Untitled
c. 1880
A tintype showing three people posed in a horse-drawn carriage, made to record their likeness and convey a sense of respectability in the late 19th century.
The immediate impression is of two pale horses dominating the foreground while the composed figures — a man in a hat, a woman, and a child — sit quietly in the carriage against a fenced rural landscape, arranged with the deliberate stillness of early portrait photography.
This tintype exemplifies how inexpensive, portable photographic processes of the 1880s let ordinary people produce durable portraits that documented family, social standing, and everyday life as photography became more democratic.
Medium
Tintype
Dimensions
6 7/8 × 8 7/8" (17.5 × 22.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Richard Benson
Accession
1975.2008
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
