Victorian French Mourning Hair Art Dated 1868

“Hair is at once the most delicate and lasting of our materials and survives us like love. It is so light, so gentle, so escaping from the idea of death, that, with a lock of hair belonging to a child or friend, we may almost look to to Heaven and compare notes with angelic nature, may almost say: ‘I have a piece of thee here, not unworthy of thy being now.’" – Godley’s Lady’s Book, 1860

This exquisite piece of French hair art is a work of art on many levels. It beautifully showcases the incredible talent, artistry and skill of the person who created it and it also succinctly captures a clear moment of mourning and grief.

French hair art was wildly popularity in the mid-19th century. Made of finely chopped hair perfectly layered and glued onto a paper or sometimes ivory background, many of these intricate mourning pieces featured images of weeping willows, tombs and forget-me-nots.

Unlike table-worked hair art where the hair of the deceased is intricately woven and transformed into jewelry or wreaths, these French palette-worked pieces were often mass produced by an artist and then tailored to the individual as needed alleviating the need to wait for donated hair before construction.

This gorgeous hair art is a lovely example of some of the mass produced pieces of the time. It showcases a tranquil cemetery scene with a gothic style tomb resting below a weeping willow -- all made of human hair. The tomb is inscribed with the term Souvenir (or Remembrance) along with a name, which is almost illegible, and the year 1868.

This work of art is contained behind bubble glass in a black painted wood frame.