The Farmer's Wife (part of a "Tithe Pig" group) 1765 - 1775

This is Ralph Wood the Younger's "The Farmer's Wife," a creamware figure, created in Staffordshire, England. The sculpture presents a woman nursing a child, standing beside a pig, with a dog at her feet. The composition invites us to consider the structuring of visual signs. Wood uses the female form to explore themes of fertility and the pastoral, but there is a tension in the image. The cool blue glaze of the woman's drapery contrasts sharply with the warm flesh tones of her exposed breast and child, creating a visual and tactile opposition. The scene may seem a charming depiction of rural life, but the inclusion of the pig connects the mother and child to agricultural production and questions of labor. Are we presented with an idealized version of motherhood or a comment on the economic realities facing rural women? Wood challenges fixed meanings through the structure of the piece.