kmdennis
Portrait in Mourning, New York, Early 1860s
This carte de visite portrait was produced by the New York photographer studio Duchochois & Klauser, located at 630 Broadway during the early 1860s. The partnership is documented as active from roughly 1862 to 1865, a period that coincided with the height of the carte de visite craze in America.
The sitter is posed against a painted garden backdrop, framed by a stone balustrade and trees. Her attire is notable not only for its fashionable silhouette but also for its symbolism. She wears a wide crinoline skirt with bold horizontal bands, elaborate ruffled trimming, and a mantle or shawl. Her dark silk fabric, softened with sheen and ornament, strongly suggests second stage mourning, when women could transition from the flat, lusterless crepe of deep mourning into more varied fabrics and restrained decoration. A bonnet completes the ensemble, still in dark tones but more elaborate than those reserved for first mourning.
In mid-19th century America, mourning customs were carefully codified, and clothing communicated the mourner’s stage of bereavement to society. Photography served as both remembrance and testimony, capturing these visual codes for family albums and exchange.
Produced at the height of the Civil War, this portrait speaks to the era’s intersections of fashion, grief, and the emerging democratization of portraiture. More than a likeness, it embodies the cultural language of mourning in the Victorian age.
Portrait in Mourning, New York, Early 1860s
This carte de visite portrait was produced by the New York photographer studio Duchochois & Klauser, located at 630 Broadway during the early 1860s. The partnership is documented as active from roughly 1862 to 1865, a period that coincided with the height of the carte de visite craze in America.
The sitter is posed against a painted garden backdrop, framed by a stone balustrade and trees. Her attire is notable not only for its fashionable silhouette but also for its symbolism. She wears a wide crinoline skirt with bold horizontal bands, elaborate ruffled trimming, and a mantle or shawl. Her dark silk fabric, softened with sheen and ornament, strongly suggests second stage mourning, when women could transition from the flat, lusterless crepe of deep mourning into more varied fabrics and restrained decoration. A bonnet completes the ensemble, still in dark tones but more elaborate than those reserved for first mourning.
In mid-19th century America, mourning customs were carefully codified, and clothing communicated the mourner’s stage of bereavement to society. Photography served as both remembrance and testimony, capturing these visual codes for family albums and exchange.
Produced at the height of the Civil War, this portrait speaks to the era’s intersections of fashion, grief, and the emerging democratization of portraiture. More than a likeness, it embodies the cultural language of mourning in the Victorian age.