Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, especially my own Mom (I'm happy to be spending the day with her today) and my sister Chantel, the proud mommy of my nephew, Anthony.

The drawing shown here is one of Vincent's earliest drawings, dated 1881 and done in Etten, where he was staying with his parents after losing his post as an evangelist in the Borinage (Belgium). He had recently decided to devote his life to being an artist and at this point was teaching himself to draw. The theme of mothers and children followed Vincent throughout his artistic career, from images of his live-in companion, Sien Hoornik, and her children in the Hague to multiple images of the motherly Madame Augustine Roulin in Arles. One of the last drawings in his Auvers-sur-Oise sketchbook was of a baby in a carriage.