Motherhood in Art

A mother’s love is indescribable and unconditional, becoming a mother is such a selfless act that comes with many sacrifices. Women go through body changes, as well as devote themselves to their child for their whole lives there’s no limit in which a mother wouldn’t cross for their children. In the art excursion, you will be walking through the stages and depictions in which mothers go through. In this first art exhibit, the location of the museum is in Hungary, the money for the plane rides needed in this trip will be fundraised through events. The trip will last about three days in Hungary, exploring the museum as well as sightseeing. For this first piece of artwork, we are starting from the beginning of life, in Maria Gravidas portion of the panel painted in Germany, she captured the Virgin Mary pregnant with Jesus. There’s not much art that displays a woman with a visibly pregnant belly, but in this painting, The Virgin Mary is sitting on a throne with her stomach noticeable to the viewers. The second piece of artwork will bring us to New York City for two days to explore the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The second piece of artwork displays a woman breastfeeding her baby while another woman, possibly her mother is helping fix her dress.

The painting was dated by to the 1790s in Japan by an artist named Kitagawa Utamaro, Utamaro was best known for his paintings of beautiful women. The technique in which Utamaro used to create his pictures were done by wooden block print, which consists of applying ink onto a craved block and placing a piece of paper on top. The use of this form of art creates straight rough flat lines due to the lack of shading and contrast of the paint since it was printed on. The painting shows a new mother feeding her son while getting ready, as the baby is sprawled out on her lap reaching for the toy in his grandmother’s hand. As one younger mother is multitasking, she acknowledges her main priority is to take care of her baby, and while she is getting ready the other mother is trying to keep the baby’s attention. The Philadelphia Museum of Art After New York the bus that will take us to the next location, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, where we will stay for two days. In the Philadelphia Museum of Art, they have a painting done by Charles William Peale, showing the passing of his daughter as his wife is at her bedside. Peale’s style of artwork is consistent with that of neoclassical, the way in which he made his wife pale and bright as to capture the emotion grief on her face. The way in which shadows are cast around them to make the daughter and mother duo the focal point, to draw our eyes on them. The dramatization on having his deceased daughter laying on the bed, dressed up, with a very sickly yellow tint to her skin so ensure the audience that she was extremely sick on her deathbed.

The expression on Peale’s wife’s face is that of every mother’s nightmare of having to let go of such a young age due to sickness, something so preventable yet out of control. This painting depicts such a horrific scene of loss and heartbreak in which some mothers must face, how they wish they could trade places and not watch their children suffer. Henry Ford Hospital by Frida Kahlo, 1932. Dolores Olmedo bought it in 1955 w385 x h310 mm (without frame) The Museo Dolores Olmedo art museum In the final art excursion, we will be making a final plane ride to Mexico City, Mexico, to the Museo Dolores Olmedo art museum. The final piece of artwork displays a much more dramatized, gory scene of the loss of an unborn child. Frida Kahlo a very famous Mexican painter, Kahlo is known for her paintings depicting her own personal struggles and ordeals in her paintings. In the painting that we will be looking at shows, Kahlo going through a miscarriage while she was in Chicago, her body was weak and couldn’t go through the full-term pregnancy and she rushed to the hospital. Kahlo uses a mixture of paint and oil when painting so it wouldn’t dry as quickly since Kahlo had only so much mobility and was usually limited to her bed most of her life. Kahlo uses very small and precise painting strokes in this painting to give detail such as the hair around her vagina, the creasing in the bed sheets, and the buildings in the back. Kahlo is a surrealist feminist painter, paintings like these were looked down on but Kahlo was very open about her life when painting. Kahlo shows her agony and pain by the tears streaming down her face as blood is coming out of her. That will the final art piece to end off the trip.

I chose the theme of motherhood because it was about my moms birthday when this assignment was made and thought about how motherhood and their struggles and love and affection they give to their kids and family. I also noticed how there wasn’t much art that showed motherhood outside of the holy trinity and I wanted to dive into different stages and art styles. Motherhood looks very different in different eras, cultures and art styles. Motherhood also is not always perfect, children can pass at any time and for a woman to go through that emotional, physical, and mental distress. To lose a child is a terrible feeling that no mother would ever want to go through, so for an artist to capture the pain of that is truly remarkable. I chose Frida Kahlo’s painting to depict the loss of a unborn child to help capture the essence of pain and suffering she had gone through. I also chose Charles Peale’s painting of the loss of his daughter to also see how another mother dealt with that pain. Peale captured his wife’s mourning face and his deceased daughter’s body to show true and raw emotional distraught. The next phase of motherhood shows the actual pregnancy in a woman and the duties of being a woman. In Maria Gravida painting, the Virgin Mary is pregnant with Jesus and is sitting on a golden throne with angels surrounding her. This scene is not often captured by many artists, they often only show the aftermath of the birth. Mother and Child by Kitagawa Utamaro capture the duties a woman goes through when having a child and also trying to take care of herself.