Artist: Mary Cassatt
Date: c. 1896-1897
Medium: Prints, Print

Cassatt is possibly the best known artist associated with images of motherhood. Working in a pre-suffrage time when women had much less power and equality in society, her paintings and prints enshrined mothers but without any sentimentality that might have diminished their power.

Size: 9 1/2 x 12 7/16 in. (24.13 x 31.59 cm) (plate)12 1/2 x 15 1/4 in. (31.75 x 38.74 cm) (sheet)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Accession #: P.93.21.5

Artist: Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn ; after Ferdinand Bol
Date: c. 1632-1635
Medium: Prints, Print

Rembrandt features his mother in this eching. Dressed in black mourning clothing, she embodys sorrow and deep loss. Has she lost a child or the father of her children? Either way it captures the vulnerability created by a mother's love.

Size: 5 7/8 x 4 9/16 in. (15 x 11.6 cm) (plate)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Accession #: P.1,341

Artist: Mary Cassatt
Date: 1891
Medium: Prints, Print

Here Cassatt seems to be saying that one surface is not enough to capture a mother's experience. Rendering the reflection in the mirror with as much attention as the primary figure, the artist seems to be calling our attention to the deep, spiritual aspect of maternal love.

Size: 8 7/8 x 6 11/16 in. (22.54 x 16.99 cm) (plate)12 7/8 x 9 7/8 in. (32.7 x 25.08 cm) (sheet)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Accession #: P.4,959

Artist: Dorothea Lange
Date: 1936
Medium: Photographs, Photograph

Lange captures the weight of a Mother's love in this photograph taken during the Great Depression

Size: 13 5/16 x 10 5/16 in. (33.81 x 26.19 cm) (image)13 7/8 x 11 in. (35.24 x 27.94 cm) (mount)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Accession #: 92.136

Artist: Evert van Muyden
Date: 1888
Medium: Prints, Print

This drypoint engraving almost mirrors Dorethea Lange's photograph. Here again in a world filled with threats and hunger motherhood is shown as a dauntless force, ever vigilent and with nothing but her children's survival in mind.

Size: 15 13/16 x 12 3/16 in. (40.16 x 30.96 cm) (plate)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Accession #: P.3,087

Artist: W. Eugene Smith
Date: 1951
Medium: Photographs, Photograph

This photo features an African-American midwife in the south at a time of great racial strife and tension. This was a time of unprecedented prosperity in our country but despite that this child is being born into very humble surroundings. The look of love and care in the face of the midwife could not be greater even if the child were her own and seems to say that a mother's love extends to the entire community. We are left with great hope that this child will succeed despite the challenges ahead.

Size: 13 7/16 x 10 1/4 in. (34.13 x 26.04 cm) (image)20 x 15 15/16 in. (50.8 x 40.48 cm) (mount)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Accession #: 96.110