The Nursing Mother (La Nourrice)

Date1774

Maker Louis-Simon Boizot French, 1743 - 1809

Label TextEnlightenment physicians dispelled the medical misconception that breast milk was converted menstrual blood and that nursing drained the mother of her lifeblood. Philosophers extolled the virtues of nursing one's babies instead of sending children away to the countryside for several years to be raised by a wet nurse. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel Émile, published in 1762, suggested that failing to nurse one's children created instability in the family: "Every evil follows in the train of this first sin; the whole moral order is disturbed, nature is quenched in every breast, the home becomes gloomy, the spectacle of a young family no longer stirs the husband's love and the stranger's reverence.

This group is part of a three-piece ensemble of sculptural porcelain that includes Le Déjeuner (Breakfast) (69.138) and La Toilette (2004.27). These three groups, portraying scenes from the life of an upper-class French family, reflect the Age of Enlightenment, a time when elite society embraced different, more nurturing attitudes toward maternal and family commitments. These sculptural groups were created in uncolored and unglazed porcelain that resembles marble, a fashion that suited the renewed interest in classical sculpture. Here we see a young upper-class mother breast feeding her baby, encouraged by the baby's nursemaid. Prior to this period, the French aristocracy retained wet nurses to feed their babies.

Object number69.137

ProvenanceWilliam H. Lautz, New York, New York, to 1969; Seattle Ceramic Society and Friends, 1969

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistoryWilliamstown, Massachusetts, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, “Farewell To The Wet Nurse: Etienne Aubry and Images of Breast-Feeding in 18th Century France", September 12, 1998 - January 3, 1999 (09/12/1998 - 01/03/1999)Published ReferencesEmerson, Julie. “Selections of French Porcelain from the Eighteenth Century European Porcelain Collection of the Seattle Art Museum,” The French Porcelain Society, VI, June 1990, p. 13. Emerson, Julie, Jennifer Chen, & Mimi Gardner Gates. Porcelain Stories, From China to Europe. Exhibition catalogue, Seattle Art Museum. Seattle, Washington, 2000, pg. 264-265. Ivinski, Patricia R., Payne, Harry C., Kathryn Calley Galitz, Rand, Richard. Farewell To The Wet Nurse: Etienne Aubry and Images of Breast-Feeding in 18th Century France. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1998, p. 14, cat. 23. Seattle Art Museum. Annual Report of the Seattle Art Museum, 1969, p. 60.

Credit LineGift in memory of Blanche M. Harnan by the Seattle Ceramic Society and Friends, in cooperation with Mr. William H. Lautz, New York, New York

Dimensions8 1/16 x 6 5/8 x 6 3/16 in. (20.5 x 16.8 x 15.7 cm)

MediumHard-paste biscuit porcelain