When we consider art’s most famous celebrations of ‘mother and child’, they are undoubtedly caught up in another time. Think Renaissance great, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Madonna Litta (c.1490), which depicts Mary breastfeeding baby Jesus, or Claude Monet’s Madame Monet and Child (1875), a painting of his wife in the idyllic rural setting of Argenteuil. Or perhaps Mary Cassatt’s version, again taking a more everyday tone than one of religiosity.
It is this everyday tone, and a celebration of form, that today sees the traditional genre being rethought through popular culture, such as Margaret Atwood’s novels, #KnowMyName equality advocacy across collections, to IVF and Tinder as vehicles for women to have more empowerment over their bodies and choices.
