Child at the Breast
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Described by one art historian as "congealed lava," this molten, highly abstract, and seemingly incomplete sculpture of a nursing child makes great demands on the viewer’s powers of recognition. Only reluctantly do the two figures’ salient features emerge: a baby’s head and arms along with a mother’s breast and hands. We are provided with barely enough sculptural information to identify the scene. Rosso’s 1910–14 version, seen here, differs from the more realistic 1889 model, which included the mother’s head. The original sitters for this sculpture were Marie-Louise and Marthe Alexis, the wife and second daughter, respectively, of the naturalist writer Paul Alexis, whom Rosso met upon his 1889 arrival in Paris.
Artwork Details
- Title: Child at the Breast
- Artist: Medardo Rosso (Italian, Turin 1858–1928 Milan)
- Date: Model 1889, cast ca. 1910--1914
- Geography: Country of Origin Italy
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: 19 11/16 × 17 11/16 × 7 7/8 in. (50 × 45 × 20 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Museo Medardo Rosso
- Rights and Reproduction: Image courtesy Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio, Italy
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art