Untitled
c. 1850
A mid-19th-century daguerreotype portrait of two sitters holding a small framed image, made as an intimate, finely detailed keepsake to preserve family likenesses.
Up close the tiny mirrored plate arrests you: the pair’s pale, solemn faces and dark clothing glow with photographic detail while their hands present a framed picture within the picture, all set inside a plush, gilded case that makes the image feel like a private reliquary.
As an early daguerreotype, this object shows how photography transformed likenesses into portable, tangible heirlooms—democratizing portraiture and anchoring family memory in a new, intensely detailed medium.
Medium
Daguerreotype
Dimensions
2 9/16 × 3 1/2" (6.5 × 8.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Virginia Cuthbert Elliott
Accession
87.1974
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
