A horizontal carte de visite post mortem portrait, probably Mexican, of a young girl laid out in white among flowers as an angelito. The verso carries a Spanish inscription written in the child’s own voice, signed with her name and dated June 29, 1876.

She lies on her side on a table draped in a dark cloth printed with large roses, her head on a lace-edged pillow and her eyes closed as if asleep. A crown of white blossoms circles her dark curls. She wears a white dress with ruffled short sleeves, white stockings and white boots tied with ribbon at the ankle. One arm is bent across her body with a flowering spray in her hand, and a loose bouquet rests against her skirt. The photographer has set the figure against a deep black ground, so that the white dress, the flowers and the patterned cloth carry the whole picture.

The inscription, in violet ink, reads: “A mi querido y nunca olbidado Oyo. su trabiesa chatita que desde el cielo y con su Lalito ruega por su felicidad. Adelaida Guzman. Junio 29 de 1876.” In translation: “To my dear and never forgotten Oyo. Your mischievous little darling, who from heaven, and with her Lalito, prays for your happiness. Adelaida Guzmán. June 29, 1876.” It is written as though by the child herself, and “her Lalito” appears to refer to a sibling who died before her.

In Mexican Catholic tradition a child who died young was held to be free of sin and to pass directly to heaven as an angelito, a little angel. The body was dressed in white, crowned and surrounded with flowers, and the occasion was marked with a wake. Painted portraits of these children were made from the colonial period, and in the second half of the nineteenth century photography took their place, a practice known as la muerte niña.

The month-first form of the date and the pet names chatita and Lalito are characteristic of Mexican usage. The mount bears no photographer’s imprint.