Met Museum The Waking Dream Poster - Auguste-Rosalie Bisson 1993

Artist: Auguste-Rosalie Bisson (French, 1826–1900)
Title: The Ascent of Mont Blanc (1861)
Exhibition: The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century
Collection: Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection
Institution: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Exhibition Dates: March 25 – July 4, 1993
Country of Print: Printed in USA
Technique: Original photomechanical lithographic museum exhibition poster
Dimensions: 90 x 48.2 cm
Status: Excellent vintage condition, unbacked, striking monochrome mountain contrast
 
About the Poster
This original 1993 Met Museum The Waking Dream Poster belongs to the historic exhibition series held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The visual features Auguste-Rosalie Bisson's monumental 1861 landscape photography masterpiece, The Ascent of Mont Blanc. Replicated from an original albumen silver print made via a glass negative, it captures early mountaineers navigating a treacherous, snow-covered crevasse. The premium American lithographic printing accurately preserves the stark white snow tones, dark deep rock contrasts, and subtle silver gradients of early large-format photography. The wide lower margin displays clean, balanced institutional typography detailing the Gilman collection provenance.
 
About the Artist / Institution
Auguste-Rosalie Bisson was a pioneering French photographer who achieved global fame as the first person to photograph from the summit of Mont Blanc in 1961. Operating with heavy, large-format glass plates under extreme Alpine conditions, his work marked a historic milestone in both photography and mountaineering. The Gilman Paper Company Collection, from which this image was curated, represents one of the world's most important private collections of 19th-century photography, subsequently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met remains a premier destination for historical art preservation, maintaining strict archival reproduction standards.