Existing comment:
Young Woman
In the early 1840s, Gurney sometimes identified his pictures by including an urn inscribed with his name. Close examination of this portrait reveals the unusually formatted caption "GURNEY .N.Y" at the base of the urn to the left of the sitter. Daguerreotypes present laterally reversed images, so the urn's lettering had to be written in reverse to appear legible in the picture. This apparently led to some confusion, for when Gurney's urn was inscribed, the periods that should follow the letters "N" and "Y" precede them instead. The painted backdrop representing a Hudson River scene appears in several Gurney daguerreotypes from this period.
Sixth-plate daguerreotype, c. 1842–43
Terry J. Alphonse, Alphonse Gallery |