Untitled (Portrait of a Woman holding a Child)
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
8.2 × 7 cm (3 1/4 × 2 13/16 in.); Open case: 9.3 × 16 × 1 cm (3 11/16 × 6 5/16 × 7/16 in.); Case: 9.3 × 8 × 1.6 cm (3 11/16 × 3 3/16 × 11/16 in.); Plate: 8.3 × 7 cm (3 1/4 × 2 3/4 in.)
Classification
portrait
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
249997
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, photography was still a novel wonder, Charles De Forest Fred captured this tender *Untitled (Portrait of a Holding a Child)* in 1858 using the daguerreotype process.ricks, a prominent New York-based photographer known for his portraits and later cartes-de-visite, produced this intimate image on a small silvered copper plate measuring just 8.3 × 7 cm. Housed in a protective case the work exemplifies the era's portable, jewel-like photographs, often treasured as family keepsakes. The daguerreotype, invented in 1839 by Louis Daguerre, was the first publicly available pho...