Cleveland Museum of Art
Wife
- Date
- c. 1860–65
- Medium
- ambrotype, hand-tinted
- Culture
- America
- Department
- Photography
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 453153
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
You rarely see a smiling portrait from the mid-19th century. Having your photograph taken was a serious and rare endeavor, plus it was difficult to hold any animated expression long enough for the exposure times required by the early processes. Sitters were instructed to find ways to keep from moving, such as clasping their hands. The woman here has taken the photographers’ cautions to an extreme, resulting in a tense and unflattering portrait. In the early decades of photography, many people did not know how to pose for the camera.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- The Julius L. Greenfield Photography Acquisition Fund
- Provenance
- Estate of Robert and Joyce Feinman, Akron, OH | (Bluebird Liquidators, Fairlawn, OH), sold to Barbara Tannenbaum as agent for The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH | March 7, 2022-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
19th Century Cased PhotographsThese objects are all early photographic formats from the mid-19th century, including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes, often hand-tinted and presented in cases.
48 objects from 2 institutions
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