Glossary: Children in art

Children in art have been among the most popular subjects for artists over many years and still are.

In Georgian times it was very important to have your children painted from an early age and many miniature portrait painters earned a good living from their trade. As infant mortality was so high it was necessary to get a likeness made in the first years or disaster could strike. The problem was few people could afford this luxury and photography had not been invented.

In Victorian times the painting of children came to its climax with many wonderful artists extolling the beauty of youth in urban and rural settings. These painters knew how to appeal to their audience and the more the century went on the more the works became sweeter and dare I say it, tackier. One of my personal ‘favourites’ is a painting by Charles Burton Barber dated 1889 and titled ‘Good friends’. This picture is of a little girl in a dress with her arms round the neck of a Saint Bernard dog. Here the artist has combined children and animals to produce a painting of such sentimentality that it almost defies description. Not my kind of art but loved my many. These paintings were so popular that they were reproduced by the hundreds of thousands using the new and improved lithographic processes.

There were, however artists such as Sir George Clausen, one of the first English Post- impressionists producing magnificent paintings of children without the sickly sentimentalism. His painting entitled ‘The Shepherdess’ dated 1885, has exactly the same elements as the painting by Charles Burton Barber, with a child and sheep in an orchard. There is though a complete absence of the sentiments expressed before. Here is a shepherd girl with her charges, captured wearing her working clothes in a relaxed and natural manner. A magnificent work that can be seen at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

In the 20th century children remained as one of the most painted images, in fact artist produced books on the subject with the wonderful James H Dowd producing a whole series. His two most famous books were Important People (1930) and People of Importance (1934), both of which are a must for a good library on children’s art.

I am extremely fond of the subject matter, aside from the type of painting described earlier, and here at room4art.com™ we have a selection of paintings and drawings featuring children. They are all quality works by professionally trained artists from the early 20th century to the present day. The vast majority of works sold at Room4art.com™ have a known provenance, having often been purchased from the artist or their descendants. The condition of every painting is fully detailed and has been photographed in high resolution, so with the aid of our zoom facility you can examine every work in minute detail and there for buy with confidence.

©21st Century Gallery Ltd