Look! A Child! An Overview of Children in Art

Children are a prominent part of today’s society. They receive education, opportunities, and even important roles in sports, musicals, and more. In general, care is dedicated to these little ones because they represent the future. Maintaining individual future worth through one’s offspring is not a new concept. Throughout history, children embody a family's livelihood. Through art this legacy embodiment evolves with its contemporary ideals. Beginning with the earliest carvings in Egypt, this curation will take a trip into representations of small children. These pieces from Egypt, Greece, Buoninsegna, Cranach, Kauffmann, Goya, Renoir, and Van Rysselberghe will give a glimpse into the evolution in the size, depiction, and action of children in relation to their environment or families. First, notice how their features mirror their parents (showing the continuation of power in the family). Second, see how the children are quite small and support the adult’s claim of importance. The kids are tokens of power and wealth; acting like objects more than individuals. Next will be the transportive moral messages in the byzantine-inspired portraits of Madonna and the child, showing the Christ child as a role model of what good, objectual children look like. Finally, the curation will end with a shift, specifically by Romantic painter Goya and the Impressionists after him. It is with these portraits the hierarchical scale bends toward the child. They become the main subjects, have more proportionate features, and are depicted with individual personality. All of these pieces work in tandem on how we perceive children in art today.

Akhenaten and His Family 

c. 1348-1336 BCE. 

Medium: Limestone relief 

Neues Museum, Berlin

      

    This relief is a limestone carving by an unknown artist in a period known as the New Kingdom of Egypt. Up until this time, children were rarely in art pieces. If they made an appearance, the depictions would be stiff, smaller adults labeled as youths. This piece shows Akhenaten and his family giving each other affection. Their organic bodies and positions represent fertility and prosperity, thanks to the newly instated (and only) god, the sun. While the children are involved in the action of the relief, they still dwarf in importance and significance to their parents. They support the propaganda Pharaoh Akhenaten wishes to portray about his lineage and power over Egypt.

Marble head of a child 

3rd–2nd century BCE 

Medium: Marble 

MET Accession Number: 1972.118.113 

   The Greeks preferred to create pieces dedicated to the gods or to tell a heroic tale. Children were not part of these tales, unless they were the gods/demigods themselves. A few examples would be that of Eros or even Hermes in his pursuit of Apollo's cows. This marble carving is from the Hellenistic period. The statue was an offering to the gods, a way to bless and protect the depicted child. While the child does have more naturalistic features, it maintains a more adult authority.

Madonna and Child Duccio di Buoninsegna 

ca. 1290–1300 

Medium: Tempera and gold on Wood 

MET Accession Number: 2004.442 

Duccio di Buoninsegna was a Florentine painter on the outskirts of the Renaissance. While his friends began to take new steps in art, Duccio remained faithful and paid homage to the old Byzantine style. This piece of tempera and gold on wood portrays Madonna and Christ in bold, bright colors and lays the groundwork for a greater piece known as the Maestà. Mary is larger and blue compared to her child decked in red (a royal color); but Madonna draws the focus of the viewer. Her somber expression predicts the eventual death of her son and calls the viewer to meditate in a similar fashion. Looking closely, the body proportions of Christ match more with a sitting adult. His head has chubby features of a babe, but the expression along with the squashed neck make it clear he is not ordinary. He is God. This style continued to influence depictions of children.

Christ Blessing the Children 

Lucas Cranach the Younger and Workshop 

ca. 1545–50 

Medium: oil on Beech 

MET Accession Number: 1982.60.36 

Lucas Cranach the Younger and his workshop created this piece amidst the High Italian Renaissance. This piece was made intentionally small so as to replicate and sell it to private households. They were quite popular due to their themes of free dispensation of divine grace. These ideas were prominent due to the growing popularity of Lutheranism. The colors and clothing are from Italian culture with Christ distinguished by a simple blue robe. Most of the babies present are nude, helpless, and shaped facially the same as their mothers. The clothed children up front are proportioned like small adults. Like Madonna, the adults remain larger and draw more interest to Christ and his love.

Edward Smith Stanley (1752–1834), Twelfth Earl of Derby, Elizabeth, Countess of Derby (Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, 1753–1797), and Their Son (Edward Smith Stanley, 1775–1851) 

Angelica Kauffmann 

 ca. 1776 

Medium: Oil on Canvas 

MET Accession Number: 59.189.2 

This piece by Angelica Kauffmann sits on the cusp of the Romantic period. The portrait is of an aristocratic couple and their eldest son. The colors and furniture call to a classical style while the background is dark to provide contrast. Following the proportions and sitting position of Cranach, the baby looks more like a child. He does have his father's facial structure and mother’s blue eyes. The son remains small and poor compared to his parents. He maintains a loving gaze with his father, insinuating the role he will fill when he is older. His father is proud of his legacy. Meanwhile, the mother looks to the side, adrift from this interaction. This positioning predicts their further relationship, as Lady Elizabeth would eventually leave her husband and children two years later.

Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga (1784–1792) 

Goya (Francisco de Goya y Lucientes) 

 c. 1787–88 

Medium: oil on Canvas 

MET Accession Number: 49.7.41 

Continuing the changing body shapes in Kauffmann, Goya paints this portrait of the young boy Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga. The portrait was part of a series in which Goya painted the whole Altamira family. Like the Christ child in Buoninsegna’s work, the boy is dressed in a bright red to grab the viewer’s attention. But unlike the previous representations, Manuel is alone with his pets. He is bigger than them, yet the viewer knows he is small due to previous knowledge of the creatures. There is an innocence about him, but it feels different to that innocence seen in Kauffmann and Cranach. This innocence is fleeting, crushed by the reality of the world behind him (i.e. the cats). Light emanates from the boy's serene and round face, breathing life into the overall dark environment. Goya gives us a more realistic child, one that influences more naturalistic depictions in pieces to come.

Marguerite-Thérèse (Margot) Bernard (1874–1956) 

Auguste Renoir 

 1879 

Medium: Oil on canvas 

MET Accession Number: 61.101.15 

Auguste Renoir painted this piece during the Impressionist period. The sitter is five-year-old Margot, daughter to Renoir’s good friend Paul Bernard. Renoir painted many portraits of the family in an intimate manner. The pieces were more naturalistic, although with time Bernard warmed up to Renoir’s changing style. This particular piece was made to cheer the destitute Margot after a hard German lesson. Renoir depicts this child with dark clothing and background. But like Goya’s Manuel, the girl’s face illuminates the portrait. Her expression along with her messy hair and bouncy, blue eyes creates an energy. This five-year-old brings joy in her space and is not shackled with the weight of her parents fortune. She is just a kid.

Little Denise (Denise Maréchal, later Madame Georges Béart, 1883–1956) 

Theo Van Rysselberghe 

1889 

Medium: Oil on canvas 

MET Accession Number: 2019.48

Inspired by the new technique of the avant-garde painter Seurat, Theo Van Rysselberghe dedicated much of his art to mastering pointillism, especially in portraits. The sitter in this piece is Rysselberghe’s niece. He puts her next to a column to scale Denise as a small child. But looking at her face, the viewer gets a sense that this child is not fully innocent. The girl’s somber personality shines through the individual dots. The child sits alone though, with nothing showing her status or family, other than her pretty, pale dress. Like Margot in Renior’s portrait, the only subject the viewer must contemplate is the child herself and what she is thinking.