Jenny Lind

Artist John H. Fitzgibbon (American, 1819 - 1882)

Date1851

MediumDaguerreotype

DimensionsPlate (half): 5 1/2 × 4 1/2 inches (13.97 × 11.43 cm)
Case (open): 5 7/8 × 9 3/8 × 3/8 inches (14.92 × 23.81 × 0.95 cm)
Case (closed): 5 7/8 × 4 5/8 × 5/8 inches (14.92 × 11.75 × 1.59 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.40

InscribedImpressed velvet liner reads: "Fitzgibbon / Artist St. Louis." With accompanying note (translated here from Swedish): "In the month of March, 1851, Jenny Lind gave concerts in St. Louis, where I had gone to meet her from Chicago. One day after the end of a rehearsal to which she had invited me, she suggested that I come with her to a daguerreotype studio where she had this portrait made. This the great artist herself gave to me as a memento of her."

MarkingsA translation (from Swedish) of the accompanying note reads: "In March 1851 Jenny Lind gave recitals in St. Louis, to which city I travelled from Chicago in order to meet her. One day at the end of a rehearsal she had invited me to attend, she suggested that I accompany her to a daguerreotype studio, where she had this portrait taken. The great artist herself honored me with it as a remembrance of her."

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DescriptionImage of a woman (Jenny Lind), sitting beside a table, with her hand resting near a book. Her hair is parted in the center and she wears a dress with a lace collar and striped skirt. This half plate daguerreotype is housed in an oval brass mat inside of a leather case that is embossed with an angel motif on the lid and a decorated oval on the back of the tray. The red velvet liner is embossed with a floral wreath around a ribbon paper with the name of the maker and an attached note written in Swedish.Published References

Published References

On Fitzgibbon, see Palmquist and Kailbourn, Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide, A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005): 254-59; "J. H. Fitzgibbon, of St. Louis," Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper [New York] 4:92 (September 5, 1857): 213; G. H. Loomis, "Gallery Biographic, No. 4: J.H. Fitzgibbon," Anthony's Photographic Bulletin 6:3 (March 1875): 81-2; "The Late John H. Fitzgibbon," Photographic Times and American Photographer 12:140 (August 1882): 338-39; Bonnie Wright, "'This Perpetual Shadow-Taking': The Lively Art of John H. Fitzgibbon," Missouri Historical Review 76:1 (October 1981): 22-30; "Our Daguerreotypes," Daguerreian Journal 1:10 (April 1, 1851): 306.

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