Snapshots of the Past

[Washington Irving, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the left] – Historic Photo Reproduction

[Washington Irving, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the left], [between 1855 and 1860] — historic photograph
[Washington Irving, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the left], [between 1855 and 1860]. Historic photograph from the Daguerreotypes & Early Photography collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: [Washington Irving, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the left], preserved in this historic photograph. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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[Washington Irving, half-length portrait, three-quarters to the left]

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The pose in this half-length daguerreotype is reversed because it is a copy of an earlier image by John Plumbe, a detail that sets it apart from the many other likenesses of Washington Irving. It was produced in Mathew Brady's studio between 1855 and 1860. By then Irving, the author of *The Sketch Book* and the tales of Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane, was in his seventies and living at Sunnyside on the Hudson, one of the country's most celebrated writers. The gold toning and composed, three-quarter turn give the portrait the measured dignity common to studio work of the period.

Created / published[between 1855 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : half plate daguerreotype, gold toned.
GenrePortrait photographs 1850-1860.Daguerreotypes 1850-1860.
NotesHallmark: Rinhart 20. Scratched on back of plate: 47. Copy daguerreotype of original by John Plumbe in reverse. Facing the light / H. Pfister. Washington : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978, p. 329. Transfer; U.S. War College; 1920; (DLC/PP-1920:46153). Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). Produced by Mathew Brady's studio.
SubjectsIrving, Washington,--1783-1859.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,217 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
Reference714_Washington_Irving_halfl_1855

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