Children in Western Art
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
Today, I wanted to blog about kids in western paintings. During medieval times, the only kid that was painted was baby Jesus. It was rare for him to resemble anything remotely human.
These artworks were mainly done by the church. So, monks living in the mountains could not find children to model for them. Then again, they were not interested in realism.
When the Renaissance came, children started appearing in somewhat realistic forms in art. They were mostly idealize. You only saw them more often in paintings of nobles and Kings.
These high ranking folks wanted to show that their bloodline was secured through their children. So, they would often commission paintings of their brood. Peter Paul Rubens was the first celebrity painter to have hundreds of paintings of his children.
He could afford to record them. Even so, it was still a long ways away from any paintings depicting children in a naturalistic way. During the 19th century, the demand for children paintings exploded.
Both impressionist and academic painters painted children engaging in leisure. After the 20th century, children went back to appearing less and less in art.
These days they only appear to make a point, or as practice artworks for the painter. I hope you find this painting blog amusing. There is a video of this topic in my Artsy Sister Youtube channel. Please give a like and subscribe.
