Maternity 1924

Camil Ressu created this painting, Maternity, with oil paint. Ressu painted this image of motherhood in Romania, a country with a complex 20th-century history of shifting political regimes, from monarchy to communist republic. The image suggests a timeless and universal bond between mother and child, the kind of subject matter that can resonate across political divides. The mother's headscarf and simple clothing imply the humbleness of peasant life, idealizing the virtues of rural existence. It evokes the traditional iconography of the Madonna and Child, with a secular humanist approach. What is the public role of art in societies undergoing major social and political change? We historians seek answers to this question in archives of artists’ letters and manifestos, exhibition reviews, and government records. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.