Untitled (Portrait of Four Women)
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
10.6 × 9.4 cm (4 3/16 × 3 3/4 in.); Open case: 11.9 × 21.4 × 1.2 cm (4 11/16 × 8 7/16 × 1/2 in.); Case: 11.9 × 10.7 × 1.8 cm (4 11/16 × 4 1/4 × 3/4 in.); Plate: 10.8 × 8.3 cm (4 1/4 × 3 1/4 in.)
Classification
portrait
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
249990
Art Historical Context
In the early days of photography, when capturing a likeness still felt like magic, R. Emmert Churchill created this *Untitled (Portrait of Four Women)* in 1852. As a daguerreotypist working just over a decade after Louis Daguerre's revolutionary process debuted in 1839, Churchill produced this intimate portrait using a silvered copper plate sensitized to light. The result is a one-of-a-kind image, shimmering with exquisite detail that no print could replicate—hallmarks of the daguerreotype medium. Housed in a protective case typical of the era, the petite 10.6 × 9.4 cm plate (about the size o...