small Post Mortem Carte de visite were popular fromt he 1850's they were around 5x9cm on a cardboard mount 6x10cm normally sold by the dozen they were intended for display in family albums, early cartes tend to have square corners and also the thickness helsp to set a date.
these were takent o commemorate the finl rite of passage, death itself, in Britian before 1939 the dead were kept in the family home where they were washed dressed and arranged ona bed freinds and relativescame to bid farewell. a post mortem portrait could bring comfort and consolation to those prevented for whateer reason from fulfilling these last obligations, disturbibng memories of a painful detah could be overlaid by an image of everlasting peace.
the majority of surviving PM photos featurebabies and young children , which reflects the high infant detah rate and parental afections.
to make loss more bearable the pm was intended to show the dead as if they were sleeping and would usually close their eyes and photographes were expected to use soft lighting to aim for an expression that was free from suffering and was peaceful
for exapmle a fringed shawl deliate and lustous materila would be draped and swirling olds intorduce movemnt where movement has ceased forever.
pm photos would have cots more as the photograpehr would have to work away fromt he studio.
on anther note, the woman looks very sad, the reason fro her hollow eyes a child has just died, and he / she was not a baby but about 9 months old but her fingers do look black onthe ends.
