July 21, 2010 , Analysis #2 "Mother"

The woman in this painting could be anyone, from anywhere. It is likely this was

from a time period when family portraits were commonly done, so it could be from fifty

to over one hundred years old. There is an indication that the subject comes from a privileged

background due to her style of dress, hair and the setting of the portrait. While she is not

smiling there is an air of serenity about her and we can sense that she is a person who is

accustomed to the finer things in life. It is difficult to determine the age of the woman from the

painting, so actually she may be a young lady. The eyes give nothing away, and one cannot tell if

they are sad or merely uninterested in the process of sitting for a portrait. From the background

of the painting, it is difficult to detect more clues due to its abstract nature.The body language of

the woman suggests an air of repose, indicating leisure pursuits as opposed to work.

In analyzing this painting from the perspective of Structuralism, Ferdinand De Saussure would

look at the relationship between the "signified" and the "signifier" to find that they can be

viewed as a symbol of a culture, that of "Mother". "The signifier( sound- image) and the signified

(concept), brought inseparably together like the two sides of a sheet of paper"(847). These two,

when combined together constitute the sign. The sign, in this case is the Mother, as we have

led to think of her in our culture.

Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. Ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York:
Norton, 2010. Print.