Young Caretaker (or Motherhood), Lilla Cabot Perry

Artwork Overview

Lilla Cabot Perry, Young Caretaker (or Motherhood)
Lilla Cabot Perry, Young Caretaker (or Motherhood)
Lilla Cabot Perry
Young Caretaker (or Motherhood)
circa 1899
Lilla Cabot Perry, artist
1848–1933
Young Caretaker (or Motherhood), circa 1899
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: canvas; oil
Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 81.3 x 63.4 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 32 x 24 15/16 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Helen Foresman Spencer Art Acquisition Fund
Accession number: 1997.0058
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Empire of Things," 2013, Kate Meyer
The bold, expressive gaze of a Japanese girl with a sleeping infant strapped to her back captures the viewer’s attention. Does this portrait depict a hired caretaker, a young mother, or an older sister carrying a sibling? The painting captures a common sight from turn-of-the-century Japan, where young children often served as caregivers for younger siblings or children of other families. Alternatively titled Motherhood, this painting draws on the inspiration that informed much of Lilla Cabot Perry’s artwork: the intimate, everyday world of children.
In 1898, a job opportunity for her husband brought Perry and their three daughters to Japan. For three years she learned from Japan’s artistic community, incorporating Asian aesthetics such as asymmetrical composition and flattened forms into her own work. The time abroad allowed her to develop a unique style that fused eastern and western aesthetic traditions.

Exhibitions

Women Artists and the Spaces of Femininity, circa 1700-1900
Heather Jensen, curator
2001
Empire of Things
Kris Ercums, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
2013–2015
Empire of Things
Kris Ercums, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
2016–2021

Resources

Audio

Didactic – Art Minute
Didactic – Art Minute
Episode 154. I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. A Japanese girl holding a sleeping infant on her back stares out at us from Lilla Cabot Perry’s Young Caretaker, a mesmerizing oil painting in the Spencer collection. As we search for clues that might help us identify the figure - is it a young mother, an older sibling carrying a younger one, a hired caretaker? - we are captivated by the off-center composition, active brushwork, and strange proportions, all culminating in the girl’s strong outward gaze. Both the girl and infant are heavily cloaked in traditional costume consisting of layers of red and blue fabric. The painting’s subject is unusual in Lilla Cabot Perry’s body of work, which typically features portraits of her daughters and French landscapes, painted in the Impressionist style pioneered by Claude Monet, a mentor to the Boston-born Perry. Alternatively titled Motherhood, Young Caretaker was painted around 1899, when the artist was 51 years old. It offers us a rare glimpse of Perry’s personal reflections on motherhood and otherness, formed during her family’s 3-year sojourn in Japan. With thanks to Lauren Kernes for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.