1. Education

The Marsham Children, 1787

Staatliche Museen Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Photo © Jörg P. Anders, Berlin; used with permission

Thomas Gainsborough (English, 1727-1788). The Marsham Children, 1787. Oil on canvas. 242.9 x 181.9 cm (95 5/8 x 71 5/8 in.).

Staatliche Museen Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Photo © Jörg P. Anders, Berlin

About the Show:

The Changing Face of Childhood: British Children's Portraits and their Influence in Europe traces the evolution of European children's portraiture from the early 17th century, through the Age of Enlightenment and to the mid-19th century, as seen by artists from Sir Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, active in England, 1599-1641) to Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805-1873).

This focus exhibition is dedicated to paintings of children in landscape, unaccompanied by adults, and affords us a chronology of artists' changing styles--styles that changed roughly in synch with patron-parents' shifting awareness of their children's autonomy and the modern concept of childhood.

Scheduled Venues

Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main: April 20-July 15, 2007
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London: August 1-November 4, 2007

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