A Comparative Perspective: Paintings Of Mother-Child Relationship By Cassatt And Yanping

A constant stream of artists capture mother-child relationships as their painting themes. Cassatt and Yanping are the representatives of female painters with independent styles, but they were endowed with different expressing techniques and preferences of colors when dealing with this theme. Cassatt is an American Impressionist painter while Yan belongs to Contemporary Expressionism painter. As female painters, they convey the theme of mother-child relationship in the most direct and sincere way from individual and female perspectives. It is the different backgrounds and standing points that form the distinct emotions in their own works. Cassatt, who remained unmarried during her whole life, buried her motherhood and pity in her work as the only way to pour out her feelings. She merged her motherhood with her works and retrieved what she never experienced in paintings. Cassatt exchanged the feelings of mother-child relationship totally by her imaginations and conceptions. What contributed to Yan’s success was the real experiences which sprang up her own feelings and thoughts that echoed to the sentiments of society. The theme of painting was the mirror of her real life. She extracted certain scene or a simply motion from real life and showed them in her paintings. These genuine and real emotions were bond to touch the deep chord of the people.This study attempt to make a specific comparsion between the paintings of mother-child relationship by Cassatt and Yanping. A detailed analysis will be made in terms of the difference and similarity between their paintings, the expression techniques, the presentation of various emotions as well as the value of art. This comparison illustrates the vital role of motherhood-themed art works and the significance of feminism on art history.