Field Trip to Clark museum

Field Trip to Clark museum, Williamstown, Mass.
Date: Friday, November 13th, 1998

Back to Nature: Wet Nurses and Nursing Mothers in Eighteenth Century France

"Farewell to the Wet-Nurse: Etienne Aubrey and Images of Breast Feeding in Eighteenth Century Art."


Program

9.30 am
Departure from Ciruti

11.30 pm
Arrival at Clark museum: Tour of exhibit "Farewell to the Wet-Nurse"

1 pm
Lunch at the Williamston Inn

2 pm:

Lecture by

Doris Tishkoff, social historian

"To nurse or not to nurse; Rousseau, Romanticism,
and doing what comes naturally"

Report by Guergana Gougoumanova

It was a common practice for upper-class women in 18th century France to wet nurse their new born babies; that is, to entrust them to the cares of another woman who would nurse their babies for them. This class-bound tradition was handed down from the time of the Romans and Greeks. The wet nurses were paid lower class peasant women, usually between twenty and thirty years of age with a pleasant temperament and with well developed firm breasts. 80% of the children born in Paris were wet nursed in the 18th century.

In the time of "Emile" 50% of the kids died before they were 8 years old. The major death causes were fire, snake bites, and swathing. The real parents were not very attached to their children since the chances that they would die young were big.

According to the mentality of the people in these days any flow of bodily fluids debilitated the body. That is why wet nursing was accepted readily by both upper-class women, since they thought they spared their health, and by lower-class women, who got paid for the service. Ironically, women who did not nurse were more fertile. They had to send their numerous children to many wet nurses in a row, which sometimes was detrimental to the health of the babies. The wet nurses in the majority were loving and caring young women but there happened to be others who neglected the little babies and did not take good care of them.

The question of whether or not a mother should breast feed her young child entered the political rhetoric after the French Revolution of 1789 which outlawed the corsets and high heels. The Republican ideology stressed out that only the breast feeding of the real mother could raise up good citizens loving their families and their nation. Under that influence the playwright Beaumarchais donated all the proceeds from his highly criticized play "The Marriage of Figaro" to the creating of an institution that helped poor mothers to remain at home and nurse their babies. Rousseau, too, in the spirit of this republican ideology, wrote the well-known novel "Emile" stressing out not only the importance of maternal breast feeding, but also, the way young children should be raised. "Let women become mothers once more, and soon men will become fathers and husbands" says he, trying to convince his contemporaries that the mother/child relationship in the early years was the foundation of relationships of familial and social orders.

But, one can notice that in practice, Rousseau deviated from his professed ideas, since he himself abandoned his five kids in a foundling hospital. Nevertheless, he still remains one of the most outstanding defenders of maternal breast feeding. His tomb is decorated with imagery related to maternal nursing.:

In the center, stands a woman holding in her hand an edition of "Emile" while breast feeding her own baby.

To the left, women are offering fruit sacrifices to the statue of Nature, represented as a many-breasted female.

To the right a few naked kids play with a Phrygian cap (the symbol of Liberty).

The children were weaned after 12-18 months and lived with their wet nurses for about 3-4 years. This long period of time allowed them to get more attached to their new family rather than to their real parents who visited them rarely if not at all. In "Farewell to the wet nurse" by Etienne Aubry we can see the painful experience of a young child who is forcefully detached from her foster parents and entrusted in the arms of her real mother. Arms stretched out to reach for her peasant wet nurse, eyes fixed on her foster father, the child cries desperately.

1998 is the first time that the two versions of that painting are exhibited side by side - the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts copy and the Williamstown one. By contrasting both of them one can see the difference in color schemes and in paint handling.

Another painting in the exhibition is Francois Robert's Canadians (Native Americans) at the tomb of their child, 1786. One can see a couple mourning their child six months after his death - the father sadly bowing down his head while the mother is letting her milk flow on the tomb.

