The Fisherman

William C. North began his work with the daguerreotype as an itinerant, traveling between Ohio and New England. After settling in Cleveland in 1850, he quickly became the city's leading daguerreian portraitist. This daguerreotype is his finest known work. The fisherman-who remains unidentified-stands as a supreme example of a mid-19th-century-American type: the gentleman-outdoorsman. The generous size of this half-plate image, the pose and lighting, and the plate's flawless technical execution all suggest that this might have been made as a show piece for the display gallery of North's studio.