An early trigger warning

[mme_hardy]

 In 1772, Charles Willson Peale's daughter Margaret died of smallpox.  He painted a memorial portrait of her corpse lying on a pillow, prepared for burial.   In 1776 Peale expanded the portrait, adding his wife, Rachel, weeping over the baby.   The revised portrait was called "Mrs. Peale lamenting the death of her child", or alternatively "Rachel Weeping", an allusion to Matthew 2:18: "In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not."   

From the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which now owns the work:

 In 1782 Peale advertised Mrs. Peale Lamenting the Death of Her Child as a feature of his new painting room but sequestered it behind a curtain with the warning: "Before you draw this curtain Consider whether you will afflict a Mother or Father who has lost a Child."

 

 

The painting.

Comments

[lexin]

Strange painting - did you notice how the child's arms are tied?

[aella_irene]

I presume that's for roughly the same reason they used to (and may still) tie jaws shut for viewings

[lexin]

I assumed so, too.

[mme_hardy]

I looked at the scholarly sources I could find, and if you look carefully the infant's cap has a strap sewn to it to keep the mouth closed.

[mme_hardy]

I'm assuming those are to keep the body in place after it's posed postmortem. I thiiiiink those ties are referred to in A Christmas Carol? Maybe?

But, yes, a strange painting, and the early-decay coloring is disturbing.

[lexin]

That colouring is odd, but I've seen old 'memento mori' photos which show it, too. Never seen a memento mori photo which showed those ties, though I'd imagine they are there to keep the arms in place rather than having them flop down to the sides.

[mme_hardy]

There's a famous 17th-century (I think?) portrait of a woman who died in childbirth that has the same coloring.

[sovay]

I thiiiiink those ties are referred to in A Christmas Carol? Maybe?

Marley has a kerchief tied under his chin to keep his mouth closed (when he takes it off, his jaw drops sickeningly and Scrooge not inappropriately freaks out); I don't remember any bindings on his arms or body beyond the famous chain he forged in life.