Untitled (Portrait of a Woman Reading)
1845
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
8.2 × 7.1 cm (3 1/4 × 2 13/16 in.); Open case: 9.2 × 16.3 × 1.1 cm (3 5/8 × 6 7/16 × 7/16 in.); Case: 9.2 × 8.3 × 1.5 cm (3 5/8 × 3 5/16 × 5/8 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
249908
Art Historical Context
Step into the intimate world of early photography with *Untitled (Portrait of a Woman Reading)*, a daguerreotype created in 1845 by an unknown maker. This tiny portrait, measuring just 8.2 × 7.1 cm on its plate, captures a serene moment of a woman absorbed in her book, housed in a protective case typical of the era. Displayed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Photography and Media department, it exemplifies the delicate precision of daguerreotypes—the first publicly available photographic process, invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839. Daguerreotypes like this one were made on silvered copper pl...