Today Barron asked when Mother's Day was and it is on May the 12th this year. We found a neat blog resource from arthistorykids discussing artists that painted their mothers.
Lotus Writes, "From countless artists' interpretation of the 'Madonna and Child' theme, to the the Impressionist paintings of Mary Cassatt, who skillfully captured the idea of domesticity and the bond between a mother and her children... we have plenty of amazing mom art to study and ponder! As we get ready to celebrate Mother's Day next week, let's take a look at the way some famous painters portrayed their mothers in their art. This painting is technically called Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, but everyone calls it by it's nickname – Whistler's Mother. James McNeill Whistler was an American painter and he is most famous for this painting. It's sometimes called the "Victorian Mona Lisa" and it was the first painting done by an American artist to be hung in the Louvre in Paris. It's so famous, it's been mentioned in literature and even parodied in popular culture.
“In fact modern production genius had thought of everything: sheets, towels, pillow cases, and a print of Whistler’s Mother for over every fireplace.”
— Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
Picasso's Mother
This is Maria Picasso y Lopez. Can you believe that Picasso painted this portrait of his mother when he was only 15 years old?! Most people associate Picasso's portraiture with his cubist works, but he was actually classically trained as a child and young man. He showed great artistic talent from a very young age, and was considered to be somewhat of a prodigy! Picasso recalled, "When I was a child, my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."
Painting: Pablo Picasso, Portrait of the Mother of the Artist, 1896
Van Gogh's Mother
Vincent painted his mother, Anna Carbentus van Gogh, in 1888. He made this painting by looking at a black and white photograph. She was not an affectionate mother, but expressed her love for her family with her words and her actions. She loved to garden and be in nature, and she took her family out for daily walks. She encouraged her children to draw, and kept notebooks full of her own flower and plant illustrations. She passed her love of art, the written word, and nature down to her oldest son Vincent, who famously captured the stars on canvas in a way that no one else ever had before."
Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of the Artist's Mother, 1888"
Source: https://www.arthistorykids.com/blog/2018/5/7/mothers-day-art-famous-artists-paint-their-moms
Another team member Shiona Herbert from Team Lotus shares the following posting, "Mondrian Mother's Day! Take a moment to think about your mother’s style. Does she wear glamourous outfits? Is her ‘daily uniform’ jeans and a t-shirt? Does she love to wear BRIGHT, LOUD, COLORS, or does she wear a lot of black? Do you know what her favourite piece of clothing is? How would you even describe her fashion style? An artist whose life revolved around being fashionable and who had quite an impact on women’s fashion, was Dutchman Piet Mondrian. “Not only does fashion accurately reflect an era, it is also one of the more direct forms of visual expression in human culture.”— Piet MondrianFamous for his geometric abstract compositions featuring primary colors and gridlines, Mondrian was a leader the Dutch abstract art movement De Stijl, which literally means ‘the style.’ It celebrated pure abstraction that centered on the use of primary colors and perpendicular lines as a utopian expression of a harmonious world.*
This commitment to fashion along with his artistic foresight saw Mondrian’s composition series have a significant impact on high-end fashion. In 1965, French Fashion House Yves Saint Laurent designed a Mondrian Collection comprising cocktail dresses featuring his geometric abstract style. Well, we may not have the budget for a Yves Saint Laurent dress for our mom, but we can spoil her with a personally designed Mondrian gift bag this Mother’s Day. Make Your Own Mondrian Gift Bag. View some of Mondrian’s composition art from this link: https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-piet-mondrian. Plan out your own Mondrian inspired design on paper. Obtain a plain gift bag, i.e., one without distracting patterns. (White or silver bags work well.) Decorate this gift bag with your Mondrian design. Use a ruler and pencil to create precise grid lines and then go over them with black texta. We’ve had lots of success with using oil pastel to create the blocks of primary colour within the gridlines due to their vibrant nature, but you may wish to use textas or paint. When finished, place your Mother’s Day gift inside your Mondrian Gift Bag!" Source https://www.arthistorykids.com/blog/329
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