Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Painted Offspring

John Everett Millais
Portrait of Mrs James Wyatt Jr and her daughter Sarah
ca. 1850
oil on panel
Tate Britain

John Hoppner
Portrait of the Countess of Darnley and her daughter Lady Elizabeth Bligh
1790s
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

"Mother knows that her child can show up in half an hour at the earliest, if circumstances are favorable; yet she already waits for Erika yearningly.  Mother doesn't know that a lesson has been canceled; yet she awaits her punctual daughter, who always arrives home.  Erika's will shall be the lamb that nestles down with the lion of maternal will.  This gesture of humility will prevent the maternal will from shredding the soft, unformed filial will and munching on its bloody limbs.  Suddenly, the door to the building is yanked open.  Darkness shoots out.  The staircase, that heavenly ladder to the evening news and subsequent programs, stretches upward.  A mild, gentle glow wafts down from the second floor after Erika switches on the stair light.  The apartment door is not opened; today no footsteps are recognized, because the daughter is not expected for another half hour.  Mother is still absorbed in the final preparations, which will have their crowning glory in a meatloaf."

 from The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek, first published in German in 1983, English translation by Joachim Neugroschel published in 1988

François Gérard
Portrait of Louise-Antoinette Scholastique Guéhéneuc,
Madame la Maréchale Lannes, 
Duchesse de Montebello with her children
1814
canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

James Tissot
Study for family of the Marquis de Miramon
1865
oil on paper
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut

James Tissot
Portrait of the Marquis and Marchioness of Miramon and their children
1865
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Agnolo Bronzino
Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo and her son Giovanni de' Medici
1544-45
oil on panel
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Allan Ramsay
Portrait of Queen Charlotte with her two eldest sons
ca. 1764-69
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Windsor

Andrea Soldi
Portrait of Sir Robert and Lady Smyth with their son Hervey
ca. 1738-39
oil on canvas
Yale Center for British Art

Léon Cogniet
Portrait of Maria Brignole-Sale, Duchess of Galliera with her son Filippo
1856
oil on canvas
Musei di Strada Nuova, Genoa

Philipp Otto-Runge
Portrait of Pauline Runge with two-year-old son
1807
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Édouard Vuillard
Child wearing a red scarf
1891
oil on cardboard
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Gabriël Metsu
The sick child
ca. 1660-65
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Mary Cassatt
Mother and Child
ca. 1884-94
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum

Benjamin West
Portrait of Mrs Benjamin West II and her son Benjamin West III
1805
oil on canvas
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London