Through the Looking Glass:
Daguerreotype Masterworks from the Dawn of Photography
Invented in 1839, the daguerreotype is the chameleon of photography: open up its jewel-like leather or thermoplastic case and see yourself reflected in the mirror of the silver surface, now view it from another angle and see a startling negative image, now from yet a third angle and see the positive image revealed in its infinite detail and three-dimensionality – it takes your breath away. It is indeed a mirror held up to the soul of its subject, a Time Machine to a bygone era.
Sad girl on smiling hobbyhorse, ca. 1850
Désiré-François Millet French bride
Caped man and wife, standing
Standing girl with large doll
Dog on two chairs, daguerreian posing stand in background
Sisters in polka-dot dresses, one with beauty mark and purse
Cobbler in his shop
Beckers & Piard, Two sisters, one gloved
Joseph Philibert Girault de Prangey, Archaeological scene, Jerusalem, 1844
White man with daughter and enslaved nanny
Solarized sleigh scene
Southworth & Hawes, Young Woman with Empire Chair
Civil Engineer Herman Haupt with a model of his famous truss bridge
Felix Jacques-Antoine Moulin Amorous couple in haystack
Josiah W. Thompson, Boy in Revolutionary War outfit, New York City
Anatomy Prof. Lucien Ball Johnson, M.D.
Building the New Bedford Free Library, William Street
Attributed to Jean Baptiste Louis Baron Gros, La Fontaine et le Marché des Innocents, Paris, ca. 1850
This exhibit comprises both cased examples, mostly American, and larger framed plates, primarily European. Rarities include artistic whole plates of Boston’s upper crust by Southworth & Hawes; one of the earliest photos of Jerusalem, an archaeological whole plate by Girault de Prangey; and an important, unpublished Gold Rush daguerreotype featuring a female miner.
All the major collecting genres of daguerreotype – landscapes, occupational, erotic stereos, post-mortems, slavery subjects, and of course portraiture – are represented by superb, often surprising examples in this unique and memorable exhibit. The newly expanded comprehensive survey of the daguerreotype featuring important examples from America, France, England and the Mideast.
Number of photographs: 180
Rental fee: $18,750 for eight weeks plus shipping and insurance. Additional weeks are 10 percent per week.
A version of the show focused on American daguerreotypes and excluding the European and Middle-Eastern plates is also available. Please inquire.