Marian Shields Robinson Marian Shields Robinson Marian Lois Robinson (née Shields; born July 30, 1937) is the mother of Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States, and mother-in-law of Barack Obama, former President. Marian Shields was born in Chicago in 1937, the fourth of seven children—five girls, followed by two boys—born to Purnell Nathaniel Shields, a house painter, and his wife Rebecca Jumper, a licensed practical nurse. Two of her sisters and her brother Steve still live in Chicago on the South Side, as she did. Both parents had multi-racial ancestry, but slavery times were not discussed much when she was
The Mad Maiden (Rik Wouters) The Mad Maiden (Rik Wouters) The Mad Maiden or The Mad Virgin (Dutch: Het zotte geweld or De dwaze maagd) is a bronze statue by the Belgian artist Rik Wouters, created in 1912. The statue depicts Wouters' wife and muse, Nel Deurinckx, in a dynamic and ecstatic dancing pose. Wouters very often painted, drew and sculpted his wife in charming, everyday settings, while she was sleeping, reading, or doing domestic chores. "The Mad Maiden" is exceptional because it shows her in such an unusually carefree way. With this sensual sculpture, Wouters clearly distanced himself from the emotionlessness of academic art