This picture shows a mother visiting her daughter at boarding school. A schoolmistress leads the girl into a room where her mother wait. Although the mother greets her child with open arms, the girl appears hesitant to see her, apparently yet to notice her little brother who has dropped his hat and stick in his excitement to greet his sister.
The painting articulates a widespread reaction against boarding schools, which was prevalent in the eighteenth century following Rousseau’s call for greater parental involvement in the rearing of children. Does the schoolmistress looked concerned for her pupil? Are the schoolgirls at the door pained that it is someone else’s mothers who has come? Is the seamstress sitting with dress patterns regarding the mother with a hint of disapproval?
Its companion picture, Visit to the Child at Nurse, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, is thought to show the same mother and daughter when an infant: and illustrates similar estrangement between mother and child.
George Morland was an English artist, primarily known for his paintings of animals and rustic subjects.