1998.1
Second Portrait with Max
Artist
Anne Harris
(Cleveland, Ohio, 1961 - )
Title
Second Portrait with Max
Creation Date
ca. 1996-1997
Century
20th century
Dimensions
46 1/8 in. x 30 in. (117.16 cm. x 76.2 cm.)
Object Type
painting
Creation Place
North America, United States, Maine
Medium and Support
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Anonymous Gift and Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1998.1
Unclothed and in the last term of her pregnancy, Harris uses her body as the vehicle to express the psychological undercurrents of a woman soon to be a mother for the first time. Taut over her large, swollen abdomen and containing corpulent thighs and breasts, the skin of Harris' body is translucent. The pellucid skin of her shoulders, arms, hands, and thighs recede into the background of the painting. Despite the traditional form of the three-quarter length portrait, the ambiguous boundaries between the subject and the background suggest that Harris' fertile physicality extends to the whole canvas. Her body becomes the painting. This ambiguity, created through formal means, combined with her lifeless appearance, suggests the self-sacrifice or suspension of self required to give birth.