18th Century

Motherhood

This is Fragonard’s ‘The Joy’s of Motherhood.”

Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Joys of Motherhood

Yeah, I don’t think he spent a lot of time around women with young children.

Of course, looking at the painting, it doesn’t really look like he spent a lot of time outside either.  Those are some impressively fantastical and chinoiseried trees!

8 Comments

  1. Yup, the joys of motherhood don’t generally include being so poor you have to put your baby in a wheelbarrow while collecting firewood or flowers on your back, with a whingeing toddler hanging onto your leg…
    Actually, this is not so far from the truth! Maybe he was being Ironical?

  2. Sigh, I know it’s very silly, but I love this uber-romanticized pastoralism (got a whole board dedicated to it on Pinterest). Although I must admit that those trees look like they came straight out of The Lorax.

    • Hehe. Two comments and already someone is mentioning romantic pastorialism! This post has key words that I’m just waiting for commenters to say – it’s kind of like QI but without awesome sirens.

  3. I don’t think he spent much time with poor people either- or perhaps she has premature grey hair because of hard life and not because she has powedered it. 😀

  4. Maire Smith says

    I don’t know. She looks appropriately tired. I mean, she’s all dolled up to the nines for an audience, her baby’s happy and well-nourished looking, and she can afford nice clothes for both of them, but her eyes are still kind of exhausted looking. Seems reasonably realistic to me. I bet the baby has been awake all day and she’s trying out the wheelbarrow in the hope that maybe, just maybe, it will drop off there.

    • Haha! My parent’s used to take me for car rides as a baby. It worked too well – I still fall asleep on car trips!

  5. I love that she’s carting the baby around in a wheelbarrow! Makes sense to me…we’ve found that wagons and little carts are perfect for hauling children at reenactments. Especially when the walls are high enough that they can’t escape. I do love her clothes–the full-sleeved shift and the coif, especially. And the underpetticoat.

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