Nineteenth-century paintings on velvet usually took the form of theorems, still lifes executed with the aid of hollow-cut stencils. This unusual depiction, however, is drawn freehand and seems more closely related to classical Greek funerary imagery that was introduced into the decorative arts after the mid-eighteenth century, following the rediscovery of the ancient sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. A grave relief dating to about 450 b.c. in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, bears an image of a young girl holding two doves close to her chest. In art, and especially in portraits of children, birds often made an appearance, sometimes tethered to a child’s arm or hand. Symbolizing the soul, a bird might also indicate the child was deceased if the tether was cut.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Girl with Doves," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.