Mother and Children

It is twilight and in this dimly lighted cottage interior, a mother kneels against a chair with her hands clasped in prayer. Seated at her side is a young child holding a pot. In the doorway, an older daughter appears anxiously to be awaiting her father's return, imparting a tension to the scene. Both the mother and daughter wear typical village dress: a cap, a "casaque" (or loose jacket), and wool stockings. White has been used to heighten the mother's headgear and tunic and to indicate the waning light in the sky. Elsewhere, the artist has adopted a tonalist rather than linear approach, working with charcoal and exploiting the texture of the paper.

Little is known of Duverger's background other than that he was born in Bordeaux, studied in various museums, and was primarily self-taught. His debut entry at the 1846 Paris Salon was a portrait, but seven years later, he turned to genre scenes, which he continued to exhibit until 1898. After 1882, he participated in the exhibitions of the conservative Société des artistes français. He received a third-class medal in 1861, a "rappel" in 1863, and a medal in 1865. His small, emotionally charged genre scenes proved to be popular, particularly with American collectors during the third quarter of the century.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

William T. Walters, Baltimore, May 4, 1862 (?), by purchase; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.