Motherhood. 1925 Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939)

Description of Kuzma Petrov Vodkin’s painting Motherhood

Like many artists of his time, Petrov-Vodkin believed that the business of any man of art was not simply to reflect the surrounding reality as dispassionately as possible in paintings, but to carry some kind of thought, to change people with their help. To give them an ethical and aesthetic lesson, to instill in them a taste and a thirst for beauty.

That’s why his paintings are often penetrated with light and holiness, are capable of causing long reflections of an almost philosophical nature - they are needed for the elevation of the spirit, so that the world of everyday life suddenly seemed to the viewer quite different, impossible and wonderful. So that things that seemed empty and stupid, suddenly made sense.

All his works are permeated by the theme of motherhood - this is "Mother" and "Petrograd Madonna" and many others, in which a woman with a child appears in the image of an angel, a wonderful creature, imbued with heavenly beauty, standing above grayness and dirt, performing something like a holy mission.

"Motherhood," on the other hand, breaks from this general line-it is not an enthusiastic hymn, not a solemn song, but as if it were a recognition of the fact that being a mother is vital, it is simple, it happens often and does not arouse surprise or admiration.

Plenty of women do this and do not demand special treatment for themselves, not thinking that motherhood has a bit of sanctity in it.

This is evidenced in the faces of women - the drooping eyelashes, the tired tenderness with which they look at the child.

This is evidenced by the infant’s gaze - childishly meaningless and at the same time intense. The mother’s breasts speak of this - naked in a mundane way, in passing, for business, incapable of arousing love and emotion. The muted, dark, corporeal (but not dirty!) colors also speak of this - they seem to emphasize how simple and close to the ground the scene depicted in the picture is.