In September 1839, theAmerican painter, scien-

tist, and republican intelli-gence officer Samuel F.B.Morse returned home toNew York from Paris, bring-ing with him an inventionwhich would revolutionizethe creation of images, andchange forever the way theworld viewed itself and itsevolving history. That inven-tion was the Daguerreotypeprocess—the first practicalmethod of producing whatwe now call photographs—which had just been unveiledby the French government.This wondrous new way ofdrawing an image from life,rendering it in almostunimaginable detail and sub-tlety of shading on a silveredplate by the action of lightalone, came at an uncertaintime for America, however,as the nation was engaged ina profound, and ultimatelybloody, debate over its mis-sion and its future. The entrance of pho-tography, which would come to play anunimagined role in that future, was notfar off, for within a few years, the youngman who was to become the mostprominent Nineteenth-century Ameri-can portraitist and Civil War photogra-pher, Mathew B. Brady, would establishhis first New York studio.

An opportunity to bring that decisiveperiod of American history to life awaitsthe visitor to “Mathew Brady’s Portraits:Images As History, Photography as Art,”now at the National Portrait Gallery,Smithsonian Institution, in Washington,D.C. Curator Mary Panzer has broughttogether over a hundred photographicimages, including some originals not pub-licly seen in the century since the artist’sdeath. More than a display of Brady’s

work, this exhibit presents today’s visitorwith a challenging view into the tumul-tuous decades of mid- to late-Nineteenthcentury America, for Brady drew to hisportrait studio many of the most illustri-ous personages and history shapers of hisday—Presidents, statesmen, and generals;artists, writers, and inventors. Comple-menting Brady’s work in the exhibit,engravings, paintings, and related arti-facts of the time highlight his extensiveworking relationships with artists in othermedia, as well as with publishers.

Bringing the Present to the Future

A student and friend of painter WilliamPage, Brady was introduced to Page’sfriend Morse, founder and president ofthe National Academy of Design, and tothe leading artistic and scientific circles

around him, in late 1839 or early 1840,at the age of seventeen, and soon beganstudying photography with him, earn-ing his living as a clerk and as a jewel-er’s helper. America was experiencingrapid growth (New York City’s popula-

tion alone, tripled from 1820to 1840), watching the trans-formation of its industry bythe power of steel and steam,and revelling in the fortunesthus created. At the sametime, however, it was losingits direct moorings to theRevolution, and a driftingsense of national purposeaccompanied the unresolved“compromises” of the era.Although Brady’s portraitswould come to include suchfigures as Mrs. AlexanderHamilton, Daniel Webster,Gen. Winfield Scott, hero ofthe War of 1812, and Whigleader Henry Clay, few ofthese direct links to theFounding Fathers survivedthrough the 1850’s.

With the profound issuesof republicanism, economicdevelopment and internalimprovements, and federal-ism being newly weighedand fought out, and with thestorm over slavery gatheringon the horizon, the question

of what America would become, whatunique role it had to play, and whatoriginal contributions it would make inthe realm of art and culture, sparkeddiscussion in every sphere. Among thepatriotic leadership—including leadingartists of Brady’s and Morse’s circles—who recognized the need to define andstrengthen a durable national identity, itwas an issue of central importance.

In this context, Brady’s work standsclearly above the vast majority of thework of his peers, for an important rea-son. Beyond the technical excellencewhich separated the few who went tothe effort and expense to master thisnew and unpredictable medium, andeven beyond the artistic talents whichlikewise distinguished the best of itspractitioners from the rest, Brady

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EXHIBITS

Mathew Brady, A Patriot of Portraiture

“Jack Hays,” imperial salted-paper print, c.1857.

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Click here for Full Issue of Fidelio Volume 6, Number 4, Winter 1997

© 1997 Schiller Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission strictly prohibited.

brought a higher purpose to his endeav-ors. He saw, in the photographicprocess, the potential to create a perma-nent public record of those who tookresponsibility to shape the course of his-tory in his time. Throughout his life,from portrait studio to Civil War battle-field, Brady emphasized that his lifecohered with this social purpose, and hisfriendship with such patriotic figures asMorse, and the writer and republicanintelligence operative James FennimoreCooper, attest to it. Among other things,America’s National Portrait Gallery isthe fruit of Brady’s resolve.

A New Medium for Science and Art

When he opened his first photographicstudio in 1844, on New York City’sBroadway, Mathew Brady was onlytwenty-one. He devoted countless hoursof work to perfecting the Daguerreotypeprocess; according to one account fromthe early 1850’s, Brady performed manythousands of experiments to bring thetechniques of Daguerreotype imageryunder complete control. (Remember,none of the conveniences of control wenow take for granted—film speeds,light meters, standardized chemistry forprocessing, etc.—existed then; each platewas prepared from scratch, by hand.)He sought out the best chemists, as well

as camera operators, over-seeing every process, andmaking himself, according tohis contemporary EdwardsLester, “master of everydepartment of the art, spar-ing no pains or expense bywhich new effects could beintroduced to increase thefacilities or embellishments ofthe art.”

In addition to an array ofvarious cameras, he had aningenious complex of special-ly designed skylights installedin his camera room, arrangedto enable him to direct ordiminish light by aid of flatand concave reflectors andlight-blocking screens, inorder to coax from the lens’insensitive image, the painter-ly quality he sought. Al-though Brady suffered from

poor and worsening eyesight, and (as inother large studios) employed a numberof camera “operators,” it was he whobrought in and arranged the mostimportant subjects.

Despite the technological constraints,Brady found ways to bring the best con-ventions of Classical portraiture to his work. Heplaced sittersagainst a plain,low-key back-ground, empha-sizing the char-acter of the sub-ject through acombination ofcarefully ar-ranged pose ande x p r e s s i o n —almost alwaysemploying some“turning” of thebody, directingthe sitter’s gazeaway from thelens, and tailor-ing of the lighton subject andb a c k g r o u n d .Although hissubjects had topose motionless,

pressed against a steadying headclamp, for up to a minute, his portraitsrose above the frozen, self-consciousappearance so typical of even the betterwork of the time (compare, for exam-ple, the portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Beachby Jeremiah Gurney, one of Brady’smore celebrated contemporaries). Wesee, for instance, Mexican-AmericanWar hero Jack Hays, revered for brav-ery as well as military skill and disci-pline, informally posed in formalattire, his demeanor at once calm andalert, simultaneously at rest and inmotion. William L. Marcy, a three-term Democratic governor of NewYork and one of the notorious “HolyAlliance” which put its stamp on poli-tics for decades, looks across at us withthe fierce determination that musthave given more than one opponentpause. Clara Barton, photographed byBrady in the 1860’s, when she was dis-tributing aid and supplies to soldiers,would later establish the Red Cross inthe United States. Brady shows us awoman of compassion and innerstrength, a person troubled by the tollof the conflict which led her to travelonto the battlefield.

From the early 1840’s, Brady’s reputa-tion for excellence grew rapidly, and he

won prizes forhis work atmajor interna-tional exposi-tions here and inEurope. He wasaccepted andrespected as apeer in the coun-try’s leadingartistic circles. In1849, he trav-elled to Wash-ington for theinauguration ofZachary Taylor,and returnedwith portraitsnot only of Tay-lor and MillardFillmore, but(again accordingto Lester), of“nearly everymember of the

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“Clara Barton,” albumen silver print, c.1866.

“William L. Marcy,” imperial salted-paperprint, c.1856.

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