25 September 2015

Emma-Brownlow-the-Foundling-Restored-to-its-Mother-1858-Coram-in-the-care-of-the-Foundling-Museum

This 1858 painting by Emma Brownlow called Restored to its Mother is very unusual because it shows a mother who has returned to the Foundling Hospital to reclaim her child. The man watching is the director of the hospital; he is the artist’s father and was a foundling himself. There are three other paintings in the same format: in one a child is being christened; another shows children in the choir; the third shows a child being prepared to leave the hospital to enter the wider world. The painting is always on display at the Foundling Hospital and is one of the stars of The Fallen Woman.