“Memorial Portraiture” as it was called back then, was a relatively common practice from about the mid-1800′s to the early 1900′s. With the high rate of child mortality, it was often the only way to preserve the image of a child who passed away. Though wealthier families usually commissioned an artist to paint an image of a deceased loved one, photography was less expensive, so it was available to more families.
Early on in Memorial Portraiture the deceased were often posed to be “lifelike” or appear to be sleeping. Often the photographer would rouge the cheeks or paint in pupils to make the eyes look open. In later years, it was more common to see the deceased loved one photographed laid out in a casket.
Nowadays, most of the photographs involved in funerals are photos of the deceased alive – so that the memories of the individual are preserved in celebrating their life.