General MacMahon full-length portrait by MAYER & PIERSON

General MacMahon, senator (1808-1893)

by Mayer & Pierson

albumen print mounted on cardboard

Business card size: 5.5 x 8.2 cm

Patrice de Mac Mahon, Count of Mac Mahon, Duke of Magenta, born on June 13, 1808 at the Château de Sully (Saône-et-Loire) near Autun and died on October 17, 1893 at the Château de la Forêt, in Montcresson (Loiret), was a French statesman, Marshal of France and President of the French Republic from 1873 to 1879.

Mayer (1817-1895) and Pierson (1822-1913) were the founders of the company "Mayer Frères et Pierson," whose purpose was the production and sale of any reproduction using the daguerreotype, photography, or any other method that might be subsequently discovered. Located at 3 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, the workshop became the Emperor's official photographic studio in 1856. The partners became photographers to the Emperor in July 1862. They produced numerous portraits of Napoleon's family, as well as of the Parisian aristocracy and celebrities such as Sarah Bernhardt. Their reputation spread beyond France and became European.