Details

Title

Nude

Artist/Maker

Unidentified Photographer

Date

ca. 1850

Medium

Daguerreotype with applied color

Dimensions

Contact the museum for more information

Credit

Purchase

Accession #

1982.119

On View

Currently not on view

Daguerreotypes—small, reflective, and delicate photographs that came housed in velvet-lined cases—were designed for private consumption. The unparalleled realism offered by the new medium of photography quickly made it the ideal form for disseminating images of nudity in the mid-nineteenth century. This female model, who lies languidly on a daybed with her back to the camera, is posed to enhance her appeal as an object of fantasy and desire to the viewer. Color was later added by hand to the plate, further augmenting the photograph’s verisimilitude.