accomplished painters. The pictures obtained by this method are
as remarkable for the perfection of the details as for the richness
and harmony of the general effect. Nature is reproduced in them
not only with truth, but also with art.^14
Each daguerreotype is a unique work with amazing detail and
finely graduated tones from black to white.Still Life in Studio (FIG.
30-50) is one of the first successful plates Daguerre produced after per-
fecting his method. The process captured every detail—the subtle
forms, the varied textures, the diverse tones of light and shadow—in
Daguerre’s carefully constructed tableau. The three-dimensional forms
of the sculptures, the basket, and the bits of cloth spring into high relief
and are convincingly represented. The inspiration for the composition
came from 17th-century Dutch vanitas still lifes, such as those of Claesz
(FIG. 25-21). Like Claesz, Daguerre arranged his objects to reveal their
textures and shapes clearly. Unlike a painter, Daguerre could not al-
ter anything within his arrangement to effect a stronger image.
However, he could suggest a symbolic meaning through his choice of
objects. Like the skull and timepiece in Claesz’s painting, Daguerre’s
sculptural and architectural fragments and the framed print of an em-
brace suggest that even art is vanitas and will not endure forever.
HAWES AND SOUTHWORTH In the United States, pho-
tographers began to make daguerreotypes within two months of Da-
guerre’s presentation in Paris. Two particularly avid and resourceful ad-
vocates of the new medium were Josiah Johnson Hawes(1808–1901),
a painter, and Albert Sands Southworth(1811–1894), a pharma-
cist and teacher. Together, they ran a daguerreotype studio in Boston
that specialized in portraiture, then popular due to the shortened
exposure time required for the process (although it was still long
enough to require head braces to help subjects remain motionless
while photographers recorded their images).
The partners also took their equipment outside the studio to
record places and events of particular interest to them. One resultant
image is Early Operation under Ether, Massachusetts General Hospital
(FIG. 30-51). This daguerreotype, taken from the gallery of a hospi-
tal operating room, put the viewer in the position of medical stu-
dents looking down on a lecture-demonstration typical throughout
the 19th century. An image of historical record, this early daguerreo-
type, which predates Eakins’s Gross Clinic(FIG. 30-38) by almost
three decades, gives the viewer a glimpse into the whole of Western
medical practice. The focus of attention in Early Operation is the
white-draped patient surrounded by a circle of darkly clad doctors.
The details of the figures and the room’s furnishings are in sharp fo-
cus, but the slight blurring of several of the figures betrays motion
during the exposure. The elevated viewpoint flattens the spatial per-
spective and emphasizes the relationships of the figures in ways that
the Impressionists, especially Degas, found intriguing.NADAR Portraiture was one of the first photography genres to
use a technology that improved the calotype. Making portraits was
an important economic opportunity for most photographers, as
Southworth and Hawes proved, but the greatest of the early portrait
photographers was undoubtedly Gaspar-Félix Tournachon, known
simply as Nadar(1828–1910), a French novelist, journalist, enthusi-
astic balloonist, caricaturist, and, later, photographer (see “Da-
guerreotype,” page 814). Photographic studies for his caricatures led
Nadar to open a portrait studio. So talented was he at capturing the
essence of his subjects that the most important people in France, in-
cluding Delacroix, Daumier, Courbet, and Manet, flocked to his stu-
dio to have their portraits made. Nadar said he sought in his work
“that instant of understanding that puts you in touch with the
model—helps you sum him up, guides you to his habits, his ideas,816 Chapter 30 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1800 TO 187030-51Josiah Johnson
Hawes and Albert
Sands Southworth,
Early Operation under
Ether, Massachusetts
General Hospital,ca.
- Daguerreotype,
6 – 21 8 –^12 . Massachusetts
General Hospital
Archives and Special
Collections, Boston.
In this early daguerreo-
type, which predates
Eakins’s Gross Clinic
FIG. 30-38) by almost
30 years, Hawes and
Southworth demon-
strated the documentary
power of the new
medium of photography.
1 in.