Portrait of a Woman
c. 1880s
Medium
tintype with applied color
Dimensions
image (visible): 7.6 × 4.5 cm (3 × 1 3/4 in.) mat: 10.1 × 6.2 cm (4 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Ross J. Kelbaugh Collection, Purchased with support from the Ford Foundation
Accession Number
2023.39.210
Art Historical Context
This intimate *Portrait of a Woman*, by an anonymous American photographer around the 1880s, captures the dignity of its unnamed subject through the modest medium of tintype with applied color. Tintypes, invented in the 1850s, were thin sheets of iron coated with collodion and exposed directly as positives, making them affordable and portable compared to earlier daguerreotypes. The hand-applied color—likely watercolor or oil paint—adds a touch of lifelike warmth to the black-and-white image, enhancing facial tones and clothing details for a personalized, almost painterly effect. Measuring jus...
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 ...