Maternal Caress (1890/1891) by Mary CassattAmon Carter Museum of American Art
The subject of motherhood runs the course of art history, from the Madonna and child paintings of the Renaissance . . .
Fisherman's Family (1916) by Bror Julius Olsson NordfeldtAmon Carter Museum of American Art
. . . to the great images of motherhood in the Amon Carter's collection.
Portrait of Mother and Five Children (ca. 1825-1850) by UnknownAmon Carter Museum of American Art
A mother sitting in a swing with her baby. A nester family that lived in a line camp of the Three Block Ranch near Rosaka Lake, New Mexico. Three Block Ranch, New Mexico. (1908/1909) by Erwin E. SmithAmon Carter Museum of American Art
Bo-Peep (1872) by Eastman JohnsonAmon Carter Museum of American Art
Though this may look like a child attacking its mother, in the nineteenth century “bo-peep” referred to the non-sinister game of peek-a-boo!
In the Meadow (1954) by Nell DorrAmon Carter Museum of American Art
Motherhood and Nell Dorr
Photographs from the Artist's Archives at the Amon Carter
The Amon Carter holds the archives of photographer Nell Dorr (1893–1988), which includes approximately 1,750 photographs and 5,200 negatives. The collection presents a cross section of Dorr’s photographic work.
During World War II, Dorr's husband and her daughters' husbands all went to war. She retreated to the countryside with her daughters and grandchildren.
Happiness (1942) by Nell DorrAmon Carter Museum of American Art
She bought an old house in New Hampshire that lacked the conveniences of running water and electricity.
Nursing Mother (1940, printed later) by Nell DorrAmon Carter Museum of American Art
She constructed a deliberately pre-modern lifestyle for her family, focusing on life's simple pleasures. She documented their lives with her camera, emphasizing moments of beauty and harmony.
Mother and Child (1941/1945) by Nell DorrAmon Carter Museum of American Art
The death of her daughter Elizabeth in 1954 prompted Dorr to publish the photographs in what would become her most acclaimed book of the six she produced, *Mother and Child."
Mother and Child (1940, printed later) by Nell DorrAmon Carter Museum of American Art
Unlike her contemporaries—whose documentary photographs captured the horrors of war, social injustice, and general strife—Dorr focused on the painterly aspects of rural life, a life she had constructed.
Dorr’s body of work about motherhood is a nostalgic celebration of the simplicities of life and a reminder of the beauty found in the acts of everyday living in the face of very difficult moments in her life.
Produced by Maggie Adler, Assistant Curator and Peggy Sell, Interpretation Manager at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art
All artworks from the collection of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas.
www.cartermuseum.org
