Portrait of a Seamstress
c. 1880s
Medium
tintype
Dimensions
image/plate: 8.9 × 6.2 cm (3 1/2 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
The Ross J. Kelbaugh Collection
Accession Number
2023.146.62
Art Historical Context
Step into the intimate world of 19th American photography with *Portrait of a Seamstress a tintype from around 1880s. This petite gem, measuring just 8.9 × 6.2 cm, captures a working woman in her trade, likely posed with sewing tools that defined her daily life. Tintypes like this one were revolutionary: created using the wet collodion process on thin iron plates, they produced unique, one-of-a-kind positive images without negatives, making portraiture affordable and accessible to everyday folks beyond the elite. In the Gilded Age, when industrialization was reshaping American society, such i...
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 ...