The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 17, 2024
Twin Babies
c. 1870
(American)
Image: 24 x 19.2 cm (9 7/16 x 7 9/16 in.); Paper: 29.2 x 25 cm (11 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.)
Location: not on view
Description
Color photography was not widely available until the 20th century, but 19th-century photographs could be embellished with hand-applied paints or dyes for an extra charge. Hand coloring, often done by women, usually was limited to adding dabs of pink on lips and cheeks or gold on jewelry, but sometimes, as here, the entire surface would be covered to emulate a painting. The edges of this mount are covered with trial dabs of watercolor that would have been hidden by the mat. Once portraits leave the context of the family, the identities of the sitters are most often lost, as is the case for these twins. Since the Davis Brothers’ studio was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, around this time, one can assume the twins lived there.- Cheating Death: Portrait Photography’s First Half Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 22, 2016-February 5, 2017).
- {{cite web|title=Twin Babies|url=false|author=Davis Brothers|year=c. 1870|access-date=17 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.302