P

1043

PACHECO, JOAQUIM INSLEY

(c. 1830–1912)
Portuguese painter and photographer

Born in Cabeceiras de Basto, Portugal, in about 1830,
landscape painter, watercolor artist and photographer
Joaquim Insley Pacheco learned the daguerreotype
method from Frederick Walter in Ceará, Brazil, before
studying under Mathew B. Brady and Jeremiah Gurney
in New York. He also used the ambrotype and platino-
type methods and was “an apologist of photopainting.”
Pacheco in 1854 founded a photographic studio in Brazil
originally called Pacheco & Son (later Insley Pacheco)
and returned to the US to photograph the Civil War
(1861–1865). Renowned for his portraits, he was a fa-
vorite of Emperor Pedro II. Appointed Imperial Photog-
rapher on December 22, 1855, and dubbed a Knight of
the Royal Order of Christ, Pacheco won over 16 medals
for works shown at the Imperial Academy and national
and international exhibitions. He took part in the 1862
London Exhibition, the Expositions Universelles of
1867 and 1889 in Paris, the Vienna Universal Exhibition
(1873), the Philadelphia Universal Exhibition (1876),
the Buenos Aires Continental Exhibition (1882), and
the Chicago Exhibition (1893) among others. His pho-
tographs won honorable mention in Vienna, fi rst prize at
the Oporto International Exhibition in Portugal (1865)
and a gold medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
(1904). He died in Rio de Janeiro in 1912.
Sabrina Gledhill

PAINTERS AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Artists from the time of the Renaissance relied on optical
devises such as the camera obscura as an aid to create
landscapes, interior views, still-lifes and portraits. The
way that a camera records a view differs from how our

eyes see the same scene. The camera image perspective

is perceived differently, and the images are in sharper

focus. Painters using the camera obscura knew this,

and used this forerunner of the camera to meticulously

render objects, and to represent depth and dimension

on the fl at surface of canvas.

With the invention of the daguerreotype, the image

captured by the camera was no longer fl eeting. It now

had the same permanence as a painting and could be

framed, stored in a case and shared with others. Some

artists and critics feared that photographs would eventu-

ally replace painted portraits and landscapes. Samuel F.

B. Morse (1791–1872), who brought Daguerre’s process

to the United States in 1839, believed that “Art is to be

wonderfully enriched by this discovery. How narrow and

foolish the idea which some express that it will be the

ruin of art.” Morse was obviously correct, and during

the second half of the nineteenth century, photography

infl uenced artists both self taught and academically

trained, in styles as diverse as Folk Art, Realism, and

Impressionism.

Portrait Painting

The public began to look at paintings in new ways as

a result of the photographic images that were available

to them after 1839. Daguerreotypes provided likenesses

that made the work of itinerant artists appear less true to

life, and they were less expensive than painted portraits.

The growing interest in daguerreotype portraits resulted

in a reduced interest in miniature portraits in the 1840s

and 1850s, and some painters of miniatures began to

earn a living hand coloring daguerreotypes. Not every

artist abandoned miniature painting. John Henry Brown

(1818–1891) of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, did not even

take up the art of miniature painting until the 1840s. He

relied heavily on daguerreotypes as an aid in creating