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[ABOVE] Portrait of
an unknown woman in her sickbed, photographed at the subject's home
by Ebenezer Pannell of Brighton (c.1900). This cabinet
photograph, carries the trade plate "E. Pannell, 49 St
George's Road, Brighton". |
[Photograph from
the collection of William A. Fox] |
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[ABOVE] Portrait of
a woman in her sickbed, photographed at the subject's home by a
photographer from the firm of Pannell & Holden (c1902).
This cabinet photograph, carries the
trade plate "Pannell & Holden, 49 St George's Road & 17
Compton Avenue, Brighton". |
[Photograph from
the collection of William A. Fox] |
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[ABOVE] Post-mortem
portrait. A daguerreotype of a dead child laid out in a casket,
surrounded by flowers (c1850) |
[ABOVE] Post-mortem
portrait. A daguerreotype of a dead child (c1850) |
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These two photographs of
women in their sickbeds were submitted by Richard
Fox of Hove. Both photographs are from the collection of
Richard's late father, William A. Fox. Both
photographs are unusual and intriguing in their own way. The photographs
serve as interesting "social documents". They also capture a mood,
reflecting the rather sad existence of two invalids. The room details
shown in the photograph are of particular interest in that they show the
interior of a late Victorian / early Edwardian bedroom. The photographs
are useful historical documents, as there are not that many
photographs which show an occupied bedroom from the early 1900s.
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[ABOVE] A detail
from the cabinet portrait of the woman in her sickbed by
Ebenezer Pannell of Brighton, showing family
photographs displayed on a wooden shelf unit. |
Family photographs were clearly very
important to these two women. They seemed to appreciate the significance
of family portraits and it was probably the same instinct that compelled
their close family member/carer to arrange what was, for the
photographer concerned, an unusual portrait sitting. [Professional
photographers would charge extra to photograph customers inside their
own homes, so there must have been some pressing reason why it was felt
necessary to summon the photographer to the family home. Clearly the two
women were not well enough to make a trip to the photographer's studio].
The resulting photographs (it is likely that a dozen or half dozen
copies were made) were probably sent out to family members who lived a
long distance away (perhaps even abroad, in Canada or Australia), so
that they could have one final, treasured portrait before the subject of
the photograph passed away.
It has been suggested that these two cabinet portraits are "post-mortem"
photographs, but, although both ladies appear to be "out of it" and
perhaps close to death, they were probably still alive when the
photographer took these portraits. Neither lady is responding to the
camera - the lady with the cat seems to be deep in thought, the other
woman seems to be in a trance-like state. The subjects of the
photographs are, either consciously or unconsciously, conveying a
pathetic appearance. The Pannell & Holden photograph shows an
ailing woman who only has a cat and a pair of caged birds to keep her
company during the day. (The presence of the cat at the foot of her bed
makes it unlikely that the subject is deceased - in late Victorian/
early Edwardian times, it would be far too undignified and inappropriate
to include a pet cat in a "post-mortem portrait").
The vast majority of "post-mortem"
portraits were of babies, infants or young children.
[See the illustrated examples on the left]. The photographs of
deceased children were taken to preserve a memory of the departed loved
ones and were perhaps the only portraits the parents had of their
offspring. Photographs of dead adults are rarer and by 1900 (in England
at least), the practice of making "post-mortem" portraits had virtually
come to an end. It is possible that both women were seriously ill and
were thought to be "not long for this world". There is a likelihood that
these two women were invalids for much of their adult life and that when
relatives requested a portrait, the only solution was to commission a
professional photographer to visit the bedridden subjects in their own
home. There is a story that Alice James, the sister of Henry James the
novelist, was an invalid for much of her adult life and was confined to
bed for years before she died of cancer in 1892, aged 43. One writer has
written that "the significant portion of Alice James’ life was spent
in prostration, bedridden and waiting for death". I imagine it was a
similar scenario for these two unknown ladies of Brighton. |