Colour printed stipple engraving entitled 'Nurs'd Abroad', engraved by Strutt after Stothard; English, 1796

Colour printed stipple engraving (one of a pair). The engraving shows a wealthy mother's visit to her child at the home of its wet nurse. The mother, dressed in a white gown with a ribbon trimmed hat and a muff, is seated on a stool to the right and attempting to greet her child: the child, who has short curly hair and a white gown and slippers, turns away to the familiar figure of the nurse, dressed in pink with a white apron, who has crouched down to take the child in her arms.

The image comments on the effect on the mother/ child relationship of the once fashionable custom of sending babies away to be breastfed by a wet nurse at her home, usually practised by wealthier families. These children were better looked after, and had a higher survival rate, than the foundling children also 'out at nurse', but the lack of relationship is demonstrated both by the child's turning to its nurse in preference to its mother, and by the mother's neutral stance and body language. Its pair 'Nurs'd at Home' (B.248-1998) contrasts the closer relationship possible between mother and child when both shared the parental home.

Publisher's firm was situated at Ludgate Hill

Reason For Production: Retail

B.247-1998