Domestic labor & invisible work
Featured Artworks
The Cradle
Berthe Morisot (1872)
Berthe Morisot’s The Cradle turns a quiet nursery into a scene of <strong>vigilant love</strong>. A gauzy veil, lifted by the watcher’s hand, forms a <strong>protective boundary</strong> that cocoons the sleeping child in light while linking the two figures through a decisive diagonal <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>. The painting crystallizes modern maternity as a form of attentiveness rather than display—an <strong>unsentimental icon</strong> of care.
Olympia
Édouard Manet (1863 (Salon 1865))
A defiantly contemporary nude confronts the viewer with a steady gaze and a guarded pose, framed by crisp light and luxury trappings. In Olympia, <strong>Édouard Manet</strong> strips myth from the female nude to expose the <strong>modern economy of desire</strong>, power, and looking <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[3]</sup>.
The Boating Party
Mary Cassatt (1893–1894)
In The Boating Party, Mary Cassatt fuses <strong>intimate caregiving</strong> with <strong>modern mobility</strong>, compressing mother, child, and rower inside a skiff that cuts diagonals across ultramarine water. Bold arcs of citron paint and a high, flattened horizon reveal a deliberate <strong>Japonisme</strong> logic that stabilizes the scene even as motion surges around it <sup>[1]</sup>. The painting asserts domestic life as a public, modern subject while testing the limits of Impressionist space and color.