The Art Of Motherhood

By Theresa Rézeau

In the United States and many parts of Europe, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May,  this year, falling on May 11th, 2025. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the day is marked earlier in the year, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Despite the differing dates, the sentiment remains beautifully universal: a moment to honour the women who shape our lives with love, resilience and quiet artistry.

Motherhood has long been a silent force behind some of the world’s greatest masterpieces. It is reflected in the brushstroke of tenderness, in the gaze of a child, in the strength held in the curve of a figure. As we mark this day, we reflect on the enduring presence of mothers in art, not only as muses, but as makers, as curators of culture and as guardians of generational legacy.

To accompany this tribute, we’re sharing Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” as the featured image of this article. This Renaissance masterpiece celebrates the multi-generational bond between women, Saint Anne (the grandmother), Mary (the mother) and Christ (the child). The composition radiates warmth, protection, and continuity, echoing the timeless threads of care, strength and legacy that run through all maternal relationships.

From Renaissance depictions of the Madonna and Child to the domestic intimacy captured by Mary Cassatt, artists across centuries have been moved to depict motherhood in all its dimensions. These works do more than illustrate maternal love,  they elevate it, reminding us of the sacred and complex role mothers play in shaping both private lives and the collective human story.

Some artists, like Frida Kahlo, channelled their grief over lost motherhood into visual poetry. Alice Neel portrayed the raw exhaustion and inner power of mothers in New York. In contemporary times, Kehinde Wiley reimagined the Madonna through a regal, African lens in his “Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted” series , placing Black motherhood at the centre of divine visual language.

Beyond being muses, mothers have always been makers. Women like Louise Bourgeois, Betye Saar and Tracey Emin challenged the idea that motherhood and artistic ambition are mutually exclusive. Their work explored the dualities of maternal life: nurture and independence, softness and strength, visibility and erasure. They and countless others have shown us that the act of creation, whether in the studio or at home, often begins with women whose power is as generative as it is transformative.

This is particularly evident in the rising visibility of African women artists who are mothers and thriving in the global art market. Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the Nigerian-born painter and mother is one of the most prominent voices of her generation. Her multilayered works,  weaving together domestic scenes, postcolonial identity, and personal memory have fetched millions at auction. In 2018, her painting “Bush Babies” sold for nearly $3.4 million including fees at Sotheby's New York, setting a record for a living African female artist. 

Meanwhile, the work of British-Ghanaian artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, whose poetic portraiture centres Black figures in dreamlike solitude, continues to resonate worldwide, with sales exceeding £1 million at auction. These women are not only creating from lived experience, but also building generational wealth and legacy, redefining what it means to be a mother and a master in the art world.

Motherhood, like art, is a quiet inheritance. It is memory passed from one hand to the next, often wordless, always powerful. In families across the globe, art is used to preserve these memories, to hold onto stories, to celebrate love, to honour life. A portrait, a sculpture, a painting that reminds one of home, these objects become living tributes, carrying with them the tenderness and triumph of those who nurtured us.

This Mother’s Day, we pause to honour the women who have shaped us,  whether through sacrifice, creativity or the simple act of believing in our potential. Art reminds us that their stories are worth preserving, that love is worthy of elevation and that motherhood is one of life’s most profound forms of creation.