Courtesy of the artist, photo: Dan Weill

The Maid

2018

English, born 1973

The female figure, the woman of the house, is engaged in the act of “taking tea,” steeped in luxury with an elaborate dress. The ship on top of her head serves as a reminder of the long voyage that brought not only fashionable porcelain but also the commodity of tea to her household. Through two shipwrecked sailors and an enslaved page, Partington exposes the degradation of human life and the reality of trades reliant on precarious ocean voyages and human exploitation. These figures reveal the human cost of the European craze for Chinese products.

Red stoneware with white tin glaze and enamel

26 3/8 x 15 3/4 x 13 in. (67 x 40 x 33 cm)

Guendolen Carkeek Plestcheeff Endowment for the Decorative Arts

2019.6.4

Provenance: Commissioned from the artist by Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2018

Courtesy of the artist, photo: Dan Weill

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Claire Partington: Taking Tea, Dec. 7, 2018 - Dec. 6, 2020.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM