Portraying Pregnancy: From Holbein to Social Media

Fascinating exhibition at the Foundling Museum looking at how pregnancy has been portrayed in art.

The show starts by pointing out that until recently pregnancy bumps have tended to be edited out of art however there are a few exceptions and the show highlighted these as well as how pregnancy was described and illustrated in scientific texts.

The show worked chronologically starting with Medieval depictions usually when illustrating the Biblical story of the Visitation where the pregnant Mary meets her kinswoman, Elizabeth, also with child with John the Baptist. This was nicely shown by a lovely embroidery and some books of hours.

The Tudor and Stuart sections were lovely with some good loans including Holbein’s beautiful drawing of Cecily Heron with her stomacher adjusted to accommodate her bulge and a family picture and self portrait of the female artist Mary Beale, probably the first self-portrait of a pregnant woman.

It was a nice touch to include a set of pregnancy stays and a stomacher and the poignant dress that Princess Charlotte wore in her portrait by George Dawe which was also here. Sadly, Charlotte died following childbirth shortly after the picture was painted.

It was a nice idea to include a contemporary section as well as one of early 20th century art, As well as, of course, the infamous Vanity Fair cover of Demi Moore and various riffs on it, it was lovely to see a maquette for Marc Quinn’s Fourth Plinth statue of Alison Lapper alongside a portrait of Vanessa Bell by Duncan Grant (sadly a reproduction) when she was pregnant with their child.

Closes 23 August 2020

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