I presume it is a mother hidden somewhere there under this wide and ambling drape of cloth--an unusual expanse as far as I've seen. What I really like here is the play between that horizontal stretch of draping, almost like a landscape of dark cloth, and long, vertical drape of this child's white (christening?) gown, falling all the way to the ground. And then of course that baby's wide eyed face at the center of it all, looking simultaneously relaxed and a bit possessed, leaning back but maybe also wanting to sit up, sort of cradled but ultimately on their own, and so making this feel like an apt portrait of life itself.
2 1/2" x 3 1/2, tintype, in good condition.
