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Mother and Child

Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican
1944
Not on view
Catlett was a prolific printmaker throughout her long career. This compact image of mother and child embracing looks as if it could have been carved from wood or stone. Taking advantage of the various tonal gradations produced by the lithographic process, Catlett articulated the planes of the mother's head with deep shadows and bright highlights. The subject of maternal love and protection is one that the artist repeated many times in both sculpture and prints. The pose of mother and child (indeed just the mere subject itself) immediately calls to mind religious representations of Mary and the Christ child. But to Catlett, this imagery had a secular meaning, which she wrote about in 1940: "The implications of motherhood, especially Negro motherhood, are quite important to me, as I am a Negro as well as a woman."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Mother and Child
  • Artist: Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, Washington, D.C. 1915–2012 Cuernavaca)
  • Date: 1944
  • Medium: Lithograph
  • Dimensions: 12 3/8 × 9 1/2 in. (31.4 × 24.1 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 1999
  • Object Number: 1999.529.34
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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El Derecho al Pan (Bread for All), Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
El Derecho al Pan (Bread for All)
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1954
Harriet, Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
Harriet
Elizabeth Catlett
1975
... and a special fear for my loved ones, Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
... and a special fear for my loved ones
Elizabeth Catlett
1946
Harriet (Colored Only)
Elizabeth Catlett
1946
Sharecropper, Elizabeth Catlett American and Mexican, Linocut
Sharecropper
Multiple artists/makers
1952 (published 1968–70)

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