A tinted stereo daguerreotype of a smiling young woman comfortable in her nudity posed before a studio mirror that shows the delicate curves of her back in reflection. An open smile is uncommon in daguerreian portraiture, and the mirror presents the sitter from both sides at once, a composition suited to the depth of the stereoscope.

She leans on a chair beside a table that holds a basket of tinted flowers. Behind her the mirror returns a view of her back, adding a second plane to the scene and doubling the figure. Her smile is plainly visible, and color has been applied by hand to both images.

Stereo daguerreotypes date to the 1850s, when paired images were made for viewing in the stereoscope. Studio arrangements of mirrors, furniture, and still-life props were chosen to show the three-dimensional effect to advantage, and this example brings those elements together around an animated sitter.