Mother's Darling, by Joseph Clark

Mother's Darling

Joseph Clark (1834-1926)

1884

H 50.8 x W 40 cm

Collection and image credit: Tate

Accession no. N01593

Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest, 1885

Re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licence-No-Derivatives Licence (CC BY-NC-ND)

[For commentary, see below; mouse over the text for links.]

This acquisition by the Tate was dismissed in the Saturday Review of 13 June 1885 as "simply a type of fine old fruity British art, with the British Matron, the British Baby, and the British Baby's Bed in full working order" (791). But the commentator concluded that, as a group, the latest list of paintings purchased by the Chantrey Bequest "might well have been worse" (791). In fact, Clark's theme was a popular one among both artists and the general public, and this is not a sickly sweet maternal idyll at all. The opened letter on the coverlet, the mother's black dress, the black cloak at the end of the bed with its flash of red lining, a certain wistfulness in both the woman and child — all these suggest an uneasy undertow to the painting. Viewers will realise that there is a story here that they will never know. The father might be away, serving in the Middle or Far East, for instance. But no specific explanation needed to be given: life was fragile enough at this time of high infant mortality and early adult death from a variety causes. Someone who might be here now is far away; those who are here now are vulnerable. That much we can all appreciate, with just the most subtle and delicate of prompts, and this realisation adds immeasurably to the effect of the little tableau. — Jacqueline Banerjee

Bibliography

"The Academy Elections." The Saturday Review Vol. 59 (13 June 1885): 790-91. Internet Archive. Web. 21 November 2024.

Mother's Darling. Art UK. Web. 21 November 2024.

Created 20 November 2024