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."
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Artwork Details
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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
Accession Number:1999.529.34
Inscription: Inscribed and signed (below image, in graphite): Mother and Child Elizabeth Catlett; signed (lower left in image, printed): EC
David W. Kiehl, New York (his gift to Williams); Reba and Dave Williams, New York (by 1990–99; their gift to MMA)
New York. Spanish Institute. "The Mexican Muralists and Prints: From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," September 17–November 8, 1990, no. 11.
New York. Alliance Capital Management. "The Mexican Muralists and Prints: From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," November 17–December 15, 1990 (Saturdays only), no. 11.
Newark Museum, held jointly at the Equitable Gallery, New York. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 10, 1992–February 28, 1993, no. 11.
Long Beach Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 4–August 8, 1993, no. 11.
Cambridge, England. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 5–December 19, 1993, no. 11.
Albany. New York State Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 5–March 13, 1994, no. 11.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," April 7–June 12, 1994, no. 11.
Louisville. Speed Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," July 12–September 4, 1994, no. 11.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 9–December 4, 1994, no. 11.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 4–February 26, 1995, no. 11.
Charleston. Gibbes Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," March 26–May 21, 1995, no. 11.
Miami Beach. Bass Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 18–August 13, 1995, no. 11.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," September 10–November 5, 1995, no. 11.
Mobile, Ala. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 3, 1995–January 28, 1996, no. 11.
Brooklyn Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," February 25–April 22, 1996, no. 11.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," May 17–July 14, 1996, no. 11.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," August 9–October 6, 1996, no. 11.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," November 1, 1996–January 2, 1997, no. 11.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 31–March 30, 1997, no. 11.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, no. 29.
Bronx Museum of the Arts. "Stargazers: Elizabeth Catlett in Conversation with...," February 6–May 29, 2011, unnumbered cat. (p. 73).
"New UNICEF Card by Black Woman." Atlanta Voice (December 1, 1973), p. 8 (not this edition), notes this image was used for UNICEF's 1973 greeting cards.
Samella Lewis. The Art of Elizabeth Catlett. Claremont, Calif., 1984, p. 186 (unknown edition), dates it 1947.
Reba and Dave Williams. The Mexican Muralists and Prints from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Spanish Institute. New York, 1990, pp. 7, 33, no. 11, fig. 4, date it 1934.
Reba and Dave Williams inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 25, 46, no. 11, fig. 16, date it 1946.
Richard J. Powell inElizabeth Catlett: Works on Paper, 1944–1992. Ed. Jeanne Zeidler. Exh. cat., Hampton University Museum. Hampton, Va., 1993, pp. 51, 64, no. 1, ill. p. 11 (not this edition), dates it 1944 in the checklist and 1947 in the text.
Ellen Sragow. "An Interview with Elizabeth Catlett." Journal of the Print World 17 (Fall 1994), p. 30, the artist notes that this work is her first print edition and that it was made at the Art Students League, adding that the image was inspired by a sketch and watercolor of Margaret Burroughs and her baby.
Alan G. Artner. "Rare Prints by African-Americans." Chicago Tribune (June 20, 1996), section 5, p. 2, ill.
"Art Exhibit Focuses on Works by Blacks During New Deal." Times-Press (May 30, 1996), p. 11.
Melanie Anne Herzog. Elizabeth Catlett: An American Artist in Mexico. Seattle, 2000, pp. 42–44, fig. 13 (not this edition).
Lisa Gail Collins inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, pp. 25, 58, no. 29, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 51.
University of North Carolina Press. Ain’t Got No Home: America's Great Migrations and the Making of an Interracial Left. Chapel Hill, N.C., 2014, p. 101, fig. 6.
Dave H. Williams. Small Victories: One Couple's Surprising Adventures Building an Unrivaled Collection of American Prints. Boston, 2015, p. 107, fig. 7 (color).
Elizabeth Catlett (American and Mexican, Washington, D.C. 1915–2012 Cuernavaca)
1983
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