In Dorothea Lange’s efforts to capture the impacts of the Great Depression, she familiarized herself with Western farming culture in America and its response to the Dust Bowl. Lange advocated for social advancement and change to aid the suffering American during the 1920s and 30s. She also worked to publicize the success or failure of government agencies to uplift these rural families. In this image, Lange captures the difficulties of motherhood and nurturing children amidst economic and social disaster. Considering how the two daughters mirror the mother in dress and stance, Lange suggests the mother is a role model for her daughter, leading by example through difficult times. The daughters’ reflection of their mothers’ sustained femininity through dress reveals how the mother is specifically supposed to model femininity for her daughters.
A man leads his family of six through this barren, unforgiving landscape, and a few yards behind, a woman, seemingly the mother, wearily pulls her two children forward, suggesting the pressure and responsibility placed on mothers during these extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Given how far ahead the father is, it is clear that it is because of the mother that the children are keeping pace, not left behind. With scarce resources the Depression-era mother is meant to protect and nourish children, the hope of a better future.
The art historical canon is flush with images of mothers holding or carrying their children, but here all she can manage to do is pull them along, ushering in a new understanding of motherhood for common, working people that is characterized not by idealization but hard work, pain, and sacrifice.
Mary Cassatt, one of the few female Impressionists, created this image of mother and child towards the end of her career, when she enjoyed a prominence and thus a greater artistic freedom. She allows viewers to witness her rendering process here, as each pastel stroke is distinct and visible. Cassatt embraced pastel while the medium was still considered effeminate by the European art establishment, and it came to characterize much of her later work.
Cassatt created mostly figural compositions throughout her career and was prolific with images of mother and child, some of which directly reference images of the Virgin and Child, imbuing them with an idealized warmth and light. Though she never had children herself, Cassatt often worked from images of her family, using them as models. In this piece, Cassatt seems to create something of a private, enchanted world for this mother and child, filled with light and movement and vibrant color but with little specificity of clothing or background, which heightens the idealized, dreamlike effect.
Cassat also depicts the mother figure as a protector. She holds her child carefully, as if on display, but with a clear tenderness. Her head rests on the child’s shoulder, and the child holds her fingers. The physical closeness of mother and child signify the mother’s societal role as her child’s protector.
Aleksei Kharlamov, a Russian painter born into a family of surfs, is known for his romantic, idealized portraits of young, innocent women. He spent the majority of his life outside of Russia in émigré communities in Western Europe, particularly Paris, which helps to explain why the women in his portraits, despite being placed into rural Eastern backdrops, are often dressed in clothing more common amongst the wealthy in Western Europe.
“Young Woman and Child” is a provision title as the piece was originally left without one, thus it is ambiguous whether the two figures are mother and child or sisters. Kharlamov seldom portrays children as young as the girl resting in the arms of the woman, nor are his subject matters worn down and tired, so it is possible to surmise that he is intentionally depicting motherhood. Considering the various clues that suggest the woman on the right is a mother–the way she protects the girl by hoisting her tightly onto her shoulder as though acknowledging her heft, the suggestion of weariness in her eyes–tells us much about the signs we look for to denote motherhood. If haggard eyes is a sign of motherhood, the Virgin-influenced idealized motherhood is certainly absent. Here we take pause because she seems a little too young, maybe a little too innocent, betraying the ways in which we expect mothers to look and feel and act.
Elinor Carucci, a young Israeli-American mother of two, here depicts herself rushing across a street with her two children in a photograph taken by a trained assistant. The piece is is part of a series of photographs in a book she created called Motherhood, which shows her intimate, and at times difficult relationship she has with her children.
Here, Carucci clutches one of her children, and though mother-holding-child is a recognizable trope in the art historical canon, the way she holds her, unaware of any viewer and only for practicality’s sake–her child certainly could not keep her brisk pace by walking beside her–is new, illustrating the fast pace of contemporary life and the working woman’s role in it. In a society that expects good mothers to raise their own children but also demands that all productive members of society work, Carucci seems faced with the dilemma of bringing her children with her or leaving them behind. Notably, she cannot carry them both, and the shadow of her son chases after her, reaching out to be in her arms. In 2010, it seems to be a mother is to make sacrifices.
This image has all the elements of what makes Sally Mann controversial. Mann is supposed to be a role model for her children, specifically her daughters. Allowing her daughter to pose naked and expose her body without shame, even if she’s just a child, suggests Mann is failing as a role model. Perhaps we can understand this as a criticism of how Mann is not setting a good example for how mothers are supposed to protect their children, something society expects and demands mothers to do. Critics accuse Mann of exploiting children by photographing them nude. Many attack Mann as a mother, claiming she has a responsibility to protect children from harm, in this case the eyes of the viewer.
The relationships between nudity, body, motherhood, and sexuality are all central themes in Mann’s work. Women are not supposed to be sexual beings but are expected to be mothers, an ironic contradiction rooted in oppression. When women are mothers, specifically when they are pregnant, their bodies are not regarded as sexual objects, but as holy vessels. Babies are often depicted in the nude, affirming that the presence of motherhood negates the sexuality of the body. As women move farther away from motherhood, they are no longer seen as sexually viable. In this image, the oldest woman is the most clothed, representing her sexual expiration. The other woman depicts the young mother figure, still sexually available as a mother and an object. The girl’s nudity symbolizes her eventual sexualization, noting the societal trajectory forced on women’s bodies, from the pureness of childhood, to the objectification as vessels and sexual beings, to the eventual discarding. The evolution of femininity, from generation to generation, in this photo signifies each mother modeling motherhood for her daughter.