A French half plate daguerreotype, circa 1850, of a young woman laid out in death, propped on pillows beneath a white coverlet as though asleep. The plate is presented in the French manner, under a reverse-painted gilt glass mat with an oval opening, within a deep ogee frame veneered in figured mahogany.

She lies in profile to the right, eyes closed and lips parted, her dark hair dressed in smooth bands and drawn back beneath a white cap trimmed in lace. Her head rests on a large plump pillow, and the coverlet is drawn up to her shoulders. In her hands she holds a long crucifix bearing the figure of Christ, laid along the length of her body. A heavy curtain hangs behind the bed in deep folds, and a pale wall rises at the left. Delicate tinting warms her cheeks and the folds of the bedclothes.

Post mortem portraits were among the most treasured images of the daguerreian era, often the only likeness a family would keep. The intimacy of this bedside composition, with the sitter seen close at pillow height and the room left plain, sets it apart from the more formal studio memorials of the period.