| |
Mathew B. Brady
J.C. Calhoun
1850
Lithograph, from an engraving, after a daguerreotype
21 3/4 x 15 1/2 in.
Archive Farms
The Patrick Montgomery Collection, Object No. 2016.167
LL/112674
Publication: Anthony Hamber, The Daguerreotype and the 1851 Great Exhibition, The Daguerreian Annual, 2016, pg 83, fig 2
Mary Warner Marien, Photograhy, A Cultural History, Hary N. Abrams, New York, 2002, fig 3-13, pg 94
Anthony Hamber, Photography and the 1851 Great Exhibition, V & A Publishing, London, 2018, pg 190
Tim Barringer and Wayne Modest, Victorian Jamaica, Duke University Press, 2018, pg 366
James D. Horan, Mathew Brady, Historian With a Camera, Bonanza Books, New York, 1955, fig 34
Published as the second issue of The Gallery of Illustrious Americans, Containing the Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Twenty-four of the Most Eminent Citizens of the American Republic, lithographed by Francis d' Avignon (French, 1813–1861, active America 1840–60) from a daguerreotype by Brady.
Brady's ambitious plan was to issue these portraits semi-monthly for two years for $1 each, or $20 for the set of 24. For those who paid in advance, a portfolio was included in which to house the portraits. It is estimated that only about 50 portfolio sets were sold. Having paid Avignon $100 each to engrave the portraits, Brady needed to recover some of his costs. The first 12 completed portraits were bound into volumes from the remaining prints, although it is unknown how many of these bound volumes were produced.
This is the most famous photograph of John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), the great American statesman who served as vice president, secretary of state and of war, congressman, and senator from South Carolina. Brady himself surely operated the camera when the legendary political leader came to his studio. He recalled that, “Calhoun’s eye was startling, and almost hypnotized me.” The Photographic Art-Journal praised the image’s “depth and earnestness, and intensity, and spiritualism, which so eminently distinguish [Calhoun] from almost all other men.”
The original 1849 Brady whole plate daguerreotype that this image was based on was sold at a Sotheby's auction in 2011 for $338,500.
| |
LuminousLint 
@LuminousLint