Historical Portrait
Unidentified man, portrait photograph
Archive record
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in.
About this photograph
This glass plate negative records a formal portrait taken by Arnold Genthe in 1906. The sitter remains unidentified in the archive.
Genthe worked in the soft-focus pictorialist style and maintained a studio in San Francisco from 1896 to 1911. After his death in 1942, the Library of Congress acquired roughly 20,000 items from his unclaimed studio, including several thousand studio portraits made over his four-decade career.
The 5 x 7 inch format was standard for professional portrait work of the period. Glass plate negatives allowed photographers to produce sharp contact prints and remained the preferred medium for studio portraiture well into the twentieth century, even as other formats became available.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
Rights & Attribution
Explore
More from the 1900s
