2020 №1 (66) Article 3

Mayboroda O. A.

Little Adults: 18th Century Portraits of Children  P. 26-32.

UDC 392.34«17»

The article analyzes 18th century children’s portraits and family portraits to investigate aristocratic children images. 18th century artists portrayed children in accordance with moral and social principles accepted by the society of that period. The article highlights the connection between cultural transformations undergone by society and changing methods of depicting children in accordance with people’s attitudes to children and children’s nature. The issue is still largely underinvestigated. Having analyzed children’s portraits made by artists of the 18th century, the author concludes that in the 18th century, social attitudes to children underwent gradual changes. In the first half of the 18th century, children were treated as little adults. Children’s portraits of that period depict children wearing adult-like clothes, standing in adult-like poses. The background, the clothing and the postures manifest a rather perfunctory attitude to childhood. The ideas of Enlightenment which came to Russia from Europe contributed to the transformation of attitudes to childhood. In the second half of the 18th century, artists do not only paint children in ceremonial robes, they also depict children in their everyday environment. Children in paintings are angelic, pure and innocent. The author of the article maintains that, being an important visual asset, children’s portraits enable a researcher to investigate social history.

child portrait; image; family portrait; social construct

 

References

 

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