Critical Analysis

Critical Analysis
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Critical Analysis
Write a critical analysis of "Happy Mothers and Other New Ideas in French Art" by Carol Duncan. Your analysis should include:
A SHORT summary of the author's argument (the main points or arguments) in your own words, consideration of the evidence or information given to support the author's arguments (what sorts of evidence are used?)
The text discusses several 17th C and 18th C French paintings that depict images of blissful families and contented mothers. Parents as well as their children were familiar with secular art, which expressed a different ideology regarding the family that challenged old attitudes and norms (Duncan 1973). Several paintings in the text have been discussed, for instance The Beloved Mother (1765) by Greuze, Saying Grace (1740) by Chardin, The Return Home by Fragonard and The Delights of Motherhood (1777) by Moreau le jeune. These images instance, The Beloved Mother and Saying Grace depict family life as being full of happiness and bliss.
The works emphasize the joy of the domestic family for instance; the man was contented with fatherhood and being a husband while the woman was contented with motherhood and being a wife. They were happy with simply being parents and a married couple in a delightful marital union (Duncan 1973). The author further points out that motherhood was associated with sexual fulfillment in most paintings of 18th C and marriage was portrayed as a status that fulfilled not only sexual desires but also societal requirements for stability, as with the case of Fragonard’s The Delights of Motherhood.
Happiness of the family unit – The author first argues that the artistic imagery that depicts blissful family units and fulfilled mothers was not real in the 18th Century. The author adds that these images instead express a new family idea, which was against old attitudes and traditions, and that marriage was an au...