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Motherhood

Jadwiga Longshamps de Berier

Basic information

ID: С-I-1642
Author: Jadwiga Longshamps de Berier
Name: Motherhood
Date of creation: 1927
Country: Poland
Culture: Contemporary times
Technique: modeling polychrome firing
Material: terracotta
Dimensions (height x width x depth, cm): 26 x 19 x 25.5

Additionally

Type: sculpture
Genre: genre art

Information about author

Author: Jadwiga Longshamps de Berier
Artist's lifetime: 1895–1964
Country: Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland
Biography: Jadwiga Longshamps de Berier (1895–1964) was a sculptor, painter and graphic artist, probably a member of the famous Lviv family of Longshamps de Berier, established by the banker and mayor of the city Franсois Longshamps de Berier (1710–1784). In 1922, she graduated from the sculpture class at the Lviv Art and Industrial School. In 1925–1930, she studied at the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts under Wladysław Jarocki and Jozef Mehoffer. From 1930 to 1944, she worked in Lviv, teaching drawing at the Women's Gymnasium. She debuted at the Lviv exhibitions in April 1918 with a plaster head of a woman. Between 1945 and 1947, she worked in Warsaw; since 1948, she has worked in Katowice.

Object description

The work by the Polish sculptor Jadwiga Longshamps de Berier updates the textbook theme of motherhood, maternal love, and the unity of mother and child in sculpture and painting. Originating in images of the Virgin Mary, it has been spread in different styles, schools of art, and at different times. The peculiarity of its interpretation in the work of the Lviv sculptor embodies motherhood as an idea beyond the specificity of contexts and manifestations. The figure's nakedness serves to visualise the essential aspects of the phenomenon, making the image timeless and reminiscent of ancient sculpture. The composition's focus on the inner space, thanks to the creation of a circle by the bent female figure, visualises the unity of mother and child and the transformation of their relationship into a self-sufficient microcosm. Subtle spiritual vibrations are conveyed by the shimmering texture and maternal tenderness by the soft modelling of the forms. The golden tone underlines the blessing and dignity of motherhood. The formal solution of the work reflects the influences of the new French sculpture – A. Rodin, A. Maillol, Ch. Despiau, the desire to reveal universal plastic structures, to achieve the expressiveness of silhouettes, rhythmic organisation of volumes, and monolithic masses – characteristic of the Lviv sculpture of the 1910s and 1920s.

Inscriptions

Signed and dated on the back edge of the stand: "Longshamps 927".

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Motherhood

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