Self-Guide
Please note that this is an archived mini-tour. Some works may no longer be on view or may have been moved to a different gallery.
Mother’s Day
Spend some quality time with the museum’s maternal
masterpieces and celebrate the mother in your life all
month long.
GALLERY 394
Mother and Child (1921) by Pablo Picasso
Though known as a consummate ladies’ man, Pablo Picasso enjoyed four blissful
years as a devoted father after having his first child, Paolo, in 1921 with his wife,
Russian ballerina Olga Koklova. With family on the mind, the artist filled his
canvases with images of mothers and children, the Art Institute’s painting being the
largest and stateliest of these works. Exchanging his Cubist style for a newly
discovered neoclassical mode inspired by the ancient and Renaissance art he saw in
Rome, Picasso gave the figures a solidity and almost sculptural quality that
heightens the serenity of the scene. While not sentimental, the relationship between
the mother gazing calmly at her child and the infant playfully reaching up towards
her face expresses the stability of Picasso’s life at the time.
GALLERY 141
The Birth and the First Seven Steps of the Buddha
(2nd/3rd century) Pakistan
Moms—none of us would be here without them, not even the Buddha. After 20
years of a childless marriage to King Suddhodana, Queen Maya had a dream one
night that a white elephant pierced her side and disappeared within her. Ten lunar
months later, Maya was traveling to her homeland to give birth when charmed by
the lotus blossoms of the Lumbini Grove, she stopped and reached up to them. At
that moment, a son, Siddharta, or the Buddha-to-be, emerged from her right side
and then took seven steps representing the seven directions—east, west, north,
south, up, down, and here. In this gray schist relief, the goddess Indra receives the
infant from Maya’s side as Maya’s sister Mahaprajapati assists on the right.
GALLERY 156
Hand Mirror (450/70 B.C.) Etruscan
It is often noted that there is not a word for a parent or mother who loses a child—
so terrible is the prospect. However, it was many an Etruscan mother who lost her
sons due to the series of wars that ravaged the population between 500 and 400
B.C. On this carved bronze mirror from the ancient city of Vulci, the goddess of
the dawn, Eos (whom the Etruscans called Thesan), is depicted carrying the body
of her son Memnon, slain by Achilles in the Trojan War. She gracefully bends over
Memnon’s lifeless body as his sword and helmet drop from him. This scene was a
popular subject for mirror decoration during this period as it was likely some
comfort to the mothers of slain soldiers to be reminded that a goddess had suffered
an identical loss.
GALLERY 205
Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin and Christ Child
(c. 1535) by Girolamo da Carpi
We could not do a mother-themed guide and not include at least one work
depicting the most well-known and certainly the most frequently painted mother
and child in the Western world. In this picture, the famous pair is depicted in the
act of having their portrait painted by Saint Luke. According to a 6th-century
legend, Luke had the honor of being the very first artist to capture the likeness of
the Virgin Mary. Girolamo da Carpi, in turn, captured that act in this work for
Lucrezia d’Este. The subject and composition are likely taken from a work that da
Carpi saw at the Este court, a tapestry version of Rogier van der Weyden’s
acclaimed Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin.
GALLERY 220
Madame de Pastoret and Her Son
(mid-1791/mid-1792) by Jacques Louis David
The subject of this unfinished portrait by David, Adélaïde de Pastoret, positively
oozed maternal sentiment. Not only did she restore the the Societé de Charité
Maternelle (Society for Maternal Charity), serving as secretary and then vicepresident, but she also founded the first daycare facility in Paris which eventually
expanded into France’s national system. In this portrait, Adélaïde appears as the
then-new vision of devoted motherhood, a model influenced by the child-rearing
ideas of Rousseau. The crib at her side and her unbuttoned bodice indicate that she
breastfed her son and raised him at home, rather than sending him out to a wet
nurse as was conventionally done in aristocratic circles. Look for the portrait of
her son, Amédée Pastoret, all grown up, painted by Ingres in this same gallery.
GALLERY 2
Jill and Polly in the Bathroom (1987) by Tina Barney
While this photograph might look like a candid snapshot, Jill and Polly in the
Bathroom was, like many of the pictures Tina Barney took of her family over 15
years in the 1980s and 1990s, carefully staged. The subjects—Barney’s sister Jill
and Jill’s daughter Polly—present a decidedly complicated picture of the motherdaughter relationship. Despite the matching pink bathrobes, the effusion of floral
fabric, and the assorted beauty products, the shot does not evoke a feeling of
feminine serenity or familial harmony. With Jill looking toward the camera with a
strained expression and Polly turning away from her mother, a certain tension and
distance exists between the two women, even within the cramped space of the
narrow bathroom. Who said all maternal relationships are always full of eternal
love and undying affection?
Looking for more ways to celebrate mom?
Adopt a dot in her honor. In return for a donation of $10, you can choose one of six colors—including three
limited edition colors—that appear in Georges Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. You’ll find dots as well as
loads of other unique gifts in the Museum Shop.