Mother-daughter bond: Mickalene Thomas’ portrait of her mother graces Gardner façade

Banner Arts & Culture Sponsored by Cruz Companies

Mothers are the first point of contact infants have with another person. Mothers can exude beauty, grace and strength. Some mothers serve as muses for their children. Some mothers bring heartbreak. Sometimes they bring both.

On Evans Way in the Fenway, there is a large portrait of a beautiful, regal Black woman. She is looking off to her right wearing a striking red and black outfit, while sitting on a loud multipatterned sofa. The background is a collage made up of a variety of prints and patterns, including zebra stripes and gray wood paneling. The woman is Sandra Bush, mother of artist Mickalene Thomas, who created this portrait.

Titled “Sandra, She’s a Beauty, 2009,” the work can be seen outside the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way from now until Feb. 17, 2025. This portrait, along with the Gardner’s two newest exhibitions, “Manet: A Model Family” and “Mary Ellen Mark: A Seattle Family, 1983-2014” are all about complicated familial relationships—just in time for Thanksgiving.

Thomas’ portrait of her mother was inspired by Edouard Manet’s portrait of his own mother titled “Madame Auguste Manet,” which is also on view inside the museum. PHOTO: OLIVIA GRANT

Thomas’ portrait of her mother was inspired by Edouard Manet’s portrait of his own mother titled “Madame Auguste Manet,” which is also on view inside the museum. According to the Gardner Museum’s contemporary curator, Pieranna Cavalchini, Thomas’ timely reference to the only Manet painting in the Gardner collection was a happy accident.

At an exhibition preview last week, Cavalchini explained the timeline and evolution of Thomas’ work.

“This photoshoot was in 2009,” she said. “Then Mickalene reworked it in 2012 after her mother passed away. And then one more time for us, when we suggested she think of a project that would involve Manet in some way without getting specific. She probably went and saw that we had Manet’s mother and came up with this incredible concept.”

Diana Seave Greenwald, who curated the museum’s Manet exhibition, said she thought asking Thomas to use a reference from Manet would be familiar, given that the artist’s previous painting, “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: les trois femmes noires” referenced Manet’s 1863 painting, “Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe.”

Greenwald said, “Mickalene Thomas has a long track record of engaging with Manet’s work. That’s one of the reasons why we approached her to do the façade at the same time as the show.”

Thomas and Manet had complicated relationships with their mothers. In an essay from February 2014, Thomas writes about how her mother was a “fledgling model [that] had experienced chronic illness, domestic violence and divorce. She was also the mother of two young children: my brother, Paul, and me” by her early 20s.

When Thomas was 8, she writes, “Sandra began another romance, this time with a drug dealer. In due time, she would become dependent on drugs herself.”

Despite all this, the cliché “art is healing” is true for many, including Thomas and her mother. Sandra became the muse and model she always aspired to be for her daughter, which was cathartic for both women.

In a July 2024 interview, Thomas said, “I started being an artist by thinking about my love for my mother.”

And her mother, Sandra — well, she is a beauty.