1901, Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child by a Fountain -- Phillips Collection (Washington) (special exhibition)
From the special exhibition label: The women sent to Saint-Lazare were sometimes pregnant, which meant that children also lived in the hospital-prison. Picasso, who was disturbed by this occurrence, began a series of paintings about motherhood that are quite different from his earlier paintings of women and children. These works are compassionate and full of sadness. Here he transforms an inmate and her child into a tender image of the Christian icon Mary, wearing a robe and shawl and holding her son, Jesus, next to a fountain. Picasso invokes these religious motifs to ennoble his dishonoured subjects, while the blue tones create a melancholic mood.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.
1901, Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child by a Fountain -- Phillips Collection (Washington) (special exhibition)
From the special exhibition label: The women sent to Saint-Lazare were sometimes pregnant, which meant that children also lived in the hospital-prison. Picasso, who was disturbed by this occurrence, began a series of paintings about motherhood that are quite different from his earlier paintings of women and children. These works are compassionate and full of sadness. Here he transforms an inmate and her child into a tender image of the Christian icon Mary, wearing a robe and shawl and holding her son, Jesus, next to a fountain. Picasso invokes these religious motifs to ennoble his dishonoured subjects, while the blue tones create a melancholic mood.
Link to a high-resolution close-up photo of details from this painting.