Description
Motherhood – hand-painted reproductions of famous paintings after Modigliani
Motherhood is a Modigliani of 1919 and one of the few of his works with two figures in it. Among our reproductions of famous paintings it is the most homely on this shelf. The original belongs to the Musée national d’art moderne in Paris and is on deposit at the LaM near Lille. Ours is hand-painted in oil on canvas.
What is on the canvas
The woman sits, shown to below the hips, holding a small child on her lap; both face us. Her auburn hair reaches the chin; the face is pale orange with rosy cheeks, the eyes pale blue almonds with no pupils, the nose long, the mouth small, the neck long. She wears a large blue-grey shawl over a dark navy V-necked dress with a pink undergarment showing at the V, and a white apron over her skirt; brown boots show below. The child has a round pale face with red cheeks and blue eyes, a teal-blue bonnet, and a dark blue coat. Her right arm wraps right round the child and her left hand rests on its lap. Behind them are red-brown wall panels with a strong dark vertical strip at the right.
Two figures on one canvas
Modigliani almost always painted one person. Here there are two, and that changes the picture: instead of looking into a single face we are given a relationship between two. The child is not posing — it leans against its mother’s arm and looks past us, the way children do. The arm that holds it is painted large and orange, so the eye finds it immediately after the two faces. This is one of the warmest pictures of the painter’s last year, and the only one on this shelf you can hang in a child’s room without explaining anything.
The record of the original — and who actually has it
The original is oil on canvas. We read the record at the museum that keeps the picture: it gives the title Maternité, the year 1919, the technique oil on canvas, the size 129.8 x 81 cm and the number AM 1994-425. ⚠️ We corrected a mistake of our own: our list named the LaM as the owner. The LaM does hold the painting, but it belongs to the Musée national d’art moderne in Paris and is there on deposit. The museum also records how it was acquired: by dation in 1994 — payment of inheritance tax in works of art — from the former Geneviève and Jean Masurel donation. We give width first, so on our page it reads 81 x 129.8 cm. Of the sizes we offer, 50 x 80 cm follows the proportions of the original most closely; the others are standard formats and differ from it a little.
What you receive
Our painter works the picture by hand, oil on canvas, at the size you choose. Two large shapes carry the subject: the blue-grey shawl and the white apron, with the child’s teal bonnet between them as the one bright point. A painting like this works in a child’s room, a bedroom or a living room, and of everything on this shelf it is the easiest to live with. Because the original is tall we recommend upright formats; at the middle sizes both faces stay clear. When the canvas is finished we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval before it leaves the studio. You choose the frame in our 3D application, and our reproductions on canvas leave the atelier stretched.
| Year of creation: | 1919 |
| Original size (width × height): | 81 x 129.8 cm |
| Painting style: | Expressionism |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Located: | Musée national d’art moderne, Paris (inv. AM 1994-425), on deposit at the LaM, Villeneuve d’Ascq |
L’Enfant gras, the only other child here, stands on this shelf, as does The Servant Girl from the same years.
