Etienne Aubry
French, 1745–1781
Farewell to the Wet Nurse
1776–77
An elegantly dressed mother takes her child from the woman on the left, who has nursed him from early infancy. Placing babies in the care of hired wet nurses—preferably young women from rural areas, as the painting’s rustic setting suggests—was a common practice among wealthy French families in the eighteenth century. The child’s gesture and anguished expression reflect the affectionate relationship that could result from this arrangement.
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 20 7/16 x 24 3/4 in. (51.9 x 62.8 cm) |
| Object Number | 1955.636 |
| Acquisition | Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955 |
| Status | On View |
Image Caption
Etienne Aubry, Farewell to the Wet Nurse, 1776–77, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.636
Select Bibliography
David I. Kertzer and Marzio Barbagli (editors). The History of the European Family. Vol. 1: Family Life in Early Modern Times 1500-1789. London: Yale University Press. 2001.
Rand, Richard. Intimate Encounters: Love and Domesticity in 18th-Century France. Exhibition catalogue. Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997.
Ivinski, Patricia, Harry C. Payne, Katherine Calley Galitz, and Richard Rand. Farewell to the Wet Nurse: Etienne Aubry and Images of Breast-Feeding in Eighteenth-Century France. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1998.
Florence Ingersoll-Smouse.. "Quelques tableaux de genre inedit par Etienne Aubry (1745-1781).". Gazette des Beaux-Arts.. 1925..
Louis Reau.. Histoire de la Peinture Française au XVIIIe Siècle. 2 vol.. Paris: G. Van Oest.. 1926..
K. T. Parker.. "Etienne Aubry: Study of a Standing Male Figure (Vienna, Albertina).". V.. Old Master Drawings.. 1930-31..
Leroy, Alfred. Histoire de la peinture française (1800-1933) son evolution et ses maîtres. Paris: Albin Michel. 1934.
Grigaut, Paul L. "Marmontel's Shepherdess of the Alps in 18th-Century Art." Art Quarterly 12 (1949).
Jacques Thuillier and Albert Chatelet.. French Painting from Le Nain to Fragonard.. Geneva: Skira.. 1964..
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970.
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972.
Brookner, Anita. Greuze: The Rise and Fall of an 18th-Century Phenomenon. London: Elek. 1972.
Carol Duncan.. "Happy Mothers and Other New Ideas in French Art.". 55:4.. The Art Bulletin.. (Dec. 1973)..
George D. Sussman.. Selling Mothers' Milk: The Wet-Nursing Business in France, 1715-1914.. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.. 1982..
Colin Bailey.. "Le marquis de Véri, collectionneur.:. Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'art français.. June 4, 1983.:pp. 67-83..
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984.
Cissie Fairchilds.. Domestic Enemies: Servants and their Masters in Old Regime France.. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.. 1984..
Wakefield, David. French Eighteenth-Century Painting. New York: Alpine Fine Arts, 1984.
Dick, Diana. Yesterday's Babies: A History of Babycare. London: Bodley Head, 1987.
Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992.
Mary Sheriff.. "Fragonard's Erotic Mothers and the Politics of Reproduction." In Lynn Hunt, ed., Eroticism and the Body Politic.. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.. 1992.:pp. 14-40..
Carol Duncan.. The Aesthetics of Power, Essays in Critical Art History.. New York: Cambridge University Press.. 1993..
Perrin Stein.. "Le Prince, Diderot, et le débat sur la Russie au temps des Lumières.". no. 112.. Revue de l'Art.. (1996-2).:pp. 16-27..
Perrin Stein & Mary Tavener Holmes.. 18th-Century French Drawings in New York Collections. (Exh.cat.). New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.. 1999..
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Products of the Perfected Civilization: French Life before 1789. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1975.
Barker, Emma. Greuze and the Painting of Sentiment. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Donahue, M. Patricia. Nursing, the Finest Art: An Illustrated History. Third edition. Maryland Heights, MO: Mosby Elsevier, 2011.
