Maternity

Catalogue entry

Jean Marchand 1882-1941

N04417 La Maternité (Maternity) 1921

Inscribed 'J. Marchand' b.r.
Oil on canvas, 57 7/8 x 38 1/2 (147 x 98)
Presented by Sir Michael and Lady Sadler through the NACF 1928
Prov: With Léon Marseille, Paris (purchased from the artist); with Independent Gallery, London; Sir Michael and Lady Sadler, Leeds and Oxford, 1921
Exh: Salon d'Automne, Paris, November-December 1921 (1598) as 'Femme allaitant son Enfant'; Paintings and Drawings by Jean Marchand, Independent Gallery, London, June-July 1922 (20) as 'La Maternité'
Lit: Roger Fry, 'M. Jean Marchand' in The Dial, LXXIII, 1922, p.390, repr. between pp.388-9
Repr: L'Art et les Artistes, N.S. IV, 1921, p.108; Philippe Chabaneix, Jean Marchand (Paris 1935), n.p.

This picture was first exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1921 as 'Femme allaitant son Enfant' (Woman suckling her Child), but when shown in London a few months later the title was changed to 'La Maternité'. A similar composition painted from the same models, but showing the woman wearing a head-scarf and without a landscape background, was exhibited in Jean Marchand, Galerie Barbazanges, Paris, October-November 1921 (10) and is reproduced in L'Art et les Artistes, N.S. IV, 1921, p.109. Paul Maze says that the girl was a professional model who also posed for another picture in the collection, N06203.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.483, reproduced p.483

Read more