[Four Children]

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • [Four Children]
Datec. 1850
Place depictedUnited States
MediumDaguerreotype
DimensionsImage (Sight): 4 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (12.1 × 8.9 cm)
Closed (Case): 6 × 4 3/4 × 7/8 in. (15.2 × 12.1 × 2.3 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number72.1
Non exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description


In the present age, when the life of almost every five-year-old has been chronicled in countless pictures on proud parents’ cell phones, it is hard to imagine how precious and magical a daguerreotype of one’s children must have seemed in the early years of photography. In this example, one of the Museum’s first photographic purchases, four siblings, well-dressed for a visit to the photographer’s studio, face the camera with a variety of expressions—wariness, ease, curiosity, and confidence.



Provenance[Latent Image Gallery, Houston]; purchased by MFAH, 1972.
Exhibition History"Turning Light Into Silver", 19 February - 30 May 2005, Audrey Jones Beck Building, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, lower level.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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