The Murderess of a Child 1877 

Gabriel von Max created this oil painting, The Murderess of a Child, in 1877. It is rendered with a delicate touch, built from thin layers of translucent paint. Look closely, and you can almost see the weave of the canvas beneath. This technique allows light to filter through the paint, creating a subtle luminosity, most notable on the figures' skin and the swaths of fabric around them. There's an incredible amount of labor involved in layering paint like this, building up the image gradually. But notice how von Max leaves traces of the process visible: brushstrokes in the background, scumbles of color that suggest the coarse ground. Perhaps this is a way of bringing the viewer closer to the grim setting he has portrayed, and a means of evoking empathy for the woman. Von Max invites us to look beyond the act of infanticide, to recognize the social conditions that might lead to it. By studying how a painting is put together, we can begin to understand its full significance.