WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute recently added three new paintings to its permanent collection, enhancing its holdings of works by women artists. 

 

The paintings, two by Marguerite Gérard and one by Evelyn De Morgan, are the first by either artist to enter the Clark's collection.

 

"Working more than a century apart, Marguerite Gérard and Evelyn De Morgan used their paintings to reflect on the lives of women and the politics of their days," said Esther Bell, Deputy Director and Robert and Martha Berman Lipp Chief Curator of the Clark. "We are making a concerted effort to expand the Clark's permanent collection to include artists who have not received the attention they so richly deserve. We are delighted to introduce these talented artists to our visitors and add their voices and perspectives to the stories we share in our galleries."

 

The Clark acquired two companion paintings by Marguerite Gérard, "The Nursing Mother" (La Mère nourrice) and "The Capricious Child" (L'enfant capricieux). The paintings, both executed in 1804, have been in private hands for more than 200 years and have not been exhibited publicly since the early nineteenth century.

 

According to a press release:

 

The sensitively rendered paintings were exhibited as pendants in the Salon of 1804 in Paris and earned Gérard the Médaille d'Or (gold medal) for artistic achievement. The superb examples of the painter's intimate interiors meticulously present domestic narratives, with The Nursing Mother depicting a caretaker supporting a child as he eagerly toddles towards his mother who extends her hand and waits to nurse him. In The Capricious Child, a child stubbornly turns away from his mother, refusing to leave the arms of his wet nurse. In that time, Gérard's paintings actively stimulated debate and conversation around women, breastfeeding, and motherhood. Viewed alongside one another, the paintings offer alternate visions of motherhood, with The Nursing Mother representing the ideal or bonne mère and The Capricious Child the unideal or mauvaise mère.

 

Gérard's painterly skill is evident in the subtly blended brushstrokes and painstakingly realistic fabrics and household objects. In The Nursing Mother, Gérard's luminous treatment of the mother's satin gown especially recalls the paintings of the Dutch masters she admired, notably Gabriel Metsu and Gerard ter Borch. The domestic details were praised by a salon critic who paid special attention to the cat peeking out from under the bedding in The Nursing Mother, writing that it had “tout le mérite qu'on peut désirer dans ces sortes d'accessoires.” [all the merit that one could desire in this type of accessory] (Journal des Débats, 1804).

 

Evelyn De Morgan's painting, The Field of the Slain, is a gripping response to the devastating news arriving in England from the battlefields in Belgium and France during World War I. A staunch pacifist, De Morgan organized an exhibition in the spring of 1916 of thirteen paintings created over the previous two years. The paintings were not for sale, and instead the admission fees benefited the British Red Cross and the Italian Croce Rossa in the two nations' war relief efforts. Any visitor to the exhibition would have understood the overt symbolism of the work, whose catalogue entry read: "The Angel of Death is gathering up the spirits of the slain; they have been robbed of their earthly-life and are young and undeveloped."