Disderi’s Photograph of a Kotchoubey in 1858 exhibited at Gagosian Gallery in New York

Currently in New York until April 18th there is an exhibit entitled, “In the Studio: Photographs” at the Gagosian Gallery flagship gallery on the Upper East Side. 980 Madison Avenue near 76th Street, Manhattan; +1 212-744-2313, gagosian.com

The exhibit is made up of 143 photographs dating from 1856 to the late 20th century and is the work of curator Peter Galassi, a former curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  One piece is particularly interesting to the family as it is by André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri and entitled “Kotchoubey,” 1857-58. The photograph would have been part of a series taken of members of a wedding party who arrived in Paris in 1858 to celebrate the marriage of two widows, Nikolai Arkadievitch Kotchoubey and his bride Elena Sergeievna (née princess Volkonskaya). They were married in the Russian Orthodox chapel attached to the Russian Embassy on today’s rue de Berri as the cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky on rue Daru was yet to be completed. The picture of the boy, if indeed it is a Kotchoubey is difficult to identify as the young man pictured would have been born in the late 1840s or at the latest 1850 and there are no records of any Kotchoubeys born in those years. Alternatively, the date may be incoorect or it is a relative from the bride and groom’s extensive family.

A review of the show along with a sister exhibit on art is available on the New York Times website. It is written by journalist Roberta Smith, “Review: The Artist’s Studio, From Refuge to Gallery, in Shows at the Gagosian” from the February 26th, edition of the paper (the link is: http://nyti.ms/183ecQx)

Disderi Kotchoubey
André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri’s “Kotchoubey,” 1857-58. Credit George Eastman House, Rochester, Gagosian Gallery