Daguerre 1787 – 1851 Meade, Charles Richard  (American, 1826-1858)

Unaware that Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype, vehemently disliked having his own portrait made, Charles Richard Meade traveled to Europe in 1848 to make a photograph that would show American audiences what Daguerre looked like. Daguerre politely refused Meade’s request but invited him to stay for a visit at his home in Bry-sur-Marne, France. Through the coaxing of either Madame Daguerre or Daguerre’s niece, Meade secured the sitting. During that visit Meade made seven portraits of Daguerre, which he later exhibited in the galleries that were part of the Meade Studios in New York. This is an heliogravure copy of one of Meade’s daguerreotypes which is now lost. It was erroneously credited to John Jabez Mayall. [1]

Reproduced / Exhibited

C.W. Canfield, American Annual of Photography "Portraits of Daguerre", 1891 (previously wrongly credited to J.J. E. Mayall)

Josef Maria Eder, Geschicte der Photographie, Verlag von Wilhelm Knapp, 1905, pg 204

Josef Maria Eder, Geschicte der Photographie, Verlag von Wilhelm Knapp, 1932, pg 323

Helmuth Th. Bossert and Heinrich Guttmann, Aus der Fruzeit der Photographie, Societats-Verlag, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1930, pl 76 (similar)

Helmut and Alison Gernsheim, The History of Photography 1685-1914, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1969, fig 28 (erroniously credited to Mayall)

References

[1] The History of Photography Archive, Montgomery