I believe it is of a mother mourning for her dead baby, i wasn't sure at first, but she does appear to be in mourning dress and I have looked as closely as I can at the babies face, and its not looking very healthy!

here are some details of the babies face, I have enhanced it to get as much detail as possible. It was quite common for the eyes to be open in a postmortem portrait
1. unenhanced


3. Black and white, higher contrast

That is fascinating, what a find. It reminds me of that film, The Others, where they uncover that photograph album of dead ancestors in that spooky room. Weren't the Victorians a macabre bunch? x
ReplyDeleteyeah I loved 'the others' that film probably first got me into these pictures.
ReplyDeleteI bloody adore the Victorians, can't get enough haha
x
I absolutely adore this. I love the painted on eyes - they never cease to fascinate me.
ReplyDelete