Mother and child

Arthur Elsley - The Bedtime Story

The story of Mothers Day is the story of firm determination of a daughter, Anna Jarvis who resolved to pay tribute to her mother, Mrs Anna M Jarvis and all other mothers of the world. Anna Jarvis dedicated her life to fulfill her mothers dream of the recognition of day for honoring mothers. Though never a mother herself, Founder of Mother's Day, Anna Jarvis is today recognised as the 'Mother of Mothers Day'.

Mother and Son Fritz Zuber Buhler

La storia della Festa della Mamma nasce dalla determinazione di una figlia, Anna Jarvis che volle rendere omaggio a sua madre e tutte le altre mamme del mondo. Anna non divenne mai madre, ma dedicò parte della sua vita a far riconoscere la giornata per onorare le madri. 

Arthur John Elsley (English, 1860-1952)

Sonnets are full of love

Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome

Has many sonnets: so here now shall be

One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me

To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,

To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee

I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;

Whose service is my special dignity,

And she my loadstar while I go and come

And so because you love me, and because

I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath

Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honored name:

In you not fourscore years can dim the flame

Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws

Of time and change and mortal life and death.

Christina Rossetti (from A Pageant and Other Poems, 1881)

Butterflies by Frederick Stead

George Sheridan Knowles

I am sure that if the mothers of various nations could meet, 

there would be no more wars.

E. M. Forster

Vigée Lebrun, Self-Portrait with daughter Julie, 1786

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children 

because they are more certain they are their own.

Aristotle

Bernard de Hoog, The Mother, Private Collection

Mother and Daughter by George Goodwin Kilburne

The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, 

an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.

Honore de Balzac

Mary Cassatt

Albert Edelfelt, Finnish artist

What do girls do who haven't any mothers 

to help them through their troubles?

Louisa May Alcott

The daisy chain by Helen Jackson

It is only in the act of nursing that a woman realizes 

her motherhood in visible and tangible fashion; 

it is a joy of every moment.

Honore de Balzac