Personalised Mother’s Day gifts: 12 mothers and children in art

Van Dyck, Benjamin West, Mary Cassatt and Utamaro painted the bond between mother and child better than anyone. Twelve masterworks to give as prints, and the styles that turn your own photo into one.

Painters have returned to the mother and child more than any other subject except the landscape. Some painted queens and their heirs, some painted their own wives and babies, and Mary Cassatt built a whole career on the quiet everyday closeness between women and children.

The twelve works below cover four centuries and two continents. Four of them are the masterworks behind Fable’s family portrait styles, so you can send a photo of a mother and child and see a free preview in that style. Every one can also be ordered as a print.

1. A Genoese Lady with Her Child

A Genoese noblewoman in a dark gown presents her small child, who looks straight out at the viewer.

Anthony van Dyck, A Genoese Lady with Her Child, c. 1623–25. Oil on canvas. Cleveland Museum of Art.

In Genoa in the 1620s, the young Van Dyck painted the city’s great families. This mother presents her child to us with pride, and the child looks back with complete confidence.

Best photo: mother standing or seated, holding a toddler on her lap or hip.

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2. Elizabeth Shewell West and Her Son, Raphael

Elizabeth West cradles her infant son wrapped in white linen and looks warmly at the viewer.

Benjamin West, Elizabeth Shewell West and Her Son, Raphael, c. 1770. Oil on canvas. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Benjamin West painted his own wife and baby son in a round format borrowed from Raphael’s Madonnas, and named the boy Raphael too. It is a painter’s love letter to his family.

Best photo: a new mother and baby, close up, the baby wrapped in white.

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3. A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother)

A mother leans over to feed her child in a quiet interior, both lit by soft light.

Willem van Mieris, A Mother Feeding her Child (The Happy Mother), 1707. Oil on panel. Art Institute of Chicago.

Willem van Mieris called it The Happy Mother: a small Dutch panel of a mother feeding her child, polished like porcelain. The most ordinary moment, made precious.

Best photo: an everyday moment, mealtime or bath time, rather than a posed picture.

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4. Madame Charpentier and Her Children

Madame Charpentier in black sits in her salon with her two small children in blue, one seated on a large dog.

Auguste Renoir, Madame Charpentier and Her Children, 1878. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Renoir’s portrait of Madame Charpentier with Georgette and Paul made his name at the 1879 Salon. A mother at ease in her own home, her children and the family dog all around her.

Best photo: mother on a sofa with two children and, if you have one, the dog.

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5. Peasant Mother and Child

A mother holds her small child in a close embrace, their faces near, against soft green.

Mary Cassatt, Peasant Mother and Child, c. 1894. Color drypoint and aquatint, with additions in yellow, on white laid paper. Art Institute of Chicago.

Mary Cassatt made this colour print around 1894, using drypoint and aquatint to get the softness of a pastel. It is the purest image of her great subject: a mother and child, nothing else.

Its soft greens suit a nursery or a bedroom.

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6. Gathering Fruit

A woman lifts a child to reach fruit from a branch while another woman picks fruit nearby.

Mary Cassatt, Gathering Fruit, c. 1893. Drypoint, softground etching and aquatint in color on ivory laid paper. Harvard Art Museums.

Cassatt’s Gathering Fruit was part of her mural for the Woman’s Building at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, here made into a colour print. Women pass knowledge and fruit from one generation to the next.

A thoughtful gift for a mother who is also a gardener.

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7. Mother and Child

A Japanese mother holds her child close, their heads gently touching.

Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿, Mother and Child, c. 1800. Color woodblock print; naga-oban. Art Institute of Chicago.

Utamaro was the great master of women in the Japanese print, and in his later years he made many prints of mothers with their children. Here their heads touch, and the whole picture is about that touch.

Simple and calm: lovely in a minimal bedroom.

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8. A Mother's Gaze

A mother curves protectively over her baby, gazing down at it, in a Japanese woodblock print.

Izumiya Ichibei 和泉屋市兵衛 Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿, A Mother's Gaze, 1806 (Bunka 3), 6th month. Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. Harvard Art Museums.

Another Utamaro, printed in 1806, the year he died: a mother bending over her infant. The curve of her body does the work of a hug.

Pairs with the Utamaro above as a set of two.

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9. Yamauba and Kintarō

The mountain woman Yamauba offers chestnuts to the child Kintarō, who reaches eagerly for them.

Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川歌麿, Yamauba and Kintarō, c. 1804/05. Color woodblock print; naga-oban. Art Institute of Chicago.

In Japanese legend Yamauba was a mountain woman who raised the super-strong boy Kintarō in the wild. Utamaro shows them as any mother and son: she holds up chestnuts, he reaches for them.

A playful choice for a mother of a lively little boy.

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10. Woman and Child (Silence)

A mother holds a sleeping child against a dark background, a finger raised for silence.

Attributed to Auguste Boulard, the Elder, Woman and Child (Silence), 1855/60. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago.

Silence: a mother holds her sleeping child and asks us not to wake it. This French Realist painting from the 1850s is quiet, warm and deeply familiar to anyone who has rocked a baby to sleep.

Hang it in a nursery or a calm, dim corner.

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11. An Egyptian Peasant Woman and Her Child

A mother holds her sleeping child close and looks straight out of deep shadow.

Léon Bonnat, An Egyptian Peasant Woman and Her Child, 1869–70. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Léon Bonnat painted this mother and child after a journey to Egypt in 1868. She holds her sleeping child and watches us steadily, protective and dignified.

Strong and sculptural; it holds a large wall well.

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12. The Artist’s Mother at a Table

Rembrandt’s mother, an old woman in a dark hood and cloak, sits at a table with her hands folded.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Artist’s Mother at a Table, c. 1631. Atelier colour edition of the etching. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Mother’s Day is also for grown children. Rembrandt etched his own mother many times; here she sits at a table, hands folded, an old woman painted with love and great respect.

For a son or daughter to give their own mother.

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For Mother’s Day, the picture that matters most is often already on your phone: a baby asleep on a shoulder, a toddler on a hip, a grown child with an arm round their mother. Choose a masterwork that matches its mood and see the free preview.

Questions

What is a good personalised Mother’s Day gift?

A portrait of mother and child made from a photo. It can be a new mother with her baby, or a grandmother with her grown children: the old masters painted both.

Which photo works best for a mother and child portrait?

A close photo where both faces are visible and touching or nearly touching, in soft daylight. Avoid strong flash and busy backgrounds.

Who painted the most mother and child pictures?

Mary Cassatt, the American Impressionist in Paris, made mothers and children her central subject from the 1880s onwards, in paintings, pastels and colour prints.