/internal/media/dispatcher/16053/fullThe Poor Officer's Widow1836[Peter Fendi]Peter FendiOil on woodPeter Fendi’s painting shows an officer’s widow in a sparse attic room. A sack of straw serves as a bed. Her baby lies on her fallen husband’s uniform while a second child sleeps alongside. A portrait miniature and a letter can be detected as keepsakes of a loved one. The mother is busy sewing—perhaps clothes for the children, perhaps to earn money. As a special marriage bond had to be posted when an officer wed, the official view was that widows were provided for and consequently they were not entitled to any additional pension. However, payments from this bond were usually very low and military widows often faced poverty as a result. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/8072/rdf