Untitled (Portrait of a Seated Man)
1880
Medium
Tintype
Dimensions
10 × 6 cm (3 15/16 × 2 3/8 in.); Card: 11 × 8.5 cm (4 3/8 × 3 3/8 in.); Plate: 10.2 × 7.7 cm (4 × 3 in.)
Classification
portrait
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
250249
Art Historical Context
Step into the intimate world of 19th-century photography with *Untitled (Portrait of aated Man)*, a tintype from 1880 housed in the Art Institute Chicago's Photography and Media. Measuring just 10 × 6 cm, this pocket-sized portrait captures an unidentified man seated in quiet dignity, his image preserved on a thin iron plate coated with collodion—a wet-plate process that produced unique, one-of-a-kind positives without negatives. The modest card mount and plate dimensions hint at its origins as a personal memento, perhaps carried in a wallet or locket. Tintypes like this one revolutionized po...