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Lola Montaz

Datecirca 1850

MediumDaguerreotype

DimensionsPhoto Size: 5 x 3 inches (12.7 x 7.62 cm)

Credit LineGift of I. N. Phelps Stokes, Edward S. Hawes, Alice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes, 1937

Object numberDemo_37.14.41

DescriptionThe Boston partnership of Southworth and Hawes produced the finest portrait daguerreotypes in America for a clientele that included leading political, intellectual, and artistic figures. The first photographic process, invented by Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), spread rapidly around the world after its presentation to the public in Paris in 1839. Exposed in a camera obscura and developed in mercury vapors, each highly polished silvered copper plate is a unique photograph that, viewed in proper light, exhibits extraordinary detail and three-dimensionality. Lola Montez (1818-1861), born in Ireland as Marie Dolores Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, was a strikingly beautiful adventuress and "Spanish" dancer who achieved international notoriety as the mistress of King Louis I of Bavaria.

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