[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
Not on view

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.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

[Man with Beard]
E. S. Dunshee
c. 1855
Daguerreotype
2003.653
[Woman with Bonnet and Man with Cravat]
c. 1855
Daguerreotype in thermoplastic case
2003.661.A,.B
[Stanislas Ratel (1824-1904)]
Marie-Charles-Isidore Choiselat
1846
Daguerreotype
2023.621
Untitled
c. 1848
Daguerreotype
2003.520
[Woman Wearing Glasses]
c. 1855
Daguerreotype in leather case
2003.655
[Woman and Young Boy]
c. 1855
Daguerreotype in leather case
2003.663
Untitled
c. 1855
Daguerreotype in leather case
2003.657
[Portraits of a Man and Woman]
c. 1850s
Daguerreotypes in leather case
2005.62.A,.B
[Woman with Striped Skirt]
S. Peck & Co.
c. 1856
Daguerreotype in thermoplastic case
2005.64
[Seated Couple]
W. A. Degele
1850s
Daguerreotype in passe-partout mount
2018.100
Untitled
c. 1855
Daguerreotype in leather case
2003.515
Untitled
c. 1855
Daguerreotype in leather case
2003.518