Literature: Guy Atkins: “Jorn in Scandinavia 1930–1953”, London, 1968, no. 793. Exhibited: “Asger Jorn”, One-man retrospective exhibition, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1958, cat. no. 20. Preface by René Bertelé: “La colère de Jorn”. Exhibited: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark 1973. Exhibited: Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark 1991. Exhibited: Trapholt Museum, Kolding, Denmark 2003–04. Provenance: Viggo Nielsen, Roskilde. Acquired directly from the artist and not previously offered for sale.

Viggo Nielsen (1920–2014), LL.M. and masters in prehistoric archaeology and later Director of Fredningsstyrelsen (The Danish Conservation Agency), met Asger Jorn in 1950 or 1951, and in the early 1950s Nielsen bought several works from the artist. In 1955 Asger Jorn approached Viggo Nielsen and suggested that he buy the 10 oil paintings on canvas, which together made up the series entitled “The Silent Myth”. The price was DKK 15,000 for the entire series, which at that time was the equivalent of two years salary for Viggo Nielsen. He therefore settled on purchasing one of the paintings – presumably the painting that Asger Jorn thought was the best of the series (or at least the one Viggo Nielsen should have first) – namely the one presented here, which the family has always referred to as “Maternitet” (Motherhood). That Asger Jorn chose this particular painting has very likely been determined by Asger Jorn's knowledge of the family's situation: Due to an accident, the family had lost a baby daughter the previous year, yet now Viggo Nielsen's wife was pregnant with another baby daughter. The discussions about the work were done verbally, but the painting is mentioned in a letter from Asger Jorn to Viggo Nielsen, written from Rue de Tage in Paris. Here the ”Maternitet” painting is referenced, confirming the title that the family has always used.

The image suite of “The Silent Myth”, three of which today decorate Silkeborg Library – where Jorn's interest in art was first cultivated - was painted after the artist's period of serious illness and stay at the Silkeborg Sanatorium in 1951–52. The series is often highlighted as a peak in Asger Jorn's most formative period as an artist – with a direct lineage to the Cobra movement's activities and ideas during the previous years. The suite's title is linked to Jorn's thoughts on the relationship between visual art and the telling of myths needing to be silent and not illustrative.

With Jorn the relationship between the motifs and their titles are not unambiguous or directly translatable, but in light of the series broader focus on thoughts about the cosmos and the circular motion of all life as well as the specific family’s story, it is difficult not to draw lines from “motherhood” to archetypal annunciation scenes from art history, such as Fra Angelico's “Annunciation” (1437–1446), where the archangel Gabriel kneels before the Virgin Mary. In Jorn's painting a green, birdlike creature presents itself to an earthbound female figure, who by virtue of the image’s weaving lines is completely connected with the landscape that she is placed in.

The motherhood motif also recurs in Jorn’s work in another painting from the period: the “Expectant mother” also known as “Pregnant nurse”, 1951–52 (Atkins no. 733)