500312 Dead Child On a Sofa, c.1855 (daguerreotype, applied colour, quarter-plate) by American Photographer, (19th century); 6.30x8.70 (image) 11.8x9.4 (case) 8.2x10.7 (mounted) 50.8x60.98 (matted) cm; Cleveland Museum of Art, OH, USA; (add.info.: This carefully staged daguerreotype of a dead child is an outstanding example of a very common subject: the postmortem portrait. Using the stylistic conventions of the day, the unidentified artist successfully created a visually pleasing scene, despite the nature of the image. Dressed in white with a bouquet of flowers on the chest, the child, seen in profile, reclines on an elaborately patterned sofa. Delicate flesh tones were added to the cheek and arm, suggestive of a healthy child sleeping. The high rate of infant mortality throughout the 19th century made this variety of portraiture common, satisfying the emotional need of the parents to have a lasting memory of a loved one.); John L. Severance Fund; American, out of copyright.