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Israëls completed multiple versions of the painting. A well-known example in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is an oil-on-canvas painting with dimensions of 274.5 cm (108.1 in) x 207.5 cm (81.7 in). The three people in the image are all barefoot. The widower is portrayed as a fisherman and he is holding a boy's hand and carrying a baby as he passes the headstone of his deceased wife. The painting was an attempt by Israëls to move from his traditional subject matter of historical paintings toward portrayals of contemporary peasant life.Austrian art historian Fritz Novotny described the painting as "an almost monochrome grey-brown tonality of a fragile delicacy". The sky in the painting is dark and ominous, but there is a sliver of blue sky which is thought to represent hope. The Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie stated that the models which Israëls used for the image were Klaas Helweg and the two children of Hendrik Helweg. The writer Nicolaas Beets is credited with naming the image "Passing Mother's Grave" in 1861. In the 1980 book Mondriaan and the Hague School, the painting is referred to as Passing the Churchyard. The original 1856 painting was purchased by the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts.
headstone Nicolaas Beets monochrome oil-on-canvas Fritz Novotny Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Hague School Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie