Black Girl with Candlestick
SOLD February 2003 |
American sixth plate daguerreotype ca. 1850 showing a young black girl dressed in white gown, wearing a wreath of white flowers in her hair and holding what appears to be a candlestick. Housed in half case with missing rail.
An intriguing image which appears to fall outside the orbit of black images taken for the benefit of white slave-owners. The little girl is quite agitated and has moved her hands and head resulting in a partially doubled pair of eyes. The white clothing, flowers, and candlestick? seem intended to signify some solemn, memorable occasion, perhaps such as a first communion.
Images and text copyright © 2000-2023 by Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs