Mother with child

Gabriel von Max's 'Mother with Child' (1885) engages with one of the most emotionally resonant subjects in Western art — the Madonna and Child tradition translated into secular, domestic terms. Von Max's version would carry the Symbolist atmosphere that pervaded his work: the emotional intensity and psychological depth of his figure subjects distinguishing his treatments from conventional sentimentality. His deep interest in Spiritualism and the mysteries of consciousness gave even apparently conventional subjects like the maternal embrace a quality of heightened psychological attention.

Von Max renders the mother and child with his characteristic soft, atmospheric technique — the figures emerging with a quality of tender luminosity from a warm, subdued ground. His handling of the emotional relationship between the figures relies on posture and expression rather than narrative action, the intimacy of the maternal embrace conveyed through the physical closeness and the quality of protective attention. His warm, golden-brown palette gives the subject its particular atmosphere.