This timeless image of tenderness and trust between a mother and child—Charles Willson Peale’s eldest daughter, Angelica, and her ailing thirteen-year-old daughter, Charlotte—displays a vibrant naturalism. Peale achieved the painting’s rich color and sensitive modeling through artistic techniques he learned from his son Rembrandt. The muted background provides a foil to the fabrics of the sitters’ fashionable clothing.

Although, as the title suggests, Peale expected his granddaughter to recover, she died soon after he completed the painting.