This is another installment in an ongoing series so, if you haven’t already or if you need a refresher, please read part 1 and part 2.
Over time, motherhood became a subject defined by its easily recognisable formal arrangements alongside its overtly religious subject matter. It was, however, imbued with a fresh light during the Victorian era. The result was something decidedly against the male gaze which had governed these portraits previously.
Whilst there had been portraits of motherhood in the 1700s that were not of the Madonna and Child, but simply a mother and their child, these were still heavily stylised arrangements that deliberately mirrored their religious counterparts.
A notable example of this is ‘Barbara Palmer (nee Villiers), Duchess of Cleveland with her son’ as Virgin and Child by Sir Peter Lely.
Palmer was the King’s mistress and the child she holds is the son they had together- this, along with the compositional nod to Madonna and Child paintings, lends the piece an intriguing narrative. In a way, it simply seeks to cement the King’s power. With his mistress as (ironically) the Virgin and then their child as Jesus, this makes the King God, reinforcing the belief in the Divine Right of Kings.
Therefore, the male gaze can be seen in the picture through how it reinforces male power, even if the male figure is not in the portrait itself. The viewer’s focus is taken away from the female subject and instead directed towards the enforcing of patriarchal hierarchy.
But the increased ability for women to receive an arts education in the Victorian era allowed more female artists to enter the main stream, thus allowing them to shape the artistic subject of motherhood to their own experiences. As seen in the work of Mary Cassatt.
Whilst never being a mother herself, Cassatt was able to reflect the maternal experience in her work, albeit be it just that of a middle class family.
Cassatt added emotional depth to her subjects, rather than depicting a simple archetype like previous works of this genre did. This was shown through a wide range of colour palettes, clothes, setting and facial features, suggesting each of the sitters had their own personalities and preferences, rather than each being hemmed-in by beauty standards and other aspects of the male gaze.
These aspects of her work are placed alongside the easily recognisable elements of traditional Madonna and Child portraits: the central composition, the mother looking down towards or beyond her child, elements of maternal intimacy pursued between the figures.
Ultimately, she deflected the elements of the male gaze in traditional depictions that has presented mothers as solely encompassed by the singular role of the mother. Instead the subjects portrayed had more whole identities, like their male counterparts.
‘Reading Le Figaro’ portrays this, seen in how Cassatt’s own mother is presented reading a novel in weekly installments in the newspaper. Her whole experience is not defined by her attachment to her children, instead she is given time for herself to explore her interests.
Her personality is suggested through the monochromatic palette- she appears to be a character that is severe and has no time for decoration. She is solely encompassed by her pursuits.
She is also oblivious to the camera. Rather than giving the impression that she is posing for the viewer, allowing, inviting them, to watch her, she is instead absorbed in her own activity. This contrasts to the highly contrived poses of the other Madonna and Child portraits which had the sole purpose for the viewer to look at the painting and to take from them values that the subject embodied. Cassatt’s work, instead, is just a glimpse into everyday life, in the way of Impressionists.
Cassatt’s own feminist leanings are highlighted further in other works such as ‘Woman with a Sunflower’.
The sunflower was an emblem of female suffrage at the time and here it is the main focus of the piece with the structural lines of the composition framing it and the softer lines leading the viewer’s eyes to it- see this the outline of the chair and in the draping of fabric.
Cassatt appears to be saying numerous things with this:
that the suffrage movement should include mothers
that you can be both a mother and a feminist, the two aren’t mutually exclusive
that gaining the vote would also help mothers, suggesting how it would brighten the otherwise dull domestic space with the bright yellow contrasting to the duller turquoise.
At the time, the middle class mother was expected to spend most of her days indoors, as opposed to venturing out of the private into the public realm dominated by men. The vote would allow them a window into the public space.
Cassatt’s mothers are usually depicted in the private spaces of the domestic setting, and, if they are to venture out, its only to their garden or under the protection of a carriage.
We can see how, when placed alongside one another, all of Cassatt’s mother and child portraits retain this individuality. Each has their own narrative, likes, personality: an individual autonomy over their space and appearance. This contrasts to the uniform appearance of Madonna and Child portraits, which was “heavily influenced by the male perspective. As a result, images of motherhood were often one-sided, reflecting expectations rather than realities, and disregarding the complexities of what it means to be a mother.”
The comforting warmth of Cassatt’s compositions contrast to the grueling turmoil of Kathe Kollwitz’s work.
The tortured figures she drew, painted and printed presented a very different face of motherhood, influenced primarily by the traumatic experiences faced by families in the first world war.
The most visceral depiction of this is ‘Woman with Dead Child’.
The mourning mother becomes animalistic in her display of emotion, not in the way of brutal anger but of all-encompassing sadness. She clutches her child in desperation, suggesting that she is gripping onto the last of his life.
This contrasts to the gaumless appearance mother in her other works. Here it seems that the previous Madonna and Child pieces are mocked: these too exhibit a lack of emotion, but not in order to present the value of submissiveness and stoicism, instead to portray their numb reaction to the extremity of their circumstances. They look shell-shocked, eyes wide and empty like skeletal faces.
In the image below, the mothers are anonymous figures, representing either the everywoman, or how their individuality was stripped away from them in the face of their circumstances. Each mother clings to a child as if its their reason for living, all except one: the woman in the background on the left clutches at her face, suggesting the death of her children has left her with nothing.
Could it be that motherhood is all these women have? And yet this doesn’t play into the narrative of traditional Madonna and Child pieces that the mother role is all a woman should have, that this is a positive thing, but instead that these woman has nothing else and its the children they look after are their only signs of living.
Conclusion (for now)
Whilst Cassatt presents motherhood in the context of middle class enclosure, Kollwitz presents it within her own experiences of war, showing how motherhood was no longer a subject for men to portray in order to present the values needed in women to aid Christian society, but a subject open to women to use to display their own experiences. Motherhood was, in other words, no longer confined to the male gaze’s limitations.
Questions to consider:
How is emotion important in pieces on motherhood?
In the period of time explored in today’s article, what limits were still imposed on artist’s depictions of motherhood?
and
Which piece struck you the most?
Further reading:
Currently reading: Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Random recommendation: Thea’s Tea podcast