Children Depicted as Adults

Children depicted throughout art history, are often shown as more adult than child. This can be seen as early as the ancient Greeks in works like Polykleitos’s Doryphoros, or Spear Bearer. Interest with ambiguity of the in-between of childhood and adulthood, has consumed many artists for years. There are many potential reasons that children are often shown looking more mature than they really are, and many ways an artist can go about showing them this way. Different techniques employed to show maturation in children, can invoke an assortment of responses. The way an artist chooses to present a child depends on the result that they are trying to achieve. A child may be depicted more fully-grown through the clothing they are wearing. Another way of showing their adulthood is through portraying their expressions, features, or poses as sophisticated. A final, and likely the most provoking approach is depicting adult behavior in children. Artists show adultness in their works of children for two main reasons; the first to show status, and the second to show emotional complexity in their subject. The collection of works below show children, who appear at times almost more like tiny adults than they do youths, in a variety of styles, techniques, and from different time periods.

Title: Sir Thomas Webster, 1st Baronet (1679-1751)

Artist: a follower of John Michael Wright

Date: c. 1680

Medium: Oil on canvas

Battle Abbey and Battlefield

The subject is recognizable as a child in the face, but his pose and attire say otherwise. There are definite parallels that can be drawn between this work and that of the statue Augustus of Primaporta. The pose of the child and the spear that he is holding resembling the power stick that the emperor would have held. Clothed in draped fabrics, the child’s outfit also references the sculpture. All of these parallels are communicators of power and maturity, traits that are not typical to children. The naturalistic style ironically contrasts with the unnaturalness of the pose and clothing of the boy. The artist creates this portrait of a child, who wields great power, and because of this seems almost to be more of an adult or a warrior than a young boy. This may have been done to point to the fact that someday this young boy would yield a role of power and become a strong ruler.

Title: The Gore Children

Artist: John Singleton Copley

Date: c. 1755

Medium: Oil on canvas

Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Winterthur, DE, US

The children shown in this painting are almost unrecognizable as young. They wear the formal and fancy clothing of adults of the time period. They also all seem to have a sense of poise and solemnity that is foreign to most children. This is shown by the lack of emotion on their faces and the stagnancy of their poses. Again the realism used to create this painting is contrasted by the lack of including the realistic qualities of children. This piece may be portraying them in this way to show they are of higher status, and have all the traits that were traditionally associated with it. One can note the attire and positioning of the figures as more reminiscent of adults then children.

Title: Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792)

Artist: Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes)

Date: 1787-88

Medium: Oil on canvas

49.7.41

In this piece, Goya has a naturalistically painted child dressed in an ornate outfit that reveals his higher status. The little boy is forever stuck in a fairly stiff and formal pose that further alludes to his maturity and status as a higher class individual. However, particular to this painting and not the previously mentioned works, is the fact that there is a level complexity and emotion to this child. Goya included cats hungrily watching a bird to show the transient nature of innocence. Perhaps he is implying that while this child is young, he may be on the cusp of the harsh reality of adulthood.

Title: Mäda Primavesi

Artist: Gustav Klimt

Date: 1912-13

Medium: Oil on canvas

64.148

Klimt’s portrait of Mäda Primavesi is a good example of pose, composition, and expression can create a feeling of maturity even with a young subject. Klimt was actually a good friend of the Primavesi family and so had the opportunity to get to know young Mäda’s defiant and tomboyish personality very well. The fact that she is positioned directly in the center of the composition and fills the large frame, give her a sense of authority over the observer and an intimidating presence. Her bold expression and her legs spread out give her a sense of confidence that is not normally present in depictions of children. This is an example of an artist giving a child adult qualities to give them more depth emotionally.

Title: Standing Nude Girl, Facing Left

Artist: Egon Schiele

Date: 1918

Medium: charcoal on paper

1984.433.290

Schiele’s decision to draw a young girl in the nude gives her body a maturity and sexually charged energy. There is no surprise that he chose to depict her this way, most of Schiele’s works of girls and women are overtly sexual in nature. Furthermore her face is turned away from the viewer creating even more ambiguity as to her true age. Her lack of clothing creates a literal mature content. The nudity makes a viewer question her true age and also gives her a sexual identity, not typically applied to children. Some critics have called his work potentially pornographic, which strengthens the out of place adult content and portrayal of this youth.

Title: Candy Cigarette

Artist: Sally Mann

Date: 1989

Medium: gelatin silver print

Museum of Contemporary Photography

Sally Mann photographs a young girl facing the viewer holding a candy cigarette. The fact that this cigarette is actually a candy is not at all apparent until one reads the title of the piece. This leaves the viewer in a state of possible discomfort, due to the adult behavior the girl is participating in. There is definite ambiguity in the age of the girl depicted. At first, because of her serious face, somewhat delicate pose, and cigarette, the viewer may even mistake Jesse for a young adult rather than the child she is. The main way this girl appears to be older than her true age is because of the mature behavior she is participating in. Mann often staged her children in photos to depict human behavior, but the viewer would be unaware of this fact until closer examination. She has used the cigarette to add interest emotionally to her image of her daughter. Using her children for scenes like this and other controversial topics, earned her mixed reviews, including sharp criticism.