"Mother" Showcases 40 Great Artists' Mom Portraits

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By Newsweek Editors

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The complicated connection between mother and child has been one of the most thoroughly deconstructed of relationships. That doesn't make it any less fascinating, especially when geniuses are involved: "Mother: Portraits by 40 Great Artists" showcases mother portraiture by painters like Picasso, Cézanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. Just like moms themselves, some of the art is touching; some of it is disturbing. Seurat and Chagall captured their mothers in quiet domestic settings as they embroidered, baked and read. Mamas' boys Rossetti and Rembrandt used theirs as stand-ins for biblical figures. Lucien Freud, not surprisingly, placed a lewd nude behind his sitting ma. But most of the artists display few mommy issues, regardless of how darkly their psyches played out on their other canvases—Egon Schiele, he of the ecstatically twisted models, paints his mother during a quiet nap; van Gogh's mother looks practical and sensible, unlike her mad son.

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