Collect24The Global Art Registry
Unknown, [Portrait of a Child]
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles · Digital image courtesy of Getty's Open Content ProgramView original →
Unknown

[Portrait of a Child]

about 1857–1858

Current Collection

J. Paul Getty Museum

Los Angeles, United States

Medium
Hand-colored daguerreotype
Dimensions
5.2 × 4 cm
Status
In Museum Collection
Collect24 Art ID
C24-481395

Made sometime between 1850 and 1855, a full decade before the Emancipation Proclamation made all persons of color free in the United States, this daguerreotype of a young black boy is an important record of the face of America in the middle of the 1800s. The American poet Walt Whitman said that the daguerreotype created "a new world of images." Democratic, down-to-earth, and brimming with opportunity, both the daguerreotype and America celebrated the status of individuals--their personal liberties and cultural freedoms. A portrait such as this, of a child who was probably never a slave, stands as a significant marker toward the fulfillment of democracy's promise.

Provenance

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Registry history

  • about 1857–1858 — Recorded in the collection of J. Paul Getty Museum — photographs

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