The Child's Grave
Framed approx.: 47-5/8 x 57-3/4 x 3-7/8 in. (121 x 146.7 x 9.8 cm)
Child mortality was disturbingly commonplace in Victorian England: the 100,000 infants a year who died before their first birthday accounted for one quarter of all deaths. In
Ere sin could blight, or sorrow fade,
Death came with friendly care,
The opening bud to heaven convey’d,
And bade it blossom there.
The verse seems to encourage the beholder not only to mourn the child Death has snatched away, but also to accept the turn of fate that has spared the child the disappointments of earthly life. Though much maligned in the century since its waning, Victorian sentimentalism can be viewed in the context of art’s power to socialize—that is, to establish standards of decorum and appropriate conduct for even the youngest members of society.
