Mother and Child
- Artist: Frederic George Stephens
- Date: c.1854
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 470 x 641 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Mother and Child” by Frederic George Stephens. Created around 1854, the oil on canvas shows a Victorian nursery frozen in a moment of domestic intimacy. The boy pauses his play, his hand reaching toward his mother as she turns a letter with grim news from the Crimean War. Stephens frames the figures in a curved arch, echoing a traditional Madonna and Child, and populates the room with everyday objects that double as symbols—military toys hint at the conflict, while a small doll and a mirror add layers of meaning. The work is a highly detailed Pre‑Raphaelite piece, but it was never completed. Stephens had asked the model Annie Miller, already known from other Pre‑Raphaelite works, to pose for this modern biblical tableau. Though unfinished, the painting captures the sudden intrusion of war into private life and the fragile tenderness between mother and child.
See it in person
Mother and Child is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
