Portrait of a Boy with a Hoop
c. 1848
Medium
daguerreotype
Dimensions
image (visible): 9 × 6.5 cm (3 9/16 × 2 9/16 in.) mat: 10.5 × 8.2 cm (4 1/8 × 3 1/4 in.) framed: 16.3 × 14 × 1.8 cm (6 7/16 × 5 1/2 × 11/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
The Ross J. Kelbaugh Collection
Accession Number
2023.146.13
Art Historical Context
Step into the mid-19th century with *Portrait of a Boy with Hoop*, a delicate daguerreotype by J. Wistar Davis, created around 1848. This tiny image, measuring just 9 ×6.5 cm, captures a young boy holding a hoop—a simple, beloved toy of the era—evoking the innocence of childhood amid the Industrial Age. Housed in the National Gallery of Art'sPH department from The Ross J. Kelb Collection, it exemplifies early American photography's intimate portrait tradition. Daguerreotypes, the pioneering process invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839, produced one-of-a-kind, mirror-like positives on silvered c...