Labour of love

Laura Freeman is captivated by an exhibition that explores the different ways pregnancy has been represented in portraits, from Holbein to social media

- Laura Freeman

TEEMING’, ‘breeding’, ‘bearing’, ‘big-bellied’, ‘great with child’, ‘in an interesting situation’, ‘rising of the apron’. These are only some of the historic descriptions for pregnant women. One might add ‘bun in the oven’, ‘up the duff’, and, a favorite of my friend with three children under six, ‘in the pudding club’.

A new exhibition at The Foundling Museum introduces us to 500 years of expectant mothers and their bumps. From the Angel Gabriel greeting Mary to Beyoncé announcing her imminent twins on Instagram (1.4 million ‘likes’ in half an hour), curator Karen Hearn has gathered portraits of pregnant women, some blooming, some glowing and some looking thoroughly fed up. The scheme first came to her almost 20 years ago, when, as curator of 16thand 17th-century British Art at Tate, she oversaw the acquisition of a 1620 portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts II of a lady in red laying a protective right hand over the top of her swelling skirts. There is something defiant in the posture and gaze of the unknown sitter. Indeed, she is very determinedly not sitting. Her left arm is draped over the back of a red velvet chair. She wears a feather topper, jet earrings, a constricting ruff, a corset, and a cape. She calls to mind the woman today who wears her stilettos until the very moment she enters the delivery ward.