Eurasian woman with wet-nurse and child 1662

Esaias Boursse rendered this graphite drawing of a Eurasian woman with a wet-nurse and child. The motif of mother and child reverberates through centuries of art, echoing images of the Madonna and Child, a powerful symbol of nurturing and divinity. The wet-nurse figure introduces a fascinating shift. In various epochs, we see this figure—a surrogate mother—as a symbol of both care and social stratification. Consider the art of the Renaissance, where noble families often depicted wet-nurses in portraits, signaling wealth and status while subtly acknowledging the complexities of motherhood. The act of entrusting one’s child to another taps into deep-seated anxieties and desires. This image becomes a potent site for exploring the ever-evolving dynamics of family, societal roles, and the primal emotions that bind us.