Death Portraits

In Victorian England it was common for family to have a death portrait taken when a family member died.

Sometimes the person would be alone in their coffin, with decoration around the coffin. Other times the rest of the family would pose around the corpse.

In some cases, it was difficult to distinguish which was the corpse and which were the living. The way to note which is dead, is to look whose face was very clear. Due to long exposure on the camera, the living tended to blur slightly.