Esra Kanisicak

Professor Lauren Tate

Art History II

Portrait Analysis

12/01/2020

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Reclining Mother and Child, 1906. Oil on canvas

Portraiture is the category of art that creates resemblances of people or animals.

Portraits can be in the form of photography, paintings, and sculpture, and they can resemble

their subject literally or be an interpretation of them by the artist. Hence, they can be realistic,

abstract, or representational. When the subject is also the artist, this is called a self-portrait.
 In the portrait of the Reclining Mother and Child, we see the nude figures of a woman

and a baby lying on their sides on a white fabric surface facing each other in very close proximity.

There is a second smaller square piece of white fabric directly under their torsos. The woman is

facing the viewer, her eyes are closed, knees pulled up and she has one arm extended out and

the other is placed around the baby’s head gently leaning with her palm onto the white surface.

The baby is facing the woman with its back to the viewer and resting its head on the woman’s

extended arm with its arms folded inward, one foot slightly raised off the surface and one foot

resting on the woman’s thigh. The background is a plain dark blue wall.

From looking at the body language of the two nude figures, with the gentle yet protective

embrace of the child and the protective pulling up of the legs, and their being completely naked,

it is implied that this is a mother and her baby. The baby seems to be nursing or just finished

nursing, which we can infer from her position near the breast, and from her foot that is raised,

which is similar to movements of nursing babies, and also indicates that she is not asleep. There

is a repeating pattern of plainness and simplicity, the background of this interior place has no

lights or shadows, no patterns on the wall, just a very cool even tone of blue. Even though this is

probably a bedroom implied in the white sheets and horizontal naked positioning of the

subjects, there are no furnishings to be seen to clarify this, even the bed’s frame is cut out of the

limits of the painting, all we see is the white surface, which has the movement and irregularities

resembling bedsheets, and the repetitive pattern of the second white surface which could be a

protective liner since the baby is not diapered. The closed eyes of the mother imply she has

fallen asleep while nursing and cradling her newborn baby as the baby continues to nurse or

snuggle the breast.

 These details are significant and make us ask why everything is so plain, it is an anomaly

to not see any hints about the setting, and to have all the attention directed to the naked

mother and child who take up the entire painting. This is probably intentional and focuses our

attention to the main message of the artist, which comes across as the wonderful relationship

and intimacy of a mother and child. They seem to be in their own world unaware of anything and

anyone around them and we are permitted to take a glimpse into this sacred and intimate scene.

We are shown the nature of being a mother and feeling strong emotions of love and protection

to an offspring as well as the bond between mother and child and the comfort that comes from

being in each other’s arms.

This image of the natural state and love between a mother and child seems very fitting to

our times and probably shocked the art world of the time. Seeing women in a natural state,

unidealized and doing something other than posing for an artist, is a very different and

innovative approach and as such must have been initially misunderstood, criticized, and rejected.

Leaps identified: Methods of analysis:

1- It is a mother and child 1- what is implied

2- The child is nursing 2- What are some repetitive

3- The setting is a bedroom patterns, their meanings

4- The mother is asleep 3- What is are any anomalies, their

5- The emphasis is on the mutual meanings

bond 4- What details seem significant, why