Sarah Cole, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

How and why do pregnancy portraits within the seventeenth century show a construction of gender in society?

Within art history the pregnancy of a woman has largely not been recorded as a portrait. This was touched upon in one of my modules in my second year and really got my attention.

As the majority of portraits in Europe prior to the 19C were a commission from a wealthy aristocratic family, the then pregnant wife would have played a particularly important role in bearing an heir to the succession of the family name. However there seems to be few portraits of pregnant women made, they were hidden from society. The problem of the lack of power that the women held meant that they were not able to decide to commission a portrait and if a request were made then it could have been denied.

There is also to consider that the artists involved would have been likely to have been male so there may have been an issue with the artist seeing the pregnant woman.

There is also the issue of the health of the pregnant woman to consider as there was a much higher risk to the babies’ health as well as the mother in pregnancy, the risk of death was far higher in previous decades.

One author and curator Karen Hearn is one of the few people that I have found to have written on this subject, so I would like to explore her work more as I am extremely interested in the re-education of students to include more of this subject in the curriculum in schools.

In this presentation I will explore the power, fertility, and female body portrayal within the seventeenth century.

BA Art History and Cultural Studies, Final Year (she/her)
Within art history the pregnancy of a woman has largely not been recorded as a portrait. This was touched upon in my module ARTF2094 Art, Power and Portraiture as it was mentioned regarding a Thomas Moore portrait with his family. As the majority of portraits in Europe prior to the 19C were a commission from a wealthy aristocratic family, the then pregnant wife would have played a very important role in bearing an heir to the succession of the family name. However there seems to be few portraits of pregnant women made, they were hidden from society. The problem of the lack of power that the women held meant that they were not in a position to make a decision to commission a portrait and if a request was made then it could have been denied. There is also to consider that the artists involved would have been likely to have been male so there may have been an issue with the artist seeing the pregnant woman. Were there any female artists that have portrayed pregnant women? Are there any female artists that have made a self portrait of their pregnancy? I would also like to explore the changing social attitudes in the portrayal of pregnant women. There is also the issue of the health of the pregnant woman to consider as there was a much higher risk to the babies’ health as well as the mother in pregnancy, the risk of death was far higher in previous decades. One author and curator Karen Hearn is one of the few people that I have found to have written on this subject, so I would like to explore her work more as I am very interested in the re-education of students to include more of this subject in the curriculum in schools.