Antique miniature portraits of the Tormey-Holder Collection

 

 


French: Artist Unknown

 

 

Deathbed Portrait of a Mid-Nineteenth Century Boy (Believed to be French) -- Artist Unknown

Deathbed Portrait of a Young,
Mid-Nineteenth Century Boy

Believed to be French
circa 1840
Artist unknown
2 1/2 inches diameter (sight)

watercolor on ivory; housed under glass in a gilt metal surround

 

The subject matter of this portrait (a young boy on his deathbed) might seem macabre and distasteful to twenty-first century sentiments; but the boy's parents, who likely had no other image to remember their son by, must have been desperate to preserve his likeness. Such deathbed portraits (painted both pre and post mortem) were considered tender mementos in the nineteenth century; and, in an age before photography, they were often the only surviving image one had of a loved one. In this particular case, it is not known if the boy's portrait was painted during the last days of his fleeting life, or if he was painted post mortem and made to look as life-like as possible.

 

 

A view of the portrait outside its gilt metal surround, allowing its
colors and brush strokes to be seen more clearly without the distortion or
reflection that is often caused by the glass lens of a miniature's case.
(Click + symbol above for an enlarged view)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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