Snapshots of the Past

Half-length portrait of a man with spectacles – Antique Photo Print

Half-length portrait of a man with spectacles, 1844 — historic photograph
Half-length portrait of a man with spectacles, 1844. Historic photograph from the Daguerreotypes & Early Photography collection.

(Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This rare historic photograph captures Half-length portrait of a man with spectacles in remarkable detail. Drawn from the Snapshots of the Past archive, it is an authentic piece of documented history.

The framed print arrives ready to hang; the unframed option suits custom framing. Perfect for a home, office, library or classroom wall, and a gift with a story behind it. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.

Half-length portrait of a man with spectacles

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Few daguerreotypes from 1844 survive with the sitter's identity intact, and this half-length study of a bespectacled man belongs to the early years when the process was still new enough to draw crowds of curious sitters to studios. Daguerreotypes were made on silvered copper plates, so each one is a single, mirror-reversed image that shows its detail best when tilted under light. The spectacles and the careful rendering of the sitter's face reflect how quickly photographers in the 1840s learned to hold fine tonal gradation, even though exposures still ran for several seconds or more. Works like this offer a useful record of who sat for portraits in that decade and how the medium first handled everyday likeness.

Created / published1844
Original scan1,189 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
Reference426_Unidentified_man_halfle_1844

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Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.

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