Getty Museum

Nude study of a black female

Date

about 1855

Medium

Daguerreotype

Culture

French

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

This daguerreotype of a smiling, young black woman is surprising in its explicit display of sexuality. Shown semi-recumbent on a slouch-backed sofa draped with a cheap, machine-made coverlet, the model is completely naked, her left arm raised up and bent behind her head in a stock pose that emphasizes the line of the breast. With her legs spread wide open, her pubic hair is radically visible although coyly out of focus. The placement of her fingers, which invite the viewer to look at her while she simultaneously avoids the viewer with a faraway gaze, emphasizes the focal point of the image, her open crotch. The model's head is wrapped in a fabric headdress in the fashion of West Indian women; despite her complete exposure, this small cultural marker is the only real clue as to who she might have been.

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