A sixth plate daguerreotype presents a bare-shouldered young man in strict left profile, the head modeled with cameo clarity while soft clouds surround him. The cloud effects were not part of a backdrop but were hand-applied by a studio tinter, using finely ground pigments bound with gum on the plate or cover glass to create an ethereal sky. Colorists in the mid 1850s often heightened cheeks or jewelry; fully painted atmospheric grounds are far less common and point to a client or operator with artistic ambitions.<br><br>Profile portraiture of this kind intersects with several mid-century practices. Art schools and drawing masters commissioned profile studies as reference material, physiognomists favored the neutral information a strict profile supplied, and some studios produced idealizing studies that echo classical medallions. The unclothed shoulders remove social markers and push the likeness toward an academic exercise, letting the daguerreotype’s resolution describe hairline, cartilage and cranial contour with scientific precision while the tinter’s clouds supply a poetic counterpoint.<br><br>Format approximately 2¾ by 3¼ inches behind mat and preserver. Likely American, circa 1852 to 1858. A rare example of a male profile study transformed by tinter-painted cloudwork, merging the descriptive authority of the daguerreian plate with the period taste for allegorical embellishment.