Southworth & Hawes was an early photographic firm in Boston, Massachusetts, 1843-1863. The great American masters of photography, Albert Sands Southworth (1811-1894) and Josiah Johnson Hawes (1808-1901) founded the firm, and fine toned photographic portraits. During their time, their portraits were in most major books.
Southworth & Hawes worked with the daguerreotype process. They used 8.5 in by 6.5 in, or whole plate format to capture their high-quality portraits. They understood the effects of light and depth in photography. The firm did not do much photography on paper. Albert Southworth took the portrait of J.J. Hawes. Albert Southworth took his own self-portrait.
Southworth & Hawes offered their skills to the people of Boston and famous public figures. They offered personal and public portraits. Among the firm were many talented photographers. In 1852, Southworth & Hawes released an advertisement about their success.
In 1846, Dr. William Thomas Green Morton removed from Eben Frost a tooth, the source of his toothache, using nitrous oxide. Later, Dr. Morton administered ether to a patient just before the patient underwent a surgery performed by Dr. John Collins Warren to remove a neck tumor, making the effects of the ether very visible. Upon this discovery, Southworth & Hawes was requested to document this event, but the blood frightened Hawes. A reenactment was documented instead. In 1847, Southworth & Hawes photographed an actual surgery performed by Dr. Warren. Later that year, the firm photographed a mock surgery of Dr. Warren.
Hawes continued to operate at his studio, and protected his large achieve of photographs, but in 1901, Hawes died. A majority of his works were bought by the George Eastman House, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Museum of Fine Arts. In 1999, 240 Southworth & Hawes photographs were sold for $3,300,000.
This work is a
daguerreotype. In this work, the artist used photography to
document the operation. The artist of this work was concerned with medicine in a way that recalls
Eakins. This work belongs to the
nineteenth century. This work represents
a group of doctors in the operating room, advancements in modern medical science, and a surgical facility. The viewpoint of this work is primarily that of an
observer. The style of painting most closely identified with this work is
realism.
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