COVERED:
This photograph was taken in the nineteenth century. It is an odd family photo portraying a small child on the lap of a woman whose identity is concealed by a piece of drapery that extends from the background. One of the most striking things about this portrait is what is missing: the father. There being no father to answer for this child, we can as viewers assume that this woman had sexual relations out of wedlock and conceived this child. The drapery covering her face reminds me of a shroud one puts over a dead persons face when they have passed away. People are disturbed by seeing the face of someone dead as they might be disturbed or made uncomfortable by seeing the face of a fallen woman in her shame. The drapery is crude, coming from a hanging curtain in the background and it is black or of a very dark color. The color symbolizes her sullied moral character.
Something that contrasts the woman’s appearance in this photo are the babies’ clothes. They are pristine and fancy and white. This suggests that the mother is doing her best to care for her child and provide her with good things. In addition, the whiteness of the dress represents purity. Though the child was conceived in sin, the white suggests the child remains pure, thus offering some redemption to the bleak photo.
I chose to analyze this picture because I saw a great deal of symbolism in this simple photo. It captured my attention because it was unusual and it caused me to consider how single mothers were portrayed in the Victorian Era and how single mothers are portrayed now. In the 19th century, “bastard” children were considered the visible shame and fall of the single woman. This fall is portrayed in this cryptic photograph. Today, girls and women who have children out of wedlock celebrate their children and disregard the children’s state of conception. Women celebrate this by posting pictures of themselves and their fatherless babies on social network sites such as Facebook.
–Katie Anthony
Carroll, Meredith. “Hidden Mothers: 17 Bizarrely Fascinating 19th Century Baby Portraits.”Baby’s First Year. N.p., 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://blogs.babble.com/babys-first-year-blog/2011/12/15/hidden-mothers-17-bizarrely- fascinating-19th-century-baby-portraits
