Three Dandies

Artist Unknown

Dateca. 1865-1875

MediumTintype

DimensionsPlate (whole): 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches (21.59 x 16.51 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.279

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of three men, wearing top hats, smoking, sitting on a step. One of the men holds a walking stick.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Developing Greatness: The Origins of American Photography, 1839-1885. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9 – December 30, 2007, no. 458.

Rotation 24. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 9 – November 12, 2017, no cat.

Gallery Label

The tintype was one of the cheapest and most durable forms of photography in the last half of the 19th century. Despite the name, the tintype is produced on a thin sheet of varnished iron. Like the daguerreotype, the tintype is a one-of-a-kind object: a direct positive image produced without a negative. Most tintypes are small in size and relatively casually made. This work, by contrast, is a large and distinctly artistic example of the process.

Provenance

Hallmark Cards Inc., Kansas City, MO,1998;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc., to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Keith F. Davis, The Origins of American Photography: from Daguerreotype to Dry-Plate, 1839-1885. With contributions by Jane L. Aspinwall. Kansas City, MO: Hall Family Foundation: in association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007. Distributed by Yale University Press. Published in conjunction with Developing Greatness: the Origins of American Photography, 1839-1885, shown at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 258 (repro).

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