Self portrait

Samuel Sweet
Australia
1 May 1825 – 1886

Self portrait
1884-85
albumen-silver photograph (cabinet card)
Place made
Adelaide
Medium
albumen-silver photograph (cabinet card)
Dimensions
10.4 x 15.1 cm (image)
10.7 x 16.0 cm (card)
Credit line
Gift of Helen Brown 1998
Accession number
991Ph2
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Media category
Photograph
Collection area
Australian Photographs

  • WALL LABEL: Public Image, Private Lives: Family, Friends and Self in Photography, 2016

     

    Samuel Sweet, a well-known ’views’ photographer, was also successful in producing innovative portraits in the studio and outdoor settings. After arriving in Adelaide in 1866 he alternated between careers – as a naval captain and photographer – but by 1875 he had turned to photography full-time.

     

    As a lover of innovative compositions and novel subjects, Captain Sweet would have found the whimsy of this painted studio set appealing. He shows himself seated in a fake wooden boat, alluding to his career as both a ship’s captain and a photographer.

     

    Julie Robinson, Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings & Photographs

     

  • Mirror with a Memory

    National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, 3 March 2000 – 3 June 2000

  • Public Image, Private Lives: Family, Friends and Self in Photography

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 5 February 2016 – 18 September 2016

  • A Century in Focus: South Australian photography 1840s-1940s

    Art Gallery of South Australia, 9 November 2007 – 28 January 2008
  • [Book] Pike, P, Moore, J. Captain Sweet's Adelaide.
  • [Catalogue] Zagala, Maria, Jane Messenger, Ken Orchard, Philip Jones, Carolyn Lovitt, and Elspeth Pitt. 2007. A Century in Focus - South Australian Photography 1840s - 1940s. Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia.