Getty Museum

[Portrait of a Seated Baby with Hidden Parent]

Date

1870s

Medium

Tintype, hand-colored

Culture

American

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

A baby sits propped against a dark backdrop of fabric behind the fabric a hand stablizes the baby's head, likely the child's mother. The child is wearing a white dress and small leather soled shoes. Hidden mother posed portraits such as this were relatively common during the period of early photography as exposure times could be long and the mother, or another woman, were able to hold the child keeping them calm and still without appearing in the photograph themselves.

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