Untitled (Portrait of Seated Man)
1843
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
8.2 × 7 cm (3 1/4 × 2 13/16 in.); Open case: 9.3 × 16.2 × 1 cm (3 11/16 × 6 7/16 × 7/16 in.); Case: 9.3 × 8.1 × 1.5 cm (3 11/16 × 3 1/4 × 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
249910
Art Historical Context
This delicate daguerreotype portrait from 1843 captures a seated man in a moment of quiet dignity, preserved on a small silvered plate measuring just over three inches wide. Created only four years after Louis Daguerre announced his revolutionary photographic process to the world, the image exemplifies the earliest days of photography when long exposure times required sitters to remain perfectly still, often aided by hidden supports. Housed in a protective case typical of the period, the work reflects both the technical precision and the intimate scale of mid-nineteenth-century portraiture. A...