Thiesson, E.
French (active ca 1840s)

TITLE ON OBJECT: Native Woman of Sofala (Mozambique), 30 years old with white hair

1845
daguerreotype
15.3 x 13.0 cm., 1/3 plate
Gift of Eastman Kodak Company: ex-collection Gabriel Cromer
GEH NEGS: 22941 3161
69:0265:0140

NON-GEH NUMBER: #10D-371 (Cromer)

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:
Bensusan, A.D., Dr. --Silver Images, History of Photography in Africa.-- Cape Town, South Africa: 1966. unp.//
Buerger, Janet E. --French Daguerreotypes.-- Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. pg. 91.//
Thomas, Ann. --Beauty of Another Order: Photography in Science.-- New Haven, CT: Yale University Press/National Gallery of Canada, 1997. pg. 55.//
Mulligan, Therese & Wooters, David. --Photography from 1839 to today: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.-- Cologne: Taschen, 1999. p. 54.//

EXHIBITION HISTORY:
"French Daguerreotypy", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - Brackett Clark Gallery, February - June, 1977.//
"Survey of the History of 19th Century Photography", US, NY, Rochester, GEH - Second Floor Gallery, March 1985 - April 1987, 1985.//
"From Today Painting is Dead: Emergence of Photography During July Monarchy", US, NY, Rochester, Memorial Art Gallery, December - March 11, 1989.//
""Ghost in the Shell": Photography and the Human Soul, 1850-2000", US, CA, Los Angeles October 24, 1999 - January 16, 2000.//

INSCRIPTION: plate-recto-(engraved) "E. Thiesson 1845" verso-(attached news clipping from --La Mouche--, (November 3, 1844))

FRAME: passe-partout enclosure

NOTES: Catalogued 12/84, JB/KC, updated 9/89, SB. "...for a daguerreotype exists in the George Eastman House, Rochester, which was taken by E. Thiésson in 1845 and depicts a native woman of Sofala in Portuguese East Africa. This may be the famous Native Queen Xai Xai in the provence of Zavala, as it was most certainly an important dignitary who was worthy of a Daguerreotype in those days. Thiésson must have encountered difficulties in both a technical nature (in the sub-tropic climate) and also those arising from the suspicions of the natives, however the small Daguerreotype (approximately 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches) is clearly defined and the native sitter has a placid 'Mona Lisa' smile on her countenance. Thiésson photographed Daguerre himself in 1844 and in the same year a Brazilian Indian tribe called the Botocudes and it is believed that he must have then sailed to East Africa." [Dr. A.D. Bensusan, --Silver Images--, 1966]

SUBJECTS:
portrait, ethnographic
portrait, female