Blessed Art Thou Among Women America | Cleveland Museum of Art

Blessed Art Thou Among Women

1899

Gertrude Käsebier

(American, 1852–1934)

Image: 24.1 x 14.1 cm (9 1/2 x 5 9/16 in.); Paper: 24.1 x 14.1 cm (9 1/2 x 5 9/16 in.); Mounted: 29.4 x 17.8 cm (11 9/16 x 7 in.)

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2022.88

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Did You Know?

In this allegory of motherly love, poet and translator Agnes Rand Lee gently ushers her daughter into a changing world.

Description

While Lee’s loose gown evokes the past and the domestic sphere, the girl’s spartan attire and practical hairdo suggest she is being sent into the world, on the path to maturity and independence. In 1899, as more women began to work outside the home, there were signs that the new century might offer them even greater freedom and rights. Gertrude Käsebier, who also had a daughter, suggests that hope of a better future for women in this photograph.