Sarah Grandin, the Clark-Getty Curatorial Fellow, discusses depictions of motherhood in French art from the second half of the eighteenth century. The lecture takes a painting in the Clark’s collection—Étienne Aubry’s Farewell to the Wet Nurse—as its point of departure to decipher what was expected of mothers in the Enlightenment. At the same time, the talk will consider painting’s agency in shaping social mores and investigate artists’ commitment to portraying female subjectivity.

Presented in the Clark's auditorium, and broadcast simultaneously on Zoom and Facebook Live on Wednesday, April 13, 2022.