| Summary: | In putting together a collection that would comprise 1,606 postcards, the Neurdein brothers were responding to a request by the Musée de Sculpture Comparée which attested that, beyond its tourist function, the postcard was envisaged by the director, Camille Enlart, as a real instrument for the diffusion of knowledge and the management of the cast collection, or even as a miniature encyclopedia of the history of sculpture. Using archival materials, the authors reconstitute the negotiations that gave rise to this collection and examine its implications: a new visual culture was being built, each card offering a specific point of view (general views, detailed or cut-out works, clever captions, as well as errors). Beyond the patrimonialisation of this exceptional collection, the article focuses on the first series of 486 cards organised chronologically and proposes an analysis of the intrusion of this medium, during its “golden age”, into the art historian’s studio.
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