Self-Portrait in Painting Studio

c. 1843

Camille Dolard

(French, 1810–1884)

Culture

France, 19th century

Medium

daguerreotype (full-plate)

Measurements

Platemark: 20.5 x 15 cm (8 1/16 x 5 7/8 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 45.7 cm (22 x 18 in.)

Credit Line

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 1997.56

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Location

230 Photography

Did You Know?

Many of the best early photographers were painters who put their training in figural arrangement, light and shadow, and composition to good use in the new medium.

Description

Dolard, a portrait painter, may have offered photographs to prospective clients of lesser means. In this image, possibly made as an advertisement for his studio, he identifies himself as a painter, surrounded by the tools of the trade. The coat and the hookah suggest an interest in orientalism, a fashion that occupied many mid-19th-century artists. A remarkable technical achievement, this whole-plate image required Dolard to remain motionless for well over a minute, at least 30 times longer than the exposure for the smaller plates in the case below.