Breastfeeding mother with children

Breastfeeding mother with children
Cornelis Pietersz. Bega , 1652
Black chalk, very little brown ink on brownish paper
18.1 x 23.2 cm
Frankfurt am Main, Städel Museum

Breastfeeding mother with children is a sketch by Cornelis Pietersz. Bega from 1652. The genre drawing, 181 millimeters high and 232 millimeters wide, shows a mother with her four children. The chalk drawing is in the collection of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

Image description

Bega shows a seated peasant woman with a headscarf breastfeeding her little one. Three more children observe the familiar scene; different postures are expressed in the looks of the standing girls and the seated boy. The larger of the girls is shown in greater detail, she is barefoot and her left hand is on her hip; she carries a jug in her right hand. The girl's head is slightly inclined, the facial expressions pronounced. The folds of the dress are clearly visible, the hem and sleeves are slightly torn. The scene is the inside of a farmhouse in front of wooden planks with bare earth or an outside courtyard. The image plane is evenly and softly exposed, without strong contrasts. The sketch is signed and dated lower right: Cor.Begga 1652 .

Provenance

The genre drawing comes from the collection of the Frankfurt lawyer Johann Georg Grambs (1756–1817), who collected paintings, drawings and prints. In 1817 he bequeathed his collection to the Städel Art Institute.

literature

• Peter van den Brink and Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann (editors): Cornelis Bega: Elegance and rough manners . Belser, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-7630-2619-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baukje Coenen, in: Peter van den Brink and Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann (editors): Cornelis Bega: Elegance and rough manners . Belser, Stuttgart 2012. p. 88.
2. ↑ Baukje Coenen, in: Peter van den Brink and Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann (editors): Cornelis Bega: Elegance and rough manners . Belser, Stuttgart 2012. p. 90.