Post-mortem of a woman
Artist
Unknown
Dateca. 1845
MediumDaguerreotype
DimensionsPlate (sixth): 3 1/4 × 2 3/4 inches (8.26 × 6.99 cm)
Case (closed): 3 3/16 × 3 5/8 × 5/8 inches (8.1 × 9.21 × 1.59 cm)
Case (open): 6 7/16 × 3 5/8 × 3/8 inches (16.35 × 9.21 × 0.95 cm)
Case (closed): 3 3/16 × 3 5/8 × 5/8 inches (8.1 × 9.21 × 1.59 cm)
Case (open): 6 7/16 × 3 5/8 × 3/8 inches (16.35 × 9.21 × 0.95 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2010.63.9
Signednone
Inscribednone
Markingsnone
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionPortrait of dead woman lying on her back in profile with blood trickling from her nose. This sixth plate daguerreotype is housed in a plain brass mat inside of a leather-covered case with a pink silk liner. The case is embossed with a flower motif on recto and verso.Gallery LabelThe invention of photography significantly expanded the practice of creating memorial likenesses. Postmortem daguerreotypes were commonplace. Though photographers aimed to represent their subjects with dignity and grace, the physical realities of working with a corpse sometimes intruded. Here a fluid, perhaps blood, trickles down the face of a woman in this unusually direct posthumous portrait.
Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2010;
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2010.
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2010.
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