Mourning portrait of K. Horvath-Stansith, née Kiss, artist unknown, 1680sA Child of the Honigh Family on its Deathbed, by an unknown painter, 1675-1700
A mourning portrait or deathbed portrait is a portrait of a person who has recently died, usually shown on their deathbed, or lying in repose, displayed for mourners. These were not rare in European homes of well-to-do people as a way of remembering and honoring the dead. People were generally laid out in their best clothes with some sort of special headdress, and some sort of token in their hands. Today these portraits give insights into old funeral customs, but also various types of information regarding folk costumes. In the 19th century post-mortem photography continued the tradition.
Recent research on deathbed portraits, which can be found also in prints and photographs up to today, shows that they became popular after the Protestant Reformation but were never treasured as family heirlooms in the same way as other artworks and thus relatively few early examples such as this one have survived. As a continuous art form, laying out traditions did not go away and photography has continued to preserve the deathbed portrait, though such photos were meant for mourners and did not find their way into photo albums.
In the Netherlands, complicated wreaths of greens were placed around the heads of unmarried people, who were mostly children.[1] In Dutch such a wreath is called a "hoedje" (little hat) and this is part of the general body decoration called "pelen".[2] The word "pelen" is related to the English word "pall", as in "pallbearer", which in funeral contexts refers to the cloth (sometimes a flag) over the body or casket.
Deathbed portrait of Toropets, by anonymous 19th-century Russian painter
Deathbed portrait of Christian IV, King of Denmark, by Berent Hilwaetz, 1650
Deathbed portrait of William the Silent, by Christiaen Jansz van Bieselingen, 1584
Portrait of a dead child wearing a mourning wreath around its head, by Jan Jansz. de Stomme, 1654
The Marquis of Paraná, Prime Minister of Brazil on his deathbed, 1856
Emperor Alexander II on His Deathbed, by Konstantin Makovsky, 1881
An example of this type of portrait is the Mourning portrait of K. Horvath-Stansith, née Kiss, a 1680s painting by an anonymous Baroque artist in the Slovak National Gallery.[3]
This painting shows a postmortem portrait of a woman from the Horvath-Stansith family, K. Horvath-Stansith. She appears to be lying on a bed, but her body has been specially prepared and she is lying not on a bed, but a prepared catafalque laid with a Kilim carpet and special red damask cushion. Her fingers have already discoloured and thread is wrapped around her thumbs. Theoretically, the location is her local church and this is how she looked during the funeral service. She is wearing the costume of the former Hungarian region of Levoča and the closefitting cap she has on is probably not the headgear she wore when she was alive.
Unknown Woman of Levoča, 1641, by unknown painter, with similar bodice to K. Horvath-Stansith
Red damask fragment from the same time period
^Afleggen en versieren van het lijk Laying out and "palling" of the body on Dutch website
^Naar het lijk: het Nederlandse doodsportret 1500-heden, catalog of Teylers Museum exhibition by Bert Sliggers, Walburg Pers, Zutphen, 1998 ISBN 9789057300424
^collection record on museum website
and 23 Related for: Mourning portraits information
A mourningportrait or deathbed portrait is a portrait of a person who has recently died, usually shown on their deathbed, or lying in repose, displayed...
deceased, displayed at state funerals; the coffin portrait was an alternative. Mourningportraits were also painted, showing the subject lying in repose...
historian Tripp Evans interpreted it in 2010 as an "old-fashioned mourningportrait ... Tellingly, the curtains hanging in the windows of the house, both...
The Black Duchess (also MourningPortrait of the Duchess of Alba or simply Portrait of the Duchess of Alba) is a 1797 oil-on-canvas painting by Spanish...
present day, although there are many portraits and a vast number of drawings attributed to them. The seven portraits in the Manuscript of the Gallic War...
parking lot. List of types of funerary monument List of mausolea Mourningportraits See for example the chapter "Tombs for the Living and the Dead", Insoll...
(issue dedicated to coffin portraits) Wikimedia Commons has media related to Coffin portraits. A poster, based on a coffin portrait, on a modern Polish stamp...
cut, faceted jet." In these portraits Elizabeth may be wearing mourning for her sister Mary; see commentary on a portrait (Image) of Mary, Queen of Scots...
portrait aspect is still important. Van der Helst was principally a painter of portraits. The majority of his work is made up of individual portraits...
death, Khamenei declared five days of national mourning. Hundreds gathered in Vali-e-Asr square in mourning for the president. At a meeting of the Assembly...
Strážky mansion in Spišská Belá, in Ružomberok and in Pezinok. The Mourningportrait of K. Horvath-Stansith is considered one of the most significant acquisitions...
of silent contemplation, prayer, reflection, or meditation. Mourningportraits is a portrait of a person who has recently died, usually shown on their deathbed...
Massachusetts, Elmer is best known for his painting Mourning Picture. This 1890 family portrait depicts the artist, his wife, and their daughter Effie...
noted that both the Toledo portrait and the National Portrait Gallery version appear in the context of a series of portraits of members of the family of...
families. Often, Mount was commissioned to paint posthumous mourningportraits, or portraits done after death. The subjects of these paintings are often...
soil flooded by the Nile. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil,...
Portrait of Christina of Denmark (or Portrait in Mourning) is an oil on oak panel painting by Hans Holbein the Younger completed in 1538. It was commissioned...
Andromache Mourning Hector is a 1783 oil-on-canvas painting by the French Neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David. The painting depicts an image from Homer's...
Morisot dressed in black mourning dress, with a barely visible bouquet of violets. The painting, sometimes known as Portrait of Berthe Morisot, Berthe...
is an armband that is coloured black to signify that the wearer is in mourning or wishes to identify with the commemoration of a family member or friend...
his beard grow as a sign of mourning for the loss in war of the city of Bologna. Raphael had also included fresco portraits of the bearded Julius, representing...
Ecclesiastes, the Preacher insists that "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind...
Global Information
Deathbed portrait of Toropets, by anonymous 19th-century Russian painter
Deathbed portrait of Christian IV, King of Denmark, by Berent Hilwaetz, 1650
Deathbed portrait of William the Silent, by Christiaen Jansz van Bieselingen, 1584
Portrait of a dead child wearing a mourning wreath around its head, by Jan Jansz. de Stomme, 1654
The Marquis of Paraná, Prime Minister of Brazil on his deathbed, 1856
Emperor Alexander II on His Deathbed, by Konstantin Makovsky, 1881
Unknown Woman of Levoča, 1641, by unknown painter, with similar bodice to K. Horvath-Stansith
Red damask fragment from the same time period