Francois Hubert (1744-1809) and Jean-BaptisteGreuse (1725-1805) were some of the other painters represented.

3 pm
Tour of the museum's permanent collection

6 pm
Back to campus

9.30 am	Departure from Ciruti
11.30 pm	Arrival at Clark museum: Tour of exhibit "Farewell to the Wet-Nurse"
1 pm	Lunch at the Williamston Inn
2 pm: Lecture by Doris Tishkoff, social historian	"To nurse or not to nurse; Rousseau, Romanticism, and doing what comes naturally" Report by Guergana Gougoumanova It was a common practice for upper-class women in 18th century France to wet nurse their new born babies; that is, to entrust them to the cares of another woman who would nurse their babies for them. This class-bound tradition was handed down from the time of the Romans and Greeks. The wet nurses were paid lower class peasant women, usually between twenty and thirty years of age with a pleasant temperament and with well developed firm breasts. 80% of the children born in Paris were wet nursed in the 18th century. In the time of "Emile" 50% of the kids died before they were 8 years old. The major death causes were fire, snake bites, and swathing. The real parents were not very attached to their children since the chances that they would die young were big. According to the mentality of the people in these days any flow of bodily fluids debilitated the body. That is why wet nursing was accepted readily by both upper-class women, since they thought they spared their health, and by lower-class women, who got paid for the service. Ironically, women who did not nurse were more fertile. They had to send their numerous children to many wet nurses in a row, which sometimes was detrimental to the health of the babies. The wet nurses in the majority were loving and caring young women but there happened to be others who neglected the little babies and did not take good care of them. The question of whether or not a mother should breast feed her young child entered the political rhetoric after the French Revolution of 1789 which outlawed the corsets and high heels. The Republican ideology stressed out that only the breast feeding of the real mother could raise up good citizens loving their families and their nation. Under that influence the playwright Beaumarchais donated all the proceeds from his highly criticized play "The Marriage of Figaro" to the creating of an institution that helped poor mothers to remain at home and nurse their babies. Rousseau, too, in the spirit of this republican ideology, wrote the well-known novel "Emile" stressing out not only the importance of maternal breast feeding, but also, the way young children should be raised. "Let women become mothers once more, and soon men will become fathers and husbands" says he, trying to convince his contemporaries that the mother/child relationship in the early years was the foundation of relationships of familial and social orders. But, one can notice that in practice, Rousseau deviated from his professed ideas, since he himself abandoned his five kids in a foundling hospital. Nevertheless, he still remains one of the most outstanding defenders of maternal breast feeding. His tomb is decorated with imagery related to maternal nursing.: In the center, stands a woman holding in her hand an edition of "Emile" while breast feeding her own baby. To the left, women are offering fruit sacrifices to the statue of Nature, represented as a many-breasted female. To the right a few naked kids play with a Phrygian cap (the symbol of Liberty). The children were weaned after 12-18 months and lived with their wet nurses for about 3-4 years. This long period of time allowed them to get more attached to their new family rather than to their real parents who visited them rarely if not at all. In "Farewell to the wet nurse" by Etienne Aubry we can see the painful experience of a young child who is forcefully detached from her foster parents and entrusted in the arms of her real mother. Arms stretched out to reach for her peasant wet nurse, eyes fixed on her foster father, the child cries desperately. 1998 is the first time that the two versions of that painting are exhibited side by side - the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts copy and the Williamstown one. By contrasting both of them one can see the difference in color schemes and in paint handling. Another painting in the exhibition is Francois Robert's Canadians (Native Americans) at the tomb of their child, 1786. One can see a couple mourning their child six months after his death - the father sadly bowing down his head while the mother is letting her milk flow on the tomb. Francois Hubert (1744-1809) and Jean-BaptisteGreuse (1725-1805) were some of the other painters represented.
3 pm	Tour of the museum's permanent collection
6 pm	Back to campus