Portrait of a Young Boy
Medium
salted paper print from albumen on glass negative
Dimensions
image: 23.2 × 17.1 cm · matted: 50.8 × 40.6 cm
Classification
Photograph
Department
Photography
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
1998.9
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
Baron Humbert de Molard, a wealthy amateur, began taking daguerreotypes of his friends, family, and servants in 1843. The following year he became one of the earliest Frenchmen to experiment with paper print processes. This salted paper print was made from a glass-plate negative sensitized with albumen. The stiff pose, placement of the subject’s hands, and glaring gaze are likely due to the long exposure time required by those materials. They imbue a young boy with the gravity and formality of a...