Celebrated Mid-19th-Century Masterwork Known as "Dying Insurgent," Displayed at the Musée Carnavalet Landmark Exhibition, "Paris et le Daguerréotype." 

European daguerreotype approx. 5 1/8 x 4 5/8 in. Passe-partout mat in frame approx. 9 1/2 x 9 in. Paris: N.p., 1848. Features hand-tinted details. 

Provenance: Musée Carnavalet ("Paris et la Daguerreotype," October 1989-February 1990); The Maillet Daguerreotype Collection (Christie's, Lot 36, June 2025). 

This haunting, deeply intimate portrait captures a youthful male insurgent reclining against heavy white bed linens, his head tilted gently to his right in an attitude of physical collapse or impending death. The subject features cropped dark hair, partially downcast eyes, and sensitive facial modeling enlivened by delicate, ethereal flesh-tone tinting across his cheeks, neck, and bared chest. The composition captures the fragile boundary between living agony and final rest, representing one of the most powerful and tragic photographic human documents surviving from the barricades of the 1848 Revolution.

The French Revolution of 1848 ended the constitutional monarchy of King Louis Philippe and established the Second French Republic, sparking a wave of revolutions occurring that year. While French daguerreotypists such as Eugène Thibault famously recorded the desolate barricades of the Rue Saint-Maur-Popincourt from afar, direct, close-up human casualties of the uprising were almost never recorded on silvered plates. This extraordinarily rare bedside daguerreotype stands among the earliest and most irreplaceable photographic records of wartime trauma in photographic history. 

[Daguerreotype, 1848 Revolution, French Revolution, June Days, Barricades, Insurgent, Dead Revolutionary, Post-Mortem, Medical Photography, War Photography, Hand-Tinted Daguerreotype, Musée Carnavalet, Paris et le Daguerréotype, Marcel Maillet, Passe-Partout, Second Republic, French History, 19th Century Photography]

The daguerreotype plate remains in exceptional condition, retaining extraordinary mirror-like brilliance, rich contrast, and exquisitely preserved original hand-coloring. The silver surface is remarkably clean, showing faint scattered edge tarnish, minor minute dusting beneath the glass, and faint handling marks consistent with its untouched housing. The reverse-painted glass passe-partout retains sharp, deep black tones with fully intact gilt detailing. The pitch pine frame is structurally solid, exhibiting an attractive natural patina, fine wood grain, and light, honest age wear.