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The portrait of the little Schmidt girl, the one of Julia Evans Graham and of Hettie Schmidt all have symbols of life "cut short." With sudden death from epidemics or in birth a common occurrence for nineteenth century infants and small children, the rosebud was painted to refer to youth and/or "life cut in the bud." Clouds painted below the bust in a young person's portrait were symbolic of death. Death was immediate and familiar to people living in the nineteenth century; thus, commemoration of the dead was common.*
Compare and contrast the above-mentioned portraits to the other portraits included in this packet. What is a symbol? What symbols do you find in the paintings? What do you think they mean? What clues do you find to indicate that someone is deceased? Why do you think people had their portraits painted? How do we memorialize people today? (Donations, plaques, tombstones, monuments) If you were a nineteenth century portrait artist, how would you find clients? If an artists adds things to a portrait, is it considered a real portrait? How would you want to be painted? How would Nicola Marschall have traveled from New Orleans to Mobile to Marion? Where are these cities located?