Child Standing on a Chair Holding Flowers, with Mother (c. 1855): Art, History and Details

Child Standing on a Chair Holding Flowers, with Mother (c. 1855) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Until the mid-1850s the daguerreotype process was the method preferred by the commercial photographers willing to meet the ever-growing demand for likenesses of family and friends. This daguerreotype captures the patience of a mother and child, who were required to hold their poses for some time during the exposure of the silver-coated copper plate. Only the bouquet of flowers held by the child is slightly blurred. Characteristic of the technique, the details in the image—fabric, facial features, and accessories—are clearly defined.

Object facts

• Title: Child Standing on a Chair Holding Flowers, with Mother
• Date: c. 1855
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: daguerreotype, quarter-plate
• Dimensions: Image: 9.2 x 7.1 cm (3 5/8 x 2 13/16 in.); Framed: 15.4 x 12.7 cm (6 1/16 x 5 in.); Matted: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.)
• Collection: PH - French 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 1999.23

A detail from the museum

Images of children were especially treasured in 1850s France, when one in four children died before reaching their fifth birthday.

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.