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.

[laurashapiro]

Neat!

[sovay]

He painted a memorial portrait of her corpse lying on a pillow, prepared for burial.

What interests me most about the portrait is that it clearly is of a corpse. There is no effort to depict Margaret as "just sleeping," as in a contemporary open-casket funeral. Her arms are bound in place; her jaw is tied up to prevent her mouth from dropping open. Her skin color is sallow and decomposing. She doesn't look like she might open her eyes at any second. She looks like she'll be buried soon. (As a result, I find it less disturbing than the artificial sleep of contemporary open-casket funerals, but I get how it would be upsetting to other people, especially people at the time who had seen their own children in similar states.)

[mme_hardy]

I agree. You don't often see (outside of Christ-imagery) a dead body that is plainly dead.

I violently don't want to be embalmed and rouged, but whatever makes my survivors happy. I certainly don't wear makeup in life, so I suspect any mortician would be giving me a much more accented face, with lipstick and whatnot, than my loved ones will have ever seen me wear.

[recessional]

That's honestly very thoughtful of him.

Also that painting is oddly affecting - like moreso than I'd expect it to be. Hmm.

[ironed_orchid]

And they all act like content warnings are a new thing...

[nineweaving]

No sign of smallpox, though.

Nine

[mme_hardy]

Excellent point.

[athenais]

Now I am super creeped out by this painting which I have seen before more than once.