On Cassatt & Mothering

I remember what it felt like to be held by you.

One afternoon, long after my first baby had weaned and long before my next baby was even a hope on the horizon, I found myself idly picking through some art books in a charity shop.

I plucked out a book written by one of my former art history lecturers, Prof Griselda Pollock, an icon in the art history world. The book was on the painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt, who was born in Pennsylvania but who spent most of her life in France.

I was familiar with Cassatt’s work and admired her Japanese-influenced prints. And, I was also familiar with Pollock’s work on the maternal. But Cassatt's paintings had never before grabbed my attention. As I flicked through the plates of her studies of breastfeeding, I drew a sharp intake of breath, struck by the accuracy of the detail. The paintings had been transformed for me.