Physical Qualities
Crayon lithograph, Sheet: 432 x 310 mm. (17 x 12 3/16 in.)
Image: 351 x 255 mm. (13 13/16 x 10 1/16 in.)
Credit Line
The United States General Services Administration, formerly Federal Works Agency, Works Progress Administration, on extended loan to the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Object Number
L.1943.9.807
A woman in labor experiences an otherworldly connection to the heavens thanks to the anesthesia she has been given in a hospital, linking a spiritual moment with modern
medicine. Jean Finlayson Holmes drew on memories of giving birth to her first child to create this surrealistic scene. Ether or chloroform were first used to provide relief in childbirth in the mid-19th century, but giving birth in a hospital under medical supervision only became common practice for women in the 1920s. As a result of this change, maternal mortality rates plummeted.
Virginia Anderson and Robin Owen Joyce, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA," November 5, 2023 - June 30, 2024.
Inscribed: RECTO: LL margin (pencil): 'Ether'; LC margin (pencil): '6/29'; LR margin (pencil): 'Jean Holmes-1941'. VERSO: UL (pencil): '#1696 - gr. 2' and 'Calif/ Jean Holmes / Ether / Litho'; C: BMA stamp; BL Corner (pencil): '6312'.
