Nehmt Euren Sohn, Sir!

Brown began this around 1851 and never finished it, and the reason is in the picture itself. The woman holding the baby out toward us is his wife Emma, and the child is their son. Look at the round mirror behind her head and you will see a man's arms opening to take the infant. That is the father, meaning us, the viewer standing in front of the canvas, an idea Brown lifted from Van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait, which the National Gallery had just bought. The pose copies a Madonna and child, but Emma's face is tense rather than serene. Their son Arthur died at ten months old, and it is thought Brown could not bring himself to finish. The lower half is still only sketched, the title scrawled across the bare dress.