Untitled (Portrait of Sarah Preston)
1850s
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
14 × 10.8 cm (5 9/16 × 4 5/16 in.); Open case: 15 × 23.6 × 1.3 cm (5 15/16 × 9 5/16 × 9/16 in.); Case: 15 × 11.8 × 2 cm (5 15/16 × 4 11/16 × 13/16 in.); Plate: 14 × 10.8 cm (5 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.)
Classification
portrait
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
250066
Art Historical Context
In the 1850s, at the of photography's golden age, L. H. Hale captured *Untitled (Portrait of Sarah Preston using the daguerreotype process—a groundbreaking technique invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839. This, intimate portrait (14 × .8 cm plate) a finely detailed positive image on a silvered copper plate, housed in an ornate protective case measuring 15 × 11.8 × 2 cm when closed. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago Photography and Media department, it exemplifies early portrait photography's precision and realism, where every subtle expression and texture gleams with mirror-like clarity. Da...