Mme. H and Her Children

Date1815

Maker Louis André Gabriel Bouchet French, 1759-1842

Label TextThis fashionable family group is incomplete—contemporary viewers would have known from the profile portrait on the column that the father is away at war. This was a reference to a famous story, told by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, of a woman who traced the shadow of her lover’s profile to keep his memory alive when he went off to do battle. The anecdote also asserts the importance of drawing as the primary artistic tool during the neoclassical period. The painting is unique in this gallery in placing the woman outdoors, rather than within the traditional domestic interior. Perhaps this is because the husband’s absence compels the mother to assume the protective male role, suggested by her sheltering gestures.

Object number62.75

ProvenanceMax R. Schweitzer, New York, until 1962; purchased by Seattle Art Museum, February 26, 1962

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistoryBellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, "17th, 18th, 19th Century Western Art", October 30, 1975 - November 24, 1975 (10/30/1975 - 11/24/1975)Published References____. "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums: April - June 1962." Art Quarterly XXV, no. 3 (Autumn 1962): 263, 270 American Association of Museums. "Seattle Art Museum." Museum News 41, no. 8 (April, 1963): 31 Bellevue Art Museum. 17th, 18th, 19th Century Western Art. Exhibition catalogue, Bellevue Art Museum. Bellevue, Washington, 1975 Kodansha. Weekly World Travel, No. 94, 2000, p. 16 Seattle Art Museum. Annual Report of the Seattle Art Museum, 1962, reproduced p. 40, fig. 28. Seattle Art Museum. Engagement Book. (June, 1965): 13-19

Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection

Dimensions65 1/8 x 48 1/4 in. (165.4 x 122.6 cm)

MediumOil on canvas