Untitled (woman seated in chair with son and daughter at her sides) after 1940

Paul Gittings made this undated photograph of a woman seated in a chair with her son and daughter at her sides. It encapsulates key cultural values of mid-twentieth century America. Gittings specialized in portraiture and was known for his society portraits. The image presents an idealized vision of domesticity. The woman is well-dressed and neatly coiffed, and the children are clean and well-behaved. They seem posed to convey an impression of middle-class respectability. The photograph seems to evoke a sense of post-war prosperity and traditional family values. To better understand this image, we might look at magazines and advertising from this period, which often presented similar depictions of domestic life. Examining Gittings' other portrait work and the families that commissioned them would also reveal a lot about the social and institutional function of portraiture in this era. Images like these become primary resources for social and cultural historians. They reveal the values, aspirations, and power structures of the society that produced them.