Solid Pictures: Photosculpture and the Making of Modern Likeness
First major exhibition to explore the overlooked technology that promised to revolutionize sculpture, invented by French artist François Willème in the mid-nineteenth century
September 17, 2026–January 18, 2027
The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University is pleased to present Solid Pictures: Photosculpture and the Making of Modern Likeness. The major exhibition sheds light on a 3D modeling process called photosculpture developed by the young artist and inventor François Willème in Paris as early as 1859. Curated by Patrick R. Crowley, Associate Curator of European Art, the exhibition brings together twenty-six rare surviving photosculptures (including twelve from the Cantor’s collection) from both domestic and international lenders, including the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY; the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris; and the Patrimonio Nacional of Spain. Supplementing the photosculptures are rare archival materials, including photographs, lantern slides, prints, and other historical ephemera such as advertisements and patent specifications.
Seizing on the novelty and runaway success of cartes de visite (collectible small format portrait photographs of ordinary people and celebrities alike) Willème sought to make domestically scaled portrait sculpture affordable for the burgeoning middle class of Second Empire France. Using an elaborate system of synchronized projection technologies and mechanical instruments, Willème and his assistants translated the photographic information of silhouette profiles into solid figures in a variety of media, promising them to his clients in as few as forty-eight hours at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
Willème filed his first patent for the process in 1860 and, a few years later, founded his business as a joint-stock company, with a sophisticated marketing campaign to match, buttressed by endorsements and capital investments from minor celebrities and heads of state. Although his work was centered in Paris, the exhibition tells an international story about Willème’s novel process, including his prolific work for the court of Isabella II of Spain and the purchase of his patent in other countries like the United States, where the industrial applications of photosculpture were enthusiastically advertised in a post-Civil War landscape.