William, George Henry, and Anne were too elegantly dressed to frolic in the woods and by the river. The fact that her aristocratic parents photographed her in front of a birch grove attests to the openness of the English couple Lord and Lady Cavendish to the ideals of the Enlightenment. The painting by Thomas Lawrence, created in 1790, in which three rosy-cheeked children pose cheerfully and dynamically, looks like a programmatic image of the then still young concept of pedagogy: children should be able to develop freely while playing in the fresh air.
150 children’s drawings – paintings from six centuries
At the same time, the commissioned work makes it clear that social values can be seen in the way children are depicted. Of course, views on childhood have changed greatly over time. The exhibition “Children, Children! Between Representation and Reality”, which can be seen at the Bucerius Kunst Forum from November 28, looks at the period from the 16th century to the 21st century and features around 150 children’s drawings by more than 100 artists – including painters such as Titian, Philipp Otto Runge or Paula Modersohn-Becker and photographers such as August Sander and Nobuyoshi Araki.
Katrin Dyballa, who came up with the concept for the show, did not hang her works chronologically, but rather thematically. This creates dialogue across time – such as between a young girl with a ruffled collar depicted by Friedrich Carl Gröger circa 1805 and an upper-class “young woman” photographed in her neighborhood by Tina Barney in 2002. Both teenagers look confident and dignified.
Mary with the baby Jesus as the starting point
The exhibition begins with a religious motif: “Images of Mary and the baby Jesus are the starting point for many depictions of children in Western art,” Dyballa said. Next to the Madonna painted in the early 16th century by Antonio Solario, whose child appears very understanding and seems aware of her fate, there is a painting of a mother with child by Oskar Kokoschka – who views childhood as a heavenly state. Followed by Mary resting breastfeeding her baby, shown in naturalistic beauty by Hendrick Bloemaert in 1635.
Although portraits of the Virgin Mary were of little interest in Protestant Holland in the 17th century, genre paintings of mothers were created that were associated with virtues such as modesty or piety and were intended to serve as role models for the bourgeoisie. Like “Breastfeeding Mother” by Nicolaes Maes, next to which is a handicraft that has been pioneered – as a symbol of hard work and humility. The father also appears occasionally. In 1612, Abraham Vinck painted a double portrait of a Calvinist spice merchant and his seven-year-old son: both wear very similar clothes and have the same hand position. The son, the picture makes clear, must follow his father in faith and confession; In fact, the child also became a trader.
Dynastic portraits as the first individual portraits of children
Dyballa explains that individual portraits of children were first created in the late 15th century with dynastic portraits: “The Habsburgs were masters of this.” By capturing their children to serve as an ancestral gallery, powerful princes wished to strengthen their claim to power over several generations. Sons and daughters were presented equally, with portraits of daughters intended to impress future husbands in particular – such as Jakob Seisenegger’s portrait of the two-year-old Grand Duchess Eleonore of Habsburg, dressed in velvet and silk and lavishly decorated with pearls and diamonds.
The Regent’s children are always depicted like little adults, whether as heirs to the throne, princesses, generals, or figures from Greco-Roman mythology. In 1641, Anthonis van Dyck, for example, painted eleven-year-old Charles, Prince of Wales, who would go down in history as England’s King Charles II, in haughty armor that seemed at odds with his youthful visage. The three-year-old Crown Prince Wilhelm II of Orange appears completely unclothed in an allegory by the painter Gerrit van Honthorst: the little boy is depicted as a winged Cupid, his two sisters represent the fate goddess Fortuna and the flower goddess Flora. In their ancient role, children are expected to bring prosperity and peace, wealth and good harvests to the country.
About child labor and “children as independent beings”
Since the 17th century, portraits of children from simple backgrounds have also been created. Spaniard Bartolomé Esteban Murillo depicted beggar children in rags, while Henriette Brown painted a “nursery” where the oldest girl looked after her younger siblings and cut their bread. Regarding child labor, Johannes Herst painted a cable car in 1795, in which a boy and girl roll a finished rope using a crank. Herbert List, on the other hand, photographed a child collecting wood among the ruins of war in 1945.
The theme of modern education, which is the basis for ensuring that children should not become imitations of their parents, political representatives or even workers, is presented in the exhibition. In 1657, educator Johann Amos Comenius invented modern didactics, drawing on the Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. He believes that education should not depend on age, gender or class. The doctor and educator John Locke saw something similar, who at the end of the 17th century called for children not to be seen as unfinished adults, but as independent and intelligent beings. In the 18th century, philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau referred to Locke, who had shaped the views of children in the Age of Enlightenment, when he recommended a humane and child-friendly education for everyone.
Kids these days, are looking at their smartphones
As a result of pedagogical reforms, outdoor play has gained not only prestige, but also children’s rooms and toys. “Toys are becoming more and more important and therefore worthy of being photographed,” Dyballa said. On display are hobby horses, marbles, stuffed animals and costumes as attributes of the imaginative world of childhood and childhood. Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein painted little Cornelia Amsinck with her doll in 1805, which occupies most of the image area; A 1933 painting by Lotte Laserstein, showing a child with a Punch and Judy doll, was created in a very similar way. Meanwhile, Rineke Dijkstra photographed her daughter Julia who was glued to her smartphone in 2022. Like the previous portraits, this portrait of a child is very suitable for depicting the values and norms of the time in which it was created – today.
Bucerius Art Forum: “Children! Children! Between representation and reality”, November 28 to April 6, 2026
