Portrait of John Brown

Artist Augustus Washington (American, 1820 - 1875)

Dateca. 1846-1847

MediumDaguerreotype

DimensionsPlate (quarter): 3 1/4 × 4 1/4 inches (8.26 × 10.8 cm)
Case (open): 4 1/2 × 7 3/4 × 3/8 inches (11.43 × 19.69 × 0.97 cm)
Case (closed): 4 1/2 × 3 7/8 × 5/8 inches (11.43 × 9.84 × 1.59 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Object number2008.6.4

Signednone

InscribedLiner is stamped, in center, in black ink: "Washington Gallery / Hartford, CT"; Liner is stamped, at bottom, in black: "WASHINGTON GALLERY / HARTFORD CONN.".

MarkingsThe plate itself is marked "O" in one corner.

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of a man (John Brown), taken from waist up, with arms folded across his chest. This is quarter plate cased daguerreotype is housed in a brass mat inside of a brown case.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Magnificent Gifts for the 75^th. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 13 - April 4, 2010, no cat.

In the Looking Glass: Recent Daguerreotype Acquisitions. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 25 - July 20, 2014, no cat.

Rotation 19. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, May 9 - September 27, 2015, no cat.

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

Gallery Label

This is thought to be the earliest of only six known daguerreotypes of John Brown, a leading figure in the abolitionist movement of the 1840s–1850s. Brown’s national renown began a decade after this portrait was made. In 1859 he led a notorious attack on a federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, which ended with his arrest and execution. Even in this early portrait, Brown looks unflinchingly at the camera, confident of himself and his cause.

Augustus Washington was an African American daguerreotypist located in Hartford, Connecticut. Washington knew Brown through their mutual involvement in the abolitionist cause.

Provenance

Descended in the family of John Brown: John Brown's son, John Brown, Jr.; to his sister, Annie Brown Adams; to her daughter, Bertha Adams Cook; then to her grandson, Darell Robinson, and his wife, Maxine, as a wedding present in 1949; Cowan's Auctions, Inc., Cincinnati, OH. Sale 2007, 6-7 December 2007.

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