New Web objects Portrait

Jacob Maentel

Date: 1825–39

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.92

Text Entries: Flowers and pets frequently appeared in folk portraits of children. Often these have symbolic meaning, such as the rose, a convention used to indicate the female gender. Approximately seventy-five percent of all nineteenth-century images of children are posthumous mourning portraits due to the high mortality rate of the period. The seeming weightlessness and stiff quality of this figure shown standing against a rose-tinted sky (an indicator of death) suggest this painting maybe a memorial to a daughter. Other mourning portraits feature leafless trees, drooping flowers, empty baby shoes, chairs, or cradle.