Portrait of a Man
c. 1850
Medium
daguerreotype
Dimensions
image (visible): 7 × 5.7 cm (2 3/4 × 2 1/4 in.) mat: 8 × 7 cm (3 1/8 × 2 3/4 in.) case: 9.5 × 8.2 × 0.7 cm (3 3/4 × 3 1/4 × 1/4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund
Accession Number
2014.25.1
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Step into the dawn of photography with this intimate *Portrait of a Man a circa 1850 dagotype from an anonymous American artist. Captured on a tiny silvered copper plate measuring just 7 × 5.7 cm, this one-of-a-kind image exemplifies the medium's revolutionary appeal in mid-19th-century America Daguerreotypes, introduced in 1839, were the first practical photographic process, offering unprecedented realism and detail that painters could only dream of. Affordable studios sprang up in cities and towns, making portraiture accessible to the growing middle class. Housed in a protective thermoplast...
About the Artist
American 19th Century
The artist cataloged as "American, 19th Century" represents a collective of unidentified painters active in the United States during the nineteenth century, with 380 known artworks preserved in this virtual museum's collection. These works span a diverse array of genres typical of the era, including portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and genre scenes, reflecting the burgeoning artistic output of ...