1850
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Destitute Dead Mother holding her sleeping Child in Winter is a 1850 unspecified by Octave Tassaert, a Realism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman in a thin shawl leans against a pile of sticks, her baby asleep in her arms. Snow dusts her hair and the ground. Her face is tired, but peaceful. Tassaert painted the poor when most artists showed rich people or heroes. The sticks were real—poor Parisians gathered them to sell for firewood. The painting doesn’t ask for pity; it just shows the moment. If you want more like this, look up subject: france, 19th century, mod euro.
One of France's leading artists of the mid-19th century, Octave Tassaert was known for his paintings of downtrodden workers, destitute mothers, suicides, and abandoned children. Viewers responded positively to his focus on issues of social injustice, as seen in this painting of a poor mother resting outdoors in the show with her baby. She is leaning against a pile of sticks, a common activity among the poor of gathering and selling small pieces for wood for burning in fireplaces or stoves.
Greatly admired by writers and social activists, Octave Tassaert provided illustrations for books by such celebrated authors as Alexandre Dumas père and Victor Hugo.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Nicolas François Octave Tassaert (Paris, 26 July 1800 – Paris, 24 April 1874) was a French painter of portraits and genre, religious, historical and allegorical paintings, as well as a lithographer and engraver.
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