Een vrouw geeft een kind de borst, bij kaarslicht 1739 - 1792

Curator: The tenderness just leaps out, doesn’t it? It’s an intimate little scene bathed in the soft glow of, what seems like, candlelight. Editor: It’s certainly arresting. The chiaroscuro is doing a lot of work here, throwing the mother and child into stark relief. We’re looking at "A Woman Breastfeeding a Child, by Candlelight," an engraving by John Greenwood dating from 1739 to 1792. Curator: Greenwood was doing some heavy lifting with light and shadow, eh? Feels like he’s trying to capture the sacred in the ordinary. Like a Renaissance Madonna dropped into a Dutch interior. There’s a quiet drama to it. Editor: Exactly. And this image also exists within a complex history of depicting motherhood. There’s a romantic ideal, for sure, but we should also consider this image through the lens of social class, access to healthcare, and the expectations placed on women’s bodies during that period. It begs us to question how we interpret and valorize images of breastfeeding today, in light of socioeconomic disparities and the ongoing politicization of women’s health. Curator: Mmm, absolutely. Though I must say, there is also this undeniable warmth radiating from the print, no? Something about the mother’s gaze—totally absorbed, no performativity there. As a viewer I am left feeling almost embarrassed to look! The candour is astonishing. I am, admittedly, feeling quite nostalgic. Editor: Well, I agree there's a captivating intimacy but maybe we could also reflect critically. Consider that many women may not have had the luxury of experiencing breastfeeding as this idealized moment of connection, given constraints of labour and social structures that commodified female bodies. It prompts us to consider the image in the context of then and now. What does the contemporary experience of motherhood even look like against centuries of such representation? Curator: Food for thought. I appreciate how it brings these layers, these often untold histories into our perception of this, outwardly at least, seemingly straightforward image of maternal care. Editor: Precisely, and situating artwork within contemporary discourse is really the way we honour these older works. It's a responsibility, if you ask me.