This daguerreotype was surely intended to serve artistic purposes, but the odd twist of the body and the strange relationship of the three visible limbs seem to render it inappropriate for artistic emulation. Such tension between an artistic ideal and realistic means—between the classicism of an academic pose and the awkwardness of the camera’s rendering of human movement—seems emblematic of the dilemma faced by the nascent medium striving to be an art.
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Title:[Seated Female Nude]
Artist:Unknown (French)
Date:ca. 1850
Medium:Daguerreotype
Dimensions:9.1 x 6.9 cm (3 9/16 x 2 11/16 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
Object Number:2005.100.30
[...]; [Oltremare S.A. (Gérard Lévy), Monaco, sold to Gilman June 5, 1990]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, until 2005
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," May 25–July 4, 1993.
Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," August 7–October 2, 1993.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," June 19–September 11, 1994.
Bibliothèque Nationale de France. "L'Art Du Nu au XIXe Siècle: Le Photographe et Son Modèle," October 14, 1997–January 18, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Photography from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," February 26–May 23, 1999.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Dawn of Photography: French Daguerreotypes, 1839–1855," September 23, 2003–January 4, 2004.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Naked before the Camera," March 27–September 9, 2012.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, Pierre Apraxine, Malcolm Daniel, Virginia Heckert, and Jeff L. Rosenheim. The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. no. 44.
Aubenas, Sylvie. L'Art du nu au XIXe Siècle: Le Photographe et Son Modèle. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1997. no. 4, p. 29.
Bajac, Quentin, and Dominique de Font-Réaulx. Le daguerréotype français: un objet photographique. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2003. no. 230, p. 305.
Daniel, Malcolm. The Dawn of Photography: French Daguerreotypes, 1839–1855 New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. no. 144.
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![[Seated Female Nude], Unknown (French), Daguerreotype](/Rodan/dist/svg/rolling-0.9s-30px.svg)
