John Haddon and Co.

Mourning Mezzotint

£225
London. c1870.

A mezzotint showing a mourning scene in a churchyard. A mother and child are weeping at the foot of an octagonal tomb on which is a ruined Doric column with ivy twisted around it. In the background is the church and on either side are looming leaning trees which frame the scene and appear to weep with the mourners. On the tomb have been stuck two unbearably moving mourning cards. The first is for Isabella Rowlandson who died aged 26 on 31st July 1875. The other is for Mary Ann, the infant daughter of Thomas and the late Isabella Rawlinson (sic) who died on 1st September 1875 aged 1 year and 5 months. Poor Thomas lost his young wife and infant child within one month of each other. It is unclear whether this print was made for Thomas or whether he simply pasted the cards on an existing print (we suspect the latter). It is in a very good original frame which matches the dark tone of the mezzotint. A wonderful, if impossibly sad, period piece.
Print measures 561x445 inside the frame which is 663x542mm.

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