Russian Madonnas: Mothers with babies in the paintings of artists (PICS)
The depiction of a young woman with a child in her arms by Russian artists goes back to ancient times. The first Russian icon painters painted the Mother of God with the Child standing and sitting on a throne, feeding her Son and tenderly cuddling with him.
Artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, although they mostly moved away from religious themes, kept in mind the image of the Mother of God with the Savior in her arms when depicting their wives, sisters or hired models. Artist Viktor Vasnetsov made his wife and son the prototype for the fresco of the Mother of God with the Child. And itinerant Nikolai Yaroshenko painted a "prison Madonna" – a woman doing hard labor with her little son. Ivan Kramskoy, meanwhile, depicted a mother grieving for her child. And self-taught artist Fedot Sychkov used a classical composition for a portrait of his sister with her little nephew.
Orest Kiprensky. ‘Mother with Child’, 1809
Alexey Venetsianov. ‘Nurse with Child’, 1831
Karl Bryullov. ‘Mother Waking Up from a Child's Crying’
Konstantin Makovsky. ‘The Reaper’, 1871
Ivan Kramskoy. ‘Inconsolable Grief’, 1884
Viktor Vasnetsov. ‘The Virgin Mary with Child’, 1887
Nikolai Yaroshenko. ‘Life Everywhere’, 1888
Fedot Sychkov. ‘Woman with Child. Portrait of a Sister’, 1903
Boris Kustodiev. ‘Bathing a Child (Morning)’, 1910
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. ‘Mother’, 1913
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. ‘Mother’, 1915
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. ‘1918 in Petrograd’, 1920
Alexander Deineka. ‘Mother’, 1932
