Artist with His Palette and Brushes (c. 1855): Art, History and Details

Artist with His Palette and Brushes (c. 1855) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This unidentified photographer created a disarmingly personal portrait of a painter holding the tools of his craft. Skillfully lit, the composition achieves a surprising amount of spontaneity and animation. The generous natural illumination of the studio clearly defines the volume of the figure. Perhaps to acknowledge the painter's flamboyant personality, the photographer enriched the portrait by adding hand-applied color to the sitter's large bow tie. The elaborately designed fez, placed at a jaunty angle atop the painter's head, suggests his interest in Orientalism, a fashion that fascinated many mid 19th-century artists.

Object facts

• Title: Artist with His Palette and Brushes
• Date: c. 1855
• Culture: America
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: daguerreotype, sixth-plate
• Dimensions: Image: 8.3 x 7 cm (3 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.); Case: 9.5 x 8.3 x 2.5 cm (3 3/4 x 3 1/4 x 1 in.); Matted: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)
• Collection: PH - American 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2002.36

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.