black book, as gentlemen (and ladies) collected the cards as one does friends on facebook or instagram; celebrities would soon take advantage of their popularity by producing their own cards for the consumption of their admirers. This set of Cartes-deVisite feature a lifetime of collection of both friends and acquaintance, business and familial relations.